Case Study: The Khasi Matrilineal System

Family Roles and Organization. Indian families are considered to be a close knit family unit. The man (the father and/or husband) is always considered the head of household. There is also a significant value placed on higher education and success for their children.

The family shows both continuity and changes which can be seen by looking at nuclear families and single parent families respectively. Before 1940s, marriage was considered an important part of society and thought to be a social institution essential for order. Divorce and single parent families were considered dreadful, sex outside marriage was not acceptable, it was a moral offense. The tempo of divorces was very low, but this social behavior soon ended in the post war era. By 1960s, this was no longer the case, as women started to work. They became much more independent, laws were changed and increase in divorces and cohabitation rates had shown that marriage was not compulsory in one’s life.

Family acts as a support in many ways. Since everyone contributes to the household, the Dadi treats everyone equally and when money is asked for any important purposes, the Dadi will provide the money no matter how expensive it is. Also, Dadi mentions that the family can bear anything, can suffer any lost because they suffer together. However, if one moves out, he is alone and have to provide solutions for himself. In the family, everyone works together; the dadi and dada work and make decisions together. Children do not have to work. However, if they leave the household, the daughter-in-law will have to manage everything on her own.

With the centrality of the family in Hmong culture, having sons or a son is very important as they are the ones who will take on the last name and lead the future generation of the family (Cha, 2010). Cha states, “The clannish nature of Hmong society favors a son. A family that does not have a son is viewed as a burden to the clan and community, because such a family will not contribute much to the community,” (p. 24). In the culture, the son(s) will take care of the parents as the daughter will get married and move to live with the husband’s family. Religion also plays a role since the traditional belief is that although the daughter can take care of the parents physically when they are alive, they cannot take care of them spiritually after they pass away. This is because the daughter becomes a part of the other family and cannot worship her parents’ spirits after death (Cha, 2010).

In all areas of life and society the treatment and well being of women have always been challenged. In many religions the role and status of its women are usually overwhelmed by the actions and roles of its men this inequality of religions between male and female allows these feelings and ideology of which sex is superior or inferior to bleed into a society’s culture thus shaping their treatment of their men and women.

It is foolish to think following the community's beliefs and traditions is better than what one believes in. In the novel “The hero's walk” by Anita Rau Badami when family traditions are broken, many harsh consequences are made. In the Sripathi family, decisions made causes society. guilt and female rights to be an issue.

Approximately 2000 years ago Tibeto-Burman ancestors of existing Mosuo culture devised a family and kinship system that is not based on marriage. They have no husbands and wives. Instead of marrying and sharing family life with spouses, adult Musuo children remain in their extended, multigenerational household with their mother and their blood relatives. The elder female("Ah mi") is the head of the house. "Ah mi" makes all the household and economic decisions

As a result of these reviews, the ongoing reconstruction of the social status and roles of Hindu women has brought about many new changes in Hinduism. Some of these changes include changes in education, health measures, problems of early marriages, the positions of widows, and the representation of women in governing bodies (Desai, et al., 1995). For example, within Hinduism now,

Since the family’s origins are in Africa they came from a society with different norms and values. A society composed of many different tribes, each with their own language, customs and traditions. They placed a strong emphasis on the family and kinship ties. Their communities depended on cooperation, assistances and well maintained social order. When a woman was married, she was considered the wife of the family not just the husband (Franklin, 1967-28-31).

This topic of research and study is important because it not only analyzes, but perfectly displays the evolution changes of family

This joint family, like any social organization, must face problems such as acceptable division of work, relationships and specific family roles. These familial relationships are managed on the basis of a secular hierarchical principle. In fact, all Indians owe respect and obedience to the head of the family, who usually is the father or the oldest man of the family community. In The Gift of a Bride: A Tale of Anthropology, Matrimony and Murder by Nanda and Gregg, it is explained that, “females [are] placed under the perpetual guardianship of first their fathers and elder brothers, then their husbands.” (Nanda & Gregg 22) Thus, all the spending decisions, studies and profession, or marriage, are exclusively the responsibility of the father after the possible discussions with the other men of the family. Age and sex are the basic principles of this hierarchical system. The eldest sons enjoy greater unchallenged authority than their cadets. Of course men have more authority than women, but older married women have an important role within the family. In fact, the authority of a woman depends on the rank of her husband inside the group. Traditionally, the wife of the patriarch rules over domestic affairs and has considerable power over the other women in the community, especially her daughters- in-law.

Her children would then inherit the dowry as part of their estate ("Women"). Just as the dowry, the woman did not fully become part of her husband’s family when she married. She was a part of her own family. If her husband mistreated her or her children, or was too lazy to be a sufficient provider or even insult her family, those were grounds to divorce him. To do this, she must call in witnesses. She must announce her divorce in front of said witnesses at her front door, then at their bed ("Women"). At the time of a divorce, the woman would be given back her dowry that was brought with her at the start of the marriage (The Role of Women). Children automatically stayed with their mother in case of a divorce. It depended who the older children stayed with according to status and wealth of the two families. The children still held their rights to inheritance, even after divorce ("Women"). Divorce is a prime example of how women of this culture had it better than many other cultures.

An often controversial issue within politics is how woman are viewed and treated in the Hindu religion. The role of woman in Hinduism is often disputed and positions range from quite reasonable to highly antagonistic. An often overlooked aspect is that, Hinduism is more of a way of life then a Religion. This is because Hinduism requires that we see the same reality in all the diversity of creation; that we see the same Self in all beings. Hindu women within this religion would view themselves as an important part of the family, but this is not shown through the contents of the Manusmriti. The Manusmriti directly translated is “Laws of Manu,” or “Institutions of Manu,” is regarded as the foundational

There are varieties of families in the world. People develop different personalities and mind sets because they have their own experience and knowledge gain from their individual families. In this essay, I will contrast and summarize each of nuclear, which is traditional, family and non-traditional families and also compare each of the families and examine how changing in non-traditional and nuclear families will affect people’s behaviors and minds in the view of sociologist and psychologist in order to argue how changing family affect individuals and the society.

demand increasingly independence and less restriction. On the same time, they cultivate new cognitions and expectations as getting more contact to the society. 15 For the alteration mentioned, the former balance is certainly to be broken. Then the whole family members are going to endeavor to learn from their experiences in their patterns of communication , made a decision if they should adopt or change the family models and form an adjustment of the family system in order to achieve new equilibrium. 16 During this deconstruction and reconstruction