Part one of term paper
Family is a social institution and has different definitions depending on who defines it. Anthropologists say a culture's biological and marital kinship rules and patterns of reciprocal obligations define family. Structure-functionalists say the patterns of reciprocal obligations among people and between structures of people and the greater ...

Part two of term paper
... family, all families have common functions like regulation of sex; procreation; socialization of children and distribution of good and services. In our society today, other institutions have taken over a part or most of these functions but we have taken a new function- emotional gratification. The more depersonalized our society, the more we depend on our family to provide emotional and intimate ambience to come back to. Our society has moved away from the traditional nuclear families towards ex ...