Family is the term for all forms of cooperation that form a recognizable social unit at a micro level, with related or unrelated people who have lasting and affective ties and provide mutual support and care to each other. This is how the family can be described. In any case, the family is a dynamic process, it changes under the influence of age, environmental factors and many elements that go together with the individual evolution of the family members. But the evolution of society and the factors surrounding the family also influence the family and the function of the family. The family has gone through a change in its history.
Middle Ages
An important function that the family had for a long time in the Middle Ages was its protection function. Through and within marriage and family relationships, people create a social space for themselves in which husbands, wives and children can find protection and safety. These were of vital importance to families, people had to rely mainly on themselves and had to be able to count on relatives to maintain life and property. Women and children had to rely on the protection of men. As the government became increasingly effective in this regard, it appropriated more tasks and rights, after which it became a government task.
Marriage remained vital to economic survival in the 12th century. Strategic marriages were concluded within part of the peasantry. Political-military considerations played no role here, but the pursuit of consolidation of land ownership all the more. This also created a separation between living and working. Staff and family lived together. Economic independence was the basis for marriage. This prevailed in the countryside and in the cities from the 16th century until well into the 19th century.
Revolution
A double revolution brought the modern era, which lasted until the 20th century. Science and technology developed. This ultimately meant that the family’s production function was lost. The economic function of the family was limited to distribution and consumption. There was no longer any question of self-sufficiency. The new organization created a separation between living and working, which also entailed a separation between working time and free time, which also meant that many men became closely linked with their leisure time and family. The loss of the economic function and economic independence of the family that industrialization brought with it was accompanied by a higher level of prosperity and social security.
The sexual and reproductive functions show greater continuity than the protective functions. Until the 16th century, sexual matters were dealt with more openly and men in particular could afford more free sexual behavior. This was followed by a cultural repression of sexuality. By tying sexuality exclusively to marriage, a sharp dividing line was drawn between legal and illegal sexual practices. There was also a sharp demarcation between legitimate and illegitimate offspring.
Modern time
The care of small children mainly took place within the own family household, in which the mother played the leading role. Among the nobility it happened that the children were suckled by the nurse or nurse and cared for by the servants. Outsourcing babies was also very common in France. As far as older children are concerned, outsourcing and labor are very prominent. It is also striking that parents gave up their children due to material necessity and the compulsion to survive under conditions of economic scarcity. From the 16th and 17th centuries, the family took on a more private character, after which education for children followed in the 19th century and, partly due to the government, parental power and influence became more limited than before. Nowadays, the emphasis in marriage is on equality and the individualization of the family is developing.
The family has had different functions during its development. Thus we see the economic function, the protective function and the production function. At the time when families and marriages functioned under these functions, there was little room for personal choices, such as your choice of a marriage partner, the choice whether or not to have children and the choice to keep work and private life separate. What we see today is the individualization of the family. We see that a family can function with few outside influences, leaving the room for personal choices open.
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