The Family

The family is the social institution responsible for biological and social reproduction: the sharing of material resources like food and shelter, the giving and receiving of care, and above all the socialization of children into the norms, values and skills of their society. Sociologists describe it as a child's 'family of orientation,' the group that locates them socially and carries out most of their early enculturation, while in adulthood the family also becomes an economically cooperative unit. Max Weber traced the modern Western nuclear-family model to a religio-cultural value system combining elements of Judaism, early Christianity, Roman Catholic canon law and the Protestant Reformation; Friedrich Engels, from a Marxist perspective, instead attributed the shift to economic causes. Extended, multigenerational households were the norm and economic necessity in agrarian societies, whereas industrialization reshaped it toward smaller, more mobile units.