In human context, a family (from Latin: familia) is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children. Anthropologists most generally classify family organization as matrilocal (a mother and her children); conjugal (a wife, husband, and children, also called nuclear family); and consanguinal (also called an extended family) in which parents and children co-reside with other members of one parent's family.
There are also concepts of family that break with tradition within particular societies, or those that are transplanted via migration to flourish or else cease within their new societies. As a unit of socialization the family is the object of analysis for sociologists of the family. Genealogy is a field which aims to trace family lineages through history. In science, the term "family" has come to be used as a means to classify groups of objects as being closely and exclusively related. In the study of animals it has been found that many species form groups that have similarities to human "family"—often called "packs." Sexual relations among family members are regulated by rules concerning incest such as the incest taboo.
Extended from the human "family unit" by affinity and consanguinity are concepts of family that are physical and metaphorical, or that grow increasingly inclusive extending to community, village, city, region, nationhood, global village and humanism.
Read more about Family: Procreation, History of The Family, Kinship Terminology, Less-known Family Types, Size, Criticism
Other articles related to "family":
... a peace, and went to war against Šubić family ... By 1325, the Branivojević family had emerged as strongest in Hum ... nominal vassals of Serbia, the Branivojević family attacked Serbian interests and other local nobles of Hum, who in 1526 turned against Serbia and Branivojević family ...
... like the following record member { // member of a family member next string firstName integer age } record family { // the family itself family next string lastName string address member members // head of list of ... of families and the list of members within the family are stored in two linked lists using the same data structure (node), and this language does not have parametric types ...
... and gave Hebrew lessons on the side, and struggled to support his family ... Irving found it necessary to take to the streets to help support his family ... constituted his first day's receipts, his contribution to the family budget.” His mother took jobs as a midwife, and three of his sisters worked wrapping cigars, common for ...
... Emily Smith had strong family ties to Chelsea, which centered around the church, in which her family took an active role ... In 1895 the Armstrong family moved from their brownstone row house at 347 West 29th Street to another similar house at 26 West 97th Street in the Upper West Side ... to improve his health the Armstrong family moved in 1902 from the Upper West Side into a house at 1032 Warburton Avenue in Yonkers, which overlooked the Hudson river ...
... After the German invasion of Poland in 1939 the family holdings in that country were gone, and all income from there ceased ... The family became destitute ... A friend of the family, a Russian sculptor, Naum Gabo, took Michael under his wing, so to speak ...
Famous quotes containing the word family:
“In the family sandwich, the older people and the younger ones can recognize one another as the bread. Those in the middle are, for a time, the meat.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“In the years of the Roman Republic, before the Christian era, Roman education was meant to produce those character traits that would make the ideal family man. Children were taught primarily to be good to their families. To revere gods, one’s parents, and the laws of the state were the primary lessons for Roman boys. Cicero described the goal of their child rearing as “self- control, combined with dutiful affection to parents, and kindliness to kindred.””
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)
“Blackmail is one of the great pastimes of family life.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)