Changes in Family Life

The same forces that broke up the old community did not stop at the village square. They reached into the home. The decline in the local community and its role in forming individuals also brought about a decline in the influence of the family as a social unit. Family and community rose and fell together.

The family reflects its culture

A family is never a free-standing thing. The pattern of the family is always shaped by the total cultural pattern around it. The place of the woman in a family, the way children are treated, and many other features in a given time and place all trace back to the spirit, ideals, and behaviour patterns of the culture. If a society practises stern discipline, the family is expected to practise it too over its members.

So when the culture changes, the family changes with it. The decline of the family is not a moral failing of families; it is the family reflecting a culture that has been reshaped by science, technology, and the move to cities.

Flashcard

What shapes the pattern of a family?

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Answer

The total cultural pattern around it

The place of the woman, the treatment of children, and other features trace back to the culture’s spirit and ideals. When the culture changes, the family changes with it.

The rural family as a working whole

To see what was lost, look at the family in a non-technological society or rural area. There, the family was both a producing and a consuming unit. It did not just consume; it made things. As a result, the home, the work, and the social life were all centred in one place.

This had powerful effects on how children grew up. From a social and educational point of view, the members of such a family were intimately associated. The father’s occupational activities were appreciated by the whole family, because they happened in view of everyone. The mother’s activities were recognised and valued in the same way. Children shared many activities and responsibilities, and through these shared tasks some of the most basic elements of character were implanted by the relationships within this primary social unit.

The family built common ideals, sentiments, and patterns of behaviour into its members, because everyone shared in common economic and social activities. And those ideals did not stand alone: they were reinforced by the community life of the village or town around the family. Home and community pointed the same way, so a child grew up inside a consistent moral world.

Flashcard

Why was the rural family both a producing and a consuming unit?

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Answer

It made things as well as used them, so home, work, and social life shared one place

Members were intimately associated, everyone’s work was seen and valued, and shared activities implanted the basic elements of character, reinforced by the surrounding community.