Family and Household Essay

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.

Family used to be a single unit, consisting of a husband, wife and children. This unit was widely thought as a group based on marriage and biological parenthood as sharing a common residence and

The family life of Native Americans today is defined as a nuclear family. This consists of the mother, father, and offspring. The parents are the leaders of the household and work together in making all major decisions. This leaves both the mother and father equally in charge especially when it comes to their offspring. As the child is growing up the parents take primary responsibility in directing their child’s life. When they become a young adult they are presumed to become independent and are expected to leave home. Overall Native American families are nuclear, with both parents having equal input in decisions as well as with regard to their children.

Both families emphasis the importance of family. In this sense family is defined as your immediate family consisting of your parents, brother (s) and/or sister (s).

1.The role of Native American grandmother can take on different definitions depending on the tribe and their culture. The “grandmother” can be several older fictive kin, or they can be older female relatives, or even simply older women in the tribe (Novak, 2012, p. 191). A grandmother is a respected role taking on the upbringing of their oldest or many grandchildren, additionally even fostering orphans or impoverished children (Weibel-Orlando, 1988, p. 163). This caregiving role eases the burden on younger women, allowing them to help financially or to carry out homemaking tasks. Although some grandparents may relish this role, some have it forced upon them to do unfortunate family circumstances of divorce, drug and alcohol abuse, and death (Novak, 2012, p. 191). According to Weibel-Orlando grandparental roles also play a vital role in the continuity of Native American cultural values, being a “cultural conservator”, and relaying a tribe’s history, rituals, and practices through oral storytelling (pp.250-251).

The word family has changed so much in the past century. A family back in the 1950’s was probably considered a husband, wife, and one or more children. Times have changed and families have become much different. The Interpersonal Communication: Relating to Others book defines family as a, “Unit made up of any number of persons who live in relationship with one another over time in a common living space who are usually, but not always, united by marriage and kinship” (Beebe, Beebe & Redmond, 243). Families can be broken up into five different types. The first is the traditional family, which includes a mother, father, and their biological children. Next, is the blended family which includes

What are the different gender relations within the Navajo tribe? The Navajo people have different marriage traditions, customs, and labor within the male and female people of the tribe. The Navajo people lives by a matrilineal system. This is where women own livestock and land. Once married, a Navajo man would move to live with his bride in her home, along with her mother, and his wife’s clan. Daughters or if there were no daughters, other closely related females are traditionally the ones who received the inheritance of their property. The property could be that of a dwelling, or livestock. The children are "born to" and belong to the mother's clan, and are "born for" the father's clan. The clan system is exogamous. This means that the people must date and marry people who are outside of their own clans.

The Navajo family is usually a nuclear one that consists of the husband, his wife and their children living in small wooden and mud houses called a Hogan, and live in small communities with other families. Although the mother is the main nurturer and authority figure of the family, the father still plays a large role in helping the mother raise the children and teaching them manners and their legends and chants. It is also the father’s responsibility for punishing and teaching respect to his children. And as his sons’ get older, it is not uncommon for the father to become his sons’ companion.

At first I thought it was because they were mostly poor and couldn’t afford to live one family per house, but after reading this book I realized that it was mostly because they can. The respect they have for one another to fulfill his or her duties in the household makes them bond very close as almost the parts to a very complicated machine that would not be able to operate without one of its parts.

normal for a family to have a child living with them that came from another tribe. The only

The most valuable assets of our world are our mothers. The mother means soil. Mothers carry us in their womb for nine months and give their life. Mother, who carries the child in her belly, gives birth like soil, and raises the child in her breast.  Thanks to her, our roots go deep, and our branches go the top. In Native Americans, the tribes are separated from the Northeast, Southeast, and Southwest.  In some tribes, married couples lived near the wife's family and the mother was considered the head of the family. Linage was passed down through the women, and women were seen as equal partners to the men (Native American cultures: Family life, kinship, and gender, 1996b, para. 4). An example of the mother being a strong figure is in the story of the Corn Mother. There was a family that did not have food to eat. The mother decided to sacrifice herself by dragging her body over the fields and burying her bones there. Every year after that, corn and tobacco grew due to her sacrifice and love (The sun and the Moon: Myths from around the world, 2017). In any case, it is still far less demanding for American-Indian women to discover a role to accommodate their families and set up a profession stepping stool than it is for American-Indian

In tribal Africa, the most important aspect of life and survival was the family. Unlike the

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, a family is "a group of two or more people who reside together and who are related by birth, marriage, or adoption.” (Eutk). In the beginning, family was considered to be all of the individuals who contributed to the household as far as bringing in money; including servants and non-parental adults, who are also considered part of the family if they play a large role in the upbringing or care-taking of children other than their own. But in fact, over the last few centuries until present day, the institution of the family has completely changed. In the late-18th Century, marriage was considered just a union based on love, but as time passed, there were other financial, social, and political shifts in the

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

Depending on their cultural background, many families will often have different understandings or ideas of what a family is and how it should be structured.