Social Structure

My previous blogs revolved mainly around the idea of society and its institutions. Now, as an assignment we've been asked to observe and connect the social structure within the boundaries of our home and extended family in terms of hierarchy, income and individuality. So, let's get started!

Family structure usually inculcates the members of a household who are linked by marriage or bloodline. But changes in family life have resulted in more complicated designations of this structure. Today we have nuclear, joint, blended and many other types of families. But here I'll be mainly focusing on my family structure, that is, Joint family, which embodies six members, that is, my grandparents, parents and me and my younger brother. 

Now, let's start by looking at the hierarchy in my family. When I say hierarchy, I am referring to the power and roles of every family member. And as far as I know, important decisions in my family are made by my grandparents or my father. Though, my grandmother's decision holds the main influence in any action, followed by my father's. However, in reference to the decisions related to me and my brother, my mother and we ourselves, hold the main power and influence. And from what I can infer, just like any other traditional Indian family, in my family too, sometimes the decisions do get influenced because of age and gender. Moving on to the aspect of income, my grandfather and father have been the earning members of the family. And mothers, have been the caretakers, responsible for the emotional side of the family. 

And in terms of individuality, opinions of all the members in my family are respected. No one, agrees to something if they don't want to, even if it us, the children. So, if I talk about me and my brother, the decisions related to our careers or anything, totally depends on us since we are adults now, we have our own understanding and viewpoints that are different from those of our elders. And even though there are disagreements, elders are always open to negotiations. Same goes for every other member in our family. In that sense, I believe my parents follow authoritative parenting style, where they are open to our ideas and discussions but still set necessary boundaries and reasoning to guide us better. 

However, I would like to mention that this has not been always the case, my family structure has evolved over time. It used to be a typical patriarchal family, but with time things have slowly changed. However, still, sometimes due to the society and the image, this individuality and the decisions of the family members do get influenced. And similarly, many other factors play a huge role in those decisions of my family, just like I have mentioned in my previous blogs!