FAMILY. The family is a social unit based on the biological facts of procreation and the lengthy period of helplessness of off spring. Since it occurs as a purely instinctive grouping amongst many animals, it was in all probability the first group in the evolution of human culture to acquire a traditional form, out of which developed those more complex groups, such as the clan, common amongst primitive peoples at the present day.
Most speculation on the beginnings of human culture assume a sort of family, instinctively produced, as a basis. According to one view, this earliest form of family is a group led by a mature male, who dominated a number of females and children. Out of this "cyclopean family" developed all the later forms of the fam ily, dependent on a variety of marriage-rules and differences in the mode of determining descent. Others have supposed the monogamous family, consisting of a man and his mate and their children, to be the earliest form. One school, as a reaction against the patriarchal theory, through the discovery of the widespread occurrence of matrilineal descent, denies the family in favour of original promiscuity.
Whether or not there has ever been a social organization lacking the institution of the family, the family can be detected as a fundamental unit in all societies, primitive or otherwise, that have so far been observed.
The family is here defined as a social group, consisting of one or more men living normally in the same habitation with one or more women, and the children, at least during their youth, that have resulted, or appear to be connected with their union. There are no clear instances of families in which several men cohabit with several women, though group-marriage (q.v.) has been postulated by several writers to explain certain features of relationship terminology, and certain customs of widespread occurrence. (See MARRIAGE and RELATIONSHIP TERMS.) Of the other three types of family, two at least have a wide dis tribution, the monogamous, in which one man is mated to one woman, and polygynous families, in which one man is mated to several women, while the polyandrous family, in which several men cohabit with one woman, is comparatively rare. (See POLYGYNY and POLYANDRY.) The monogamous family is the usual type of family in every known society, though usually the polygynous family, confined to an upper class of the society, occurs alongside it. It is rare amongst primitives for the polygynous family to be entirely absent. Where, as a result of the development of great social differences within a society, polygynous families of great size occur, some of the more usual characteristics of the family group are lost.
The joint family may be either bilateral or unilateral, and the unilateral joint family may be either matrilineal or patrilineal. By bilateral is meant comprising relatives of both husband and wife ; by unilateral, relatives of one side only by descent, which is matrilineal or patrilineal as the case may be. The patrilineal joint family is common in India, where a distinct family group is com mon, consisting of a man and his wives and children, together with his sons' children, and perhaps his father, or even grand father. India also provides an example of the matrilineal joint family in the Nayars of Malabar, where the relations included are of the wife instead of the husband.
Although the family as a definite social group, usually constitut ing a household, is always to be found in any society, the dis tribution and type of family groups occurring in any society depend on that part of the social organization which we may con veniently call the family grouping. The family grouping is some thing which is different for every member of a society ; it is an orientation of individuals about himself, based on relationship, and is somewhat different for every member of even one and the same family group. It is, in connection with the family grouping, as distinct from family groups, that the terms matrilineal and patrilineal family have special significance, particularly in those cases where we do not have joint families, for the single family, as a group, obviously cannot be either matrilineal or patrilineal. Where the family grouping is matrilineal, the nearest members of a person's family will consist of many of the next relatives by direct matrilineal descent of his mother, and very few, if any, relatives of his father. Where the family grouping is patrilineal, the converse is the case. It is obvious that the possible variations in the nature of the family grouping are considerable, even under the same family groups of man and wife with their children.
Finally, it should be noted that, although family-groups may be small, a person's family may embody a very large number of persons, even if we confine the term to persons with whom gene alogical ielationship can be traced; and if we do not confine the term to genealogical relations—and there is no very good reason why we should—then, owing to the classificatory system of rela tionships (q.v.), which frequently occurs in primitive society, family relationships will be found to penetrate the whole tribe.