Explore the concept of social grouping and its relevance to the family

HIS 102 ASSIGNMENT
Summer Semester: 2021
Assignment On
Social Grouping “Family”
Department of History and Philosophy

Explore the concept of social grouping and its relevance to the family unit in this comprehensive assignment. Delve into the dynamics, interactions, and significance of the family as a social group, as well as its historical and philosophical aspects.

Keywords:

1. Social grouping in history 

2. Family as a social group

3. Definition of social group

4. Dynamics of family interactions

5. Significance of the family unit

6. Historical perspectives on family

7. Philosophical aspects of the family

8. Joint interaction in social groups

9. Collective members vs social groups

10. Relevance of social grouping

INTRODUCTION

A group is a collection of individuals but all collectivises do not constitute a social group. A group is distinct from collective member of which do not interact with one another. The core of the social group is not physical closeness or contact between the individuals but a consciousness of joint interaction. 

According to River (1924) “In social structure every human being, regardless of whether an individual forms an element in a great empire like ourselves, or is only a member of some rude savage tribe, has to feel, think, and act.” . This social structure has focused on two perspectives. It is his point of view to describe the different types of social construction found all over the world and to investigate its fundamental components, to find out the connection of these components to each other. He tries to find out how these basic components, and capacities are combined to achieve the goal and how they succeed in delivering an efficient and balanced organization. The other point of view is the historical. It may be our aim to discover the processes by which human societies have come into being. It is about the study of social grouping and division of social function. This structure will help us recognize the difference of social function and sufficient definiteness in social organization. 

BACKGROUND

In order to place this classification on a satisfactory foundation it will be convenient to tum to our own society, and to consider briefly the chief varieties of social grouping which it reveals. The aim of W RH Rivers is to study the process by which individuals are associated in groups. By considering their structure and function they can be divided by two group.

To classify these social organization, one those who are concerned for the relationship between individual in a group.  Another group is concerned about the relationship between groups. River also noticed that the social group which are family are considered as social group

W H R Rivers has considered low differentiation of social function to identify the ruder social group. On the basis of satisfactory foundation and also considering chief verities in group form, they were classified by different types of group. 

Family: First one is family, which is the most striking example among ourselves. He has already specified the large extent the social position which each child live in the social order, but it also regulates all those relations in modest way. Relations which are connected with the concept of "home" It is a striking example of the inconspicuous nature of this form of social grouping. He proposed to term it as Domestic group. The family is a small social group consisting of parents and children

Political: The second form of social grouping to be mentioned is the Political In our own society, with its high degree of differentiation of social function, there are many varieties of this form of grouping. According to River (1924) “Thus, each one of us is a member of an empire, a nation, a county, a parish, and the life of each is regulated by the actions of a parliament, a cabinet, government departments, municipal corporations, or county, urban, or parish councils, together with many other bodies that regulate special departments of social activity.” 

Economic: The third type of social groupings is about economic aspect of social life. The writer mentioned them as Occupational Groupings. In the case of the political grouping, the division of social labour in rude societies has taken place in a small extent that, in some of the societies it is considered to be difficult to identify whether this form of social grouping exists at all 

Religion: The next kind of grouping is concerned with Religion. The writer explained if he arranges a forms of grouping in the order of relative importance, they would be considered under ruder forms of human society. He also wanted to put religious grouping in the second instead of the fourth place. Variety and specialization of religious function are distinctly more obvious than variety and specialization of secular occupation

Education: A fifth mode of grouping is about those who are concerned about Education. This variety introduced ourselves to university, college, school groupings, etc. the writer in his research found out that no form of social group entirely devoted to the purpose of education.

Club: A sixth group is made up of the Societies in which individuals gathered together for some common purpose, where they were connected with some form of play activity. According to River (1924) “They came together for related pursuits of art or science. A form of association which is of especial importance in rude societies is that in which knowledge of the purpose and main proceedings of the association is withheld from the rest of the community, the so-called Secret Societies.” 

Distinguishing the characteristic of family: The exact form of the family will depend upon the nature of marriage. In ‘monogamy’ the only difficulty arises if an individual has married more than once, and has children by each marriage. This characteristic case causes problem between widower and widow, each of them has children, they marry and have issues.

In ‘polygyny’ form of group, here each wife has her own establishment, there are a number of families had a common factor which is the the father and the husband. But here all the wives live together, and children are not renowned by their mothers. This situation is more problematic. The writer said it would be more convenient to speak of a polygynous family.

For the wider group of people, the term "family" is also engaged in ordinary speech, we meet with a more difficult and complicated problem. An important point to be noted that the group is considered as ‘bilateral’ or ‘unilateral’. The group includes relatives from fathers’ family only or the mothers’ family only to form a group is called unilateral. The group which includes both father and mothers’ family to form a group is called bilateral.

According to River (1924) “The term “Family” is used to represent four different kinds of group:

• The small group of parents and children
• The bilateral group, consisting of persons related through both father and mother
• The unilateral group of persons related through the father only; and
• A fourth group, of a unilateral kind, consisting of persons related through the mother only. It is essential to distinguish these four forms of grouping, and it will naturally be convenient also to distinguish them in nomenclature.” 

Conclusion

At last I must mention a group while corresponding in many respects with the family, simple or joint, yet differs from it. The Household is same. The social group formed by the household can be different from the family. It often includes close members in the family. In time sons will set up their own household and won’t be a part of their parent’s household. Daughters will be separated to form a household of their husbands. On the other hand, the household often includes servants, a person who do not belong to the family at all. That’s how social structure differ from one another and form different group.