Family is an important social institution of society. Family`s activities (relationships between parents, parents and children, methods of upbringing and others) are determined by the system of legal and social norms. The original foundation of family relations is marriage. Marriage in human society is considered to be the only acceptable, socially approved and fixed by law form of allowed and also mandatory sex relations of spouses (Strong & Cohen 142).
Marriage is a set of formal regulations defining the rights, duties and privileges of a husband to his wife, and two of them in relation to their children, relatives and society as a whole (Strong & Cohen 142-143). In other words, marriage is a contract between three parties – a man, a woman and a State. Unlike all other formal contracts existing in the society, marriage has only one date stipulated, but does not contain the date of completion of the contract. Thus, it is understood that the marriage bonds people to end of their lives.
The institution of marriage by its very existence demonstrates that society deliberately separated all kinds of sexual relations into those which are approved and not approved, and the state separated them into authorized and unauthorized (Strong & Cohen 143). But it was not always this way. In ancient times, marriage looked very different. At the dawn of human history, there were no marriage relations at all. But the family, as a rule, is a more complex system of relationships in comparison to marriage, because it includes not only the couple, but also their children and other relatives (Strong & Cohen 143).
The family as a social institution undergoes a series of steps that make up a sequence of the family cycle. Researchers define a different number of phases of the cycle, but most important phases among them are the following (Williams et al. 213):
Marriage – family formation;
The beginning of childbirth – birth of the first child;
The end of childbirth – birth of the last child;
"Empty nest" – marriage of the last child of the family;
The termination of the existence of the family – for example, as the result of the death of a spouse.
The family as a social institution emerged with the formation of society. The process of formation and functioning of the family is due to the value-regulatory controls (Williams et al. 215). They include, for example, a courtship, mate choice, sexual standards of conduct, rules which a husband and a wife abide, as well as sanctions for non-compliance with them.
These values, norms and sanctions are adopted in a given society historically changing form of relationship between a man and a woman, through which they organize and sanction their sexual life and establish their marital, parental and other related rights and obligations (Williams et al. 215).
In any society, a family is formed usually through marriage. Marriage is a set of practices that govern the conjugal relationship of a man and a woman. In modern human culture, such practices include the introduction, training, exchange of rings and the honeymoon (Williams et al. 218). In addition, marriage implies certain rules of conduct, which have become a tradition, for example, premarital chastity, fidelity, commitment to support the spouse during the entire life.
The rules of marriage, by definition of the sociologists Gary Peterson and Kevin Bush, form a kind of integral structure, which is called the institution of marriage (85). In society, this institute performs a number of important functions – reproduction of people, parenting, sexual and emotional satisfaction. If the marriage applies to relations between spouses, the family includes marital and parental relationships. Marriage is the only attitude, but the family is also a social organization (Peterson & Bush 85).
Marriage relationships are governed by model rules – both legal and cultural. Legal norms generally govern such issues as property ownership, material obligations of spouses with regard to children and to each other, the minimum age for marriage and others. The society also includes a set of rules governing the dissolution of marriage (Peterson & Bush 91). These rules define the legal grounds for the dissolution of marriage, the nature of divorce proceedings, the rights and obligations of former spouses related to material content and upbringing of children and possession of property after divorce.
In comparison to the laws which are written, cultural norms are unwritten. They regulate marriage on the basis of morals, traditions and customs. These include the rules of courtship, marriage choice, pre-marital behavior, distribution of power and responsibilities between spouses (Peterson & Bush 91). Cultural norms are formed primarily by society, but the way they are depends mainly on the level of education of individuals. Legal laws of most civilized countries provide that after the divorce, property acquired by the spouses during the time of marriage should be shared equally by half.
Works Cited
Peterson, G. and Kevin R. Bush. Handbook of Marriage and the Family. New York, NY:
Springer Science & Business Media, 2012. Print.
Strong, B. and Theodore F. Cohen. The Marriage and Family Experience: Intimate
Relationships in a Changing Society. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning, 2013. Print.
Williams, B., Sawyer, S., and Carl Wahlstrom. Marriages, Families, Intimate Relationships: A
Practical Introduction. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2009. Print.
