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Matrifocal refers to a family structure or societal organization in which power and authority are centered around women, particularly mothers. This means that women play a central role in decision-making and maintaining the family unit. Matrifocality can also encompass a wider societal framework that values and prioritizes women's roles and contributions.
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What is a matrifocal family?
A matrifocal family is a family structure in which the mother is the central figure and primary caregiver. This type of family may or may not include the father or male figures, but the focus and authority typically lie with the mother. Matrifocal families are seen in various cultures and may result from factors such as divorce, migration, or societal norms.
What words have the root word matri?
Matriarch, matrifocal, matrilocal, matrilineal.
What is patrifocal?
It means centered or focussed on the father(s), in contrast with matrifocal which means focussed or centered upon the mother(s). Some societies are more matrifocal than patrifocal. Or some writers seem to portray just one or the other tendency in their novels. Other societies seem to be predominently patrifocal. In the matter of the care of children, most published guidelines and counselling might seem to be matrifocal. Whilst this is understandable, sometimes a strictly matrifocal approach might omit and, by definition, exclude any consideration of the father. Correspondingly, is it a woman's role to do everything fundamentally for the men and father's in their lives? That would be a patrifocal attitude. For more reading on the subject, see Related Links below the following three advertisements:-
What are some ten letter words with 3rd letter T and 6th letter F and 9th letter A?
According to SOWPODS (the combination of Scrabble dictionaries used around the world) there are 3 words with the pattern --T--F--A-. That is, ten letter words with 3rd letter T and 6th letter F and 9th letter A. In alphabetical order, they are: matrifocal nitrofuran patrifocal
What are the different types of family in the Caribbean?
what are the different types of families in the caribbean
Evaluate the view that in modern industrial societies family life is no longer patriarchal?
It is assumed that in modern industrial societies, family life is no longer patriarchal. As the demographic trends of divorce and widowhood lead to matrifocal families, Post-modernists believe that as matrifocal families are becoming a norm in modern industrial societies. The status of men as the breadwinner and decision-maker of the family is becoming less dominant due to this dual role being taken on by single mothers. Women have also begun to live longer and often become widows as men have a lower life expectancy rate, leading to the creation of beanpole families. Furthermore, Breen and Cooke (2004) suggest the variation in the gendered division of domestic labour by identifying three types of women and three types of men. Post-modernists reject the idea that family life in modern industrial societies is still patriarchal as there are generalisations and over-exaggerations made at the extent of men's power over women in society. Since the 1950s, women now play an important role in the labour market, and the change from manufacturing to service economies have prompted more women to enter paid employment. The increase in the number of self-employed and part-time employed women suggest that the dual employment of families have begun to transfer breadwinner and decision-making power to women, especially when the woman earns a higher income bracket than that of her husband. From a post-modernist perspective, the feminist approach to the patriarchy present in society is not sensitive to the difference between families. Bernades states that "the modernist view of the family is essentially a popular image of the nuclear family. Heterosexual couples, with a small number of healthy children, living in an adequate home," implying that feminism is arguing against an outdated model that does not take into account the great diversity that exists between family relationships in different social classes and different ethnic groups. Certain groups have a higher demographic of women becoming the decision maker and breadwinner, such as the case in the West Indies concerning matrifocal families. The study of certain West Indian families as an example of a matrifocal family is an interesting concept simply because it is part of their culture for a woman's husband to live outside of the household. This is frequently found in mother households, in which the mother or grandmother of the children is head of the household and, for most of the time the household contains no adult males. It is likely that the fatherly figure present in western families is not seen in West Indian families simply because of how the husband is less economically successful than the mother. Often, the father of the children had sexual relations with the mother and neglected contact with her and the soon-to-be born children afterward. By obtaining a dual role of being a breadwinner and a home-maker, the mother has eliminated the man's supposed role as a breadwinner (in the perspective of functionalists). Julia Brannan (2003) claims that matrifocal families are not restricted to the role of a mother providing for her family, but there is an extended kinship network provided through the grandparents and the great-grandparents. The vertical structure of such a kinship network is known as a beanpole family. Brannan argues that there are strong intergenerational links (links between generations) in contemporary British families. Grandparents are increasingly providing informal care for their grandchildren. However, as the life expectancy of women is higher than that of men, it is suggested that in some families, the surviving intergenerational links are re-established between the widowed female members of the family and their children. Therefore, women have increasingly removed the power of the patriarchy in beanpole families through the dominance of women in sheer numbers as women become increasingly widowed; they begin to establish a matriarchal lineage as the generations begin to descend down the family tree. Breen and Cooke (2004) published their work entitled "The persistence of the gendered division of labour", exploring the concept of the gendered division of domestic labour by identifying three types of women. Traditional women are expected to take on the majority of domestic tasks, even if they are the breadwinners themselves. Transitional women represent the majority of women who temporarily give up work to stay at home with the children and return to employment, often part time, as the children begin to mature. Autonomous women on the other hand place their careers as the most viable economic option aside from marriage. These women do not want to depend on support from their partner. Breen and Cooke also identified three types of men. Hardliners do not make any contributions to domestic work or childcare, opting to divorce if forced to do so. Meanwhile, adjusters prefer not to do housework but are willing to compromise to prevent divorce. This is in direct contrast to the co-operators who are willing to participate fully in unpaid domestic tasks. Breen and Cooke's theory shows that while there are men and women who follow the same trend of being a breadwinner and a home-maker respectively, there is an increasing amount of these men and women who share house work and are no longer tied down to the traditional roles which benefit the patriarchy of society. However it can be argued that these patriarchal values continue to be present in society. Margaret Benston (1972) put a great deal of emphasis between the capitalist economic system and its role in shaping men to serve the needs of a Marxist patriarchy. She believes that the nuclear family and the housewife role played by women is a perfect fit with the need of capitalism. Women reproduce and socialise the labour force, providing a source of unpaid labour to the husband (housework). Women are also perceived by the Bourgeoisie to be a reserve army of labour that can be exploited when the need for extra workers arise. Benston also claims that "the amount of unpaid labour by women is very large and very profitable to those who own the means of production," suggesting that the women, in her role as a housewife, attends to her husband's needs and keeps him in running shape as a wage labourer. Fran Ansley (1972) emphasises the role of women in the family as "sponges". They soak up the anger and frustrations of their brainwashed husbands who have been exploited and forced into labour by the Bourgeoisie. This outlet numbed opposition to capitalism and women served to suffer the consequences. Radical feminists on the other hand translate the patriarchy as the source of all inequality that exists in family relationships. Christine Delphy and Diana Leonard (1992) suggest that the family is a hierarchical and patriarchal institution that benefits men, where women are dominated and exploited, and providing "57 varieties of service" to their husband. Bernard (1978) also stresses the preference made by men who preferred women who were submissive than those were assertive and dominant in marriage. He also suggested that marriage made life easier for men that it had for women. Such is the claim made by feminists who believed that married women suffer the consequences of a patriarchal system by dealing with stress and depression in contrast to single women who have not married. Qualitative studies (Dryden, 1999) show that 17 couples found women to be primarily responsible for housework and childcare. The Time Use Survey (2005) also suggested that 92% of women in families do the housework, showing little sign that the traditional sexual division in labour was changing. These statistics show that men make little contribution to their wives' work and the husband's career remains the central one. Delphy and Leonard believe, then, that wives contribute more work to family life than their husbands, receiving fewer material benefits as men retain ultimate responsibility for family finances. However, there is reason to show that women are not necessarily accepting the patriarchy passively, as these feminist approaches have been criticised by Catherine Hakim (Work-Lifestyle Choices in 21stcentury; Preference Theory 2000). She suggests that feminists have underestimated the amount of power that women have in the family, claiming that "we must stop presenting women as 'victims' or as undifferentiated mass of mindless zombies whose every move is determined by other actors and social forces." Hakim also presented the 'preference theory' where women take up household work and childcare based on accepting it as an option, which they see as the right way of living. Her statistics suggest that 20% of women were work orientated, 20% of women were home orientated and 60% were 'adaptive', treating employment as a job, not a career. In conclusion, while it can be widely assumed that the family retains patriarchal values through the sexual division in labour and inequality of work burden, it is also assumed that matrifocal and beanpole families have began to take on matriarchal control over society. Breen and Cooke suggests that there are different types of men and women who either prefer their careers, pure housework or are adaptive in order to equally spread out both housework and their careers.
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blood" (based on ideas common in their own cultures) later research has shown that many societies instead understand family through ideas of living together, the sharing of food (e.g. milk kinship) and sharing care and nurture. Sociologists have a special interest in the function and status of family forms in stratified (especially capitalist) societies.According to the work of scholars Max Weber, Alan Macfarlane, Steven Ozment, Jack Goody and Peter Laslett, the huge transformation that led to modern marriage in Western democracies was "fueled by the religio-cultural value system provided by elements of Judaism, early Christianity, Roman Catholic canon law and the Protestant Reformation".Much sociological, historical and anthropological research dedicates itself to the understanding of this variation, and of changes in the family that form over time. Levitan claims: Times have changed; it is more acceptable and encouraged for mothers to work and fathers to spend more time at home with the children. The way roles are balanced between the parents will help children grow and learn valuable life lessons. There is [the] great importance of communication and equality in families, in order to avoid role strain. The term "nuclear family" is commonly used, especially in the United States of America, to refer to conjugal families. A "conjugal" family includes only the spouses and unmarried children who are not of age. Some sociologists distinguish between conjugal families (relatively independent of the kindred of the parents and of other families in general) and nuclear families (which maintain relatively close ties with their kindred).Other family structures – with (for example) blended parents, single parents, and domestic partnerships – have begun to challenge the normality of the nuclear family. A single-parent family consists of one parent together with their children, where the parent is either widowed, divorced (and not remarried), or never married. The parent may have sole custody of the children, or separated parents may have a shared-parenting arrangement where the children divide their time (possibly equally) between two different single-parent families or between one single-parent family and one blended family. As compared to sole custody, physical, mental and social well-being of children may be improved by shared-parenting arrangements and by children having greater access to both parents. The number of single-parent families have been increasing, and about half of all children in the United States will live in a single-parent family at some point before they reach the age of 18. Most single-parent families are headed by a mother, but the number of single-parent families headed by fathers is increasing. A "matrifocal" family consists of a mother and her children. Generally, these children are her biological offspring, although adoption of children is a practice in nearly every society. This kind of family occurs commonly where women have the resources to rear their children by themselves, or where men are more mobile than women. As a definition, "a family or domestic group is matrifocal when it is centred on a woman and her children. In this case, the father(s) of these children are intermittently present in the life of the group and occupy a secondary place. The children's mother is not necessarily the wife of one of the children's fathers." The term "extended family" is also common, especially in the United States. This term has two distinct meanings: It serves as a synonym of "consanguinal family" (consanguine means "of the same blood"). In societies dominated by the conjugal family, it refers to "kindred" (an egocentric network of relatives that extends beyond the domestic group) who do not belong to the conjugal family.These types refer to ideal or normative structures found in particular societies. Any society will exhibit some variation in the actual composition and conception of families. The term family of choice, also sometimes referred to as "chosen family" or "found family", is common within the LGBT community, veterans, individuals who have suffered abuse, and those who have no contact with biological "parents". It refers to the group of people in an individual's life that satisfies the typical role of family as a support system. The term differentiates between the "family of origin
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men are more mobile than women. As a definition, "a family or domestic group is matrifocal when it is centred on a woman and her children. In this case, the father(s) of these children are intermittently present in the life of the group and occupy a secondary place. The children's mother is not necessarily the wife of one of the children's fathers." The term "extended family" is also common, especially in the United States. This term has two distinct meanings: It serves as a synonym of "consanguinal family" (consanguine means "of the same blood"). In societies dominated by the conjugal family, it refers to "kindred" (an egocentric network of relatives that extends beyond the domestic group) who do not belong to the conjugal family.These types refer to ideal or normative structures found in particular societies. Any society will exhibit some variation in the actual composition and conception of families. The term family of choice, also sometimes referred to as "chosen family" or "found family", is common within the LGBT community, veterans, individuals who have suffered abuse, and those who have no contact with biological "parents". It refers to the group of people in an individual's life that satisfies the typical role of family as a support system. The term differentiates between the "family of origin" (the biological family or that in which people are raised) and those that actively assume that ideal role.The family of choice may or may not include some or all of the members of the family of origin. This terminology stems from the fact that many LGBT individuals, upon coming out, face rejection or shame from the families they were raised in. The term family of choice is also used by individuals in the 12 step communities, who create close-knit "family" ties through the recovery process. As a family system, families of choice face unique issues. Without legal safeguards, families of choice may struggle when medical, educational or governmental institutions fail to recognize their legitimacy. If members of the chosen family have been disowned by their family of origin, they may experience surrogate grief, displacing anger, loss, or anxious attachment onto their new family. The term blended family or stepfamily describes families with mixed parents: one or both parents remarried, bringing children of the former family into the new family. Also in sociology, particularly in the works of social psychologist Michael Lamb, traditional family refers to "a middle-class family with a bread-winning father and a stay-at-home mother, married to each other and raising their biological children," and nontraditional to exceptions to this rule. Most of the US households are now non-traditional under this definition. Critics of the term "traditional family" point out that in most cultures and at most times, the extended family model has been most common, not the nuclear family, though it has had a longer tradition in England than in other parts of Europe and Asia which contributed large numbers of immigrants to the Americas. The nuclear family became the most common form in the U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s.In terms of communication patterns in families, there are a certain set of beliefs within the family that reflect how its members should communicate and interact. These family communication patterns arise from two underlying sets of beliefs. One being conversation orientation (the degree to which the importance of communication is valued) and two, conformity orientation (the degree to which families should emphasize similarities or differences regarding attitudes, beliefs, and values). A monogamous family is based on a legal or social monogamy. In this case, an individual has only one (official) partner during their lifetime or at any one time (i.e. serial monogamy). This means that a person may not have several different legal spouses at the same time, as this is usually prohibited by bigamy laws, in jurisdictions that require monogamous marriages. Polygamy is a marriage that includes more than two partners. When a man is married to more than one wife at a time, the relationship is called polygyny; and when a woman is married to more than one husband at a time, it is called polyandry. If a marriage includes multiple husbands and wives, it can be called polyamory, group or conjoint marriage.Polygyny is a form of plural marriage, in which a man is allowed more than one wife . In modern countries that permit polygamy, polygyny is typically the only form permitted. Polygyny is practiced primarily (but not only) in parts of the Middle East and Africa; and is often associated with Islam, however, there are certain conditions in Islam that must be met to perform polygyny.Polyandry is a form of marriage whereby a woman takes two or more husbands at the same time. Fraternal polyandry, where two or more brothers are married to the same wife, is a common form of polyandry. Polyandry was traditionally practiced in areas of the Himalayan mountains, among Tibetans in Nepal, in parts of China and in parts of northern India. Polyandry is most common in societies marked by high male mortality or where males will often be apart from the rest of the family for a considerable period of time. A first-degree relative is one who shares 50% of your DNA through direct inheritance, such as a full sibling, parent or progeny. There is another measure for the degree of relationship, which is determined by counting up generations to the first common ancestor and back down to the target individual, which is used for various genealogical and legal purposes. In his book Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family, anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan (1818–1881) performed the first survey of kinship terminologies in use around the world. Although much of his work is now considered dated, he argued that kinship terminologies reflect different sets of distinctions. For example, most kinship terminologies distinguish between sexes (the difference between a brother and a sister) and between generations (the difference between a child and a parent). Moreover, he argued, kinship terminologies distinguish between relatives by blood and marriage (although recently some anthropologists have argued that many societies define kinship in terms other than "blood"). Morgan made a distinction between kinship systems that use classificatory terminology and those that use descriptive terminology. Classificatory systems are generally and erroneously understood to be those that "class together" with a single term relatives who actually do not have the same type of relationship to ego. (What defines "same type of relationship" under such definitions seems to be genealogical relationship. This is problematic given that any genealogical description, no matter how standardized, employs words originating in a folk understanding of kinship.) What Morgan's terminology actually differentiates are those (classificatory) kinship systems that do not distinguish lineal and collateral relationships and those (descriptive) kinship systems that do. Morgan, a lawyer, came to make this distinction in an effort to understand Seneca inheritance practices. A Seneca man's effects were inherited by his sisters' children rather than by his own children. Morgan identified six basic patterns of kinship terminologies: Hawaiian: only distinguishes relatives based upon sex and generation. Sudanese: no two relatives share the same term. Eskimo: in addition to distinguishing relatives based upon sex and generation, also distinguishes between lineal relatives and collateral relatives. Iroquois: in addition to sex and generation, also distinguishes between siblings of opposite sexes in the parental generation. Crow: a matrilineal system with some features of an Iroquois system, but with a "skewing" feature in which generation is "frozen" for some relatives. Omaha: like a Crow system but patrilineal. Most Western societies employ Eskimo kinship terminology. This kinship terminology commonly occurs in societies with strong conjugal, where families have a degree of relative mobility. Typically, societies with conjugal families also favor neolocal residence; thus upon marriage, a person separates from the nuclear family of their childhood (family of orientation) and forms a new nuclear family (family of procreation). Such systems generally assume that the mother's husband is also the biological father. The system uses highly descriptive terms for the nuclear family and progressively more classificatory as the relatives become more and more collateral. The system emphasizes the nuclear family. Members of the nuclear family use highly descriptive kinship terms, identifying directly only the husband, wife, mother, father, son, daughter, brother, and sister. All other relatives are grouped together into categories. Members of the nuclear family may be lineal or collateral. Kin, for whom these are family, refer to them in descriptive terms that build on the terms used within the nuclear family or use the nuclear family term directly. Nuclear family of orientation Brother: the male child of a parent. Sister: the female child of a parent. Father: a male parent. Grandfather: the father of a parent. Mother: a female parent. Grandmother: the mother of a parent.Nuclear conjugal family Husband: a male spouse. Wife: a female spouse. Son: a male child of the parent(s). Grandson: a child's son. Daughter: a female child of the parent(s). Granddaughter: a child's daughter.Nuclear non-lineal family Spouse: husband or wife Stepparent: a spouse of a parent that is not a biological parent Sibling: sister or brother Half-sibling: a sibling with whom the subject shares only one biological parent Step-sibling: a child of a parent that is not a biological parent A sibling is a collateral relative with a minimal removal. For collateral relatives with one additional removal, one generation more distant from a common ancestor on one side, more classificatory terms come into play. These terms (Aunt, Uncle, Niece, and Nephew) do not build on the terms used within the nuclear family as most are not traditionally members of the household. These terms do not traditionally differentiate between a collateral relatives and a person married to a collateral relative (both collateral and aggregate). Collateral relatives with additional removals on each side are Cousins. This is the most classificatory term and can be distinguished by degrees of collaterality and by generation (removal). When only the subject has the additional removal, the relative is the subject's parents' siblings, the terms Aunt and Uncle are used for female and male relatives respectively. When only the relative has the additional removal, the relative is the subjects siblings child, the terms Niece and Nephew are used for female and male relatives respectively. The spouse of a biological aunt or uncle is an aunt or uncle, and the nieces and nephews of a spouse are nieces and nephews. With further removal by the subject for aunts and uncles and by the relative for nieces and nephews the prefix "grand-" modifies these terms. With further removal the prefix becomes "great-grand-," adding another "great-" for each additional generation. When the subject and the relative have an additional removal they are cousins. A cousin with minimal removal is a first cousin, i.e. the child of the subjects uncle or aunt. Degrees of collaterality and removals are used to more precisely describe the relationship between cousins. The degree is the number of generations subsequent to the common ancestor before a parent of one of the cousins is found, while the removal is the difference between the number of generations from each cousin to the common ancestor (the difference between the generations the cousins are from).Cousins of an older generation (in other words, one's parents' first cousins), although technically first cousins once removed, are often classified with "aunts" and "uncles." English-speakers mark relationships by marriage (except for wife/husband) with the tag "-in-law." The mother and father of one's spouse become one's mother-in-law and father-in-law; the wife of one's son becomes one's daughter-in-law and the husband of one's daughter becomes one's son-in-law. The term "sister-in-law" refers to two essentially different relationships, either the wife of one's brother, or the sister of one's spouse. "Brother-in-law" is the husband of one's sister, or the brother of one's spouse. The terms "half-brother" and "half-sister" indicate siblings who share only one biological parent. The term "aunt-in-law" is the wife of one's uncle, or the aunt of one's spouse. "Uncle-in-law" is the husband of one's aunt, or the uncle of one's spouse. "Cousin-in-law" is the spouse of one's cousin, or the cousin of one's spouse. The term "niece-in-law" is the wife of one's nephew, or the niece of one's spouse. "Nephew-in-law" is the husband of one's niece, or the nephew of one's spouse. The grandmother and grandfather of one's spouse become one's grandmother-in-law and grandfather-in-law; the wife of one's grandson becomes one's granddaughter-in-law and the husband of one's granddaughter becomes one's grandson-in-law. In Indian English a sibling in law who is the spouse of your sibling can be referred to as a co-sibling (specificity a co-sister or co-brother). Patrilineality, also known as the male line or agnatic kinship, is a form of kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is traced through his or her father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritance of property, rights, names, or titles by persons related through male kin. A patriline ("father line") is a person's father, and additional ancestors that are traced only through males. One's patriline is thus a record of descent from a man in which the individuals in all intervening generations are male. In cultural anthropology, a patrilineage is a consanguineal male and female kinship group
