I consider a family to be the people most important to a person.

According to my point of view family is a structure in which different functions are performed like personality development of an individual. People learn their roles and statuses in socialization process by family. Family is an institute where we learn the societal values.

Well to start off with, family can mean many things to many people. I think family is comprised of those people who have the biggest influence on us as individuals through our norms, values, morals and ethics. Our immediate family are those we live with and are raised with. I always felt in my family, my parents had the biggest influence on me, by how they lived their lives and treated others. I feel I am who I am today because of them and my own personal experiences throughout my 51 years. We certainly have seen the definition of family expanded and I like what Roderick, stated that family is a state of mind for most people. Interesting question Rossella.

Family is an institution. It comprises of husband, wife, and children.

Its a security institution where an individual learns from the event of the birth all the necessary skills to survive in the world as well as depend on family if one fails to do so.

Thank u all for ur answer, thei are veri interesting. Good point Graham!

A family is a group of people, socially recognized, bounded by strong personal ties and founded on a lasting sexual relation between two or more human beings.

Family is a social institution which comprises husband and wife with independent children

What do u mean with independent?

Independent mean having full access to use your procession by free of your will, it include your physical, mental, and spiritual possessions.

But now the question arises that what about if there is more than one human exist at earth?

Then independent mean that use all these in such a way by which other didn't get disturbed.

For it we need t set rules and regulation. So if those rules didn't get the use of your possessions in such a way that you might go under human- slavery then they can be Obedience. As human always need a frame of reference because the universal system are working on reference to each other. So There is only answer for independence is that first of all set the frame of reference by mutual understanding. Then ask for ''Independent''

And what are dependent children?

Jeorge would u better define the term of "lasting sexual relation", please? thank u for ur contribute

Raja, not sure about the kind of independence u are referring to. It sounds to me u are talking about mani different things all together? Firstli, " it include your physical, mental, and spiritual possessions": u are taking for granted the spiritual dimension which is cultural based in mi opinion and needs to be clarified and more over, when ur phisical and mental parts are independent from the influence of the contest ? As u pointed out people set rules, this wai it seems to me u are rather talking about freedom in individual? Thus, what is freedom and what is independence?Again, are we sure that who set the frame of the reciprocal "respect" for the "other freedom/independence" is acting in a wai which realli secure it for all? Or is rather that people need to accept them ? thanks for ur repli.

A Family has a time dimension. A brief encounter, or a one night stand, although legitimate between consenting adults, does not provide the time length necessary to establish a Family. How long should a relationship endure to evolve into a Family? It depends on cultural traditions and other aspects of the relationship (co-habitation for instance). So we could say, as long as each society requires.

In my definition I wanted to avoid the word “love”, as in many instances and in several cultural traditions Family does not presupposes romantic love.

Finally I used the expressions between “two or more” to include not only monogamy but also polygamy and “Human beings” to make clear that the concept of Family also incorporates the same sex marriages.

I think that family is social institution and it serves many social functions. It is also affective institution and institution of care. But that is all that can be said straight forward. It is also constructed socially, since the people in particular family define who belong to that particular family unit. There could be included members of extended family or some friends etc. Family may be existing even though there are no interaction between the members. All societies have different official definitions of families and who are included. In my own research about extended family I include everyone who are considered inside that family. If someone considers ex-wifes current husbands children into their extended family, so do I.

Thanks for the interesting point Tiina.

Family is half institution and half associaion

Dear Tina

The inclusion of a person into a family is not just a matter of personal opinion. If someone, as you said, considers ex-wife’s current husbands children into their extended family and nobody else agrees than they are not family. Social recognition is of utmost importance. How would you react if those children of the ex-wife’s current husband didn´t consider him (the former husband of their father´s current wife) their family? Would they be wrong? And how could you decide who is right and who is wrong? Can a family have different size when looked through different eyes? Best regards,

Jorge, I think u and Tina are probably saying the same?Tina is pointing out the possibility for people to feel someone part of the family as also the possibiliti for famili to be socialli recognised as an istitution even if the members do not recognise themselves part of the same famili?

what do u think at regard of couples? are thei considered as a famili? What about omosexual couples? Thanks for working on this.

Jorge, You are right! And Rosella thank You for backing me up!

But further... My research this mutual acceptance has no such importance as someone else might have in their research. I am studying the social resources (and also the economic) inside one group of people, extended family, in the point of view of entrepreneurship. In Finland it seems that entrepreneurship is accumulated in some extended families. The interesting thing here is that Finland is highly paid-labour-society and entrepreneurship is quite rare. Why then some extended families members are more keen to become entrepreneurs? My hypothesis is that there is such social resources, for example memories, experiences, knowledge etc, that make it easier to start a business. Also the risk management is somehow different and scattered across the extended family. So for me it is enough (when collecting my data with snowball effect) to ask if someone else in your extended family is entrepreneur, and could I interview them also.

But it is a crucial point to see the true interaction. And it should be defined at what circumstances the functions of family (care and affects) are fulfilled. Maybe also in my study I could analyse more the boundaries of extended family. It might help to define what is family...

Dear Tina Your research is very interesting and the subject – entrepreneurship – also interests me. I am a member of a group currently studying intrapreneurship (entrepreneurship conducted inside a existing company). The issue is that as a society becomes more developed entrepreneurship decreases and intrapreneurship increases. The societies with the highest levels of entrepreneurship are the poor countries like Uganda and Vietnam. The phenomenon you describe in the finish families could also be viewed as Social Capital. James S. Coleman explained the way the close knit extended families of Jews become dominant in the diamond trade in New York. My remark regarding the definition of Family still stand: if it´s not socially recognized it’s not a Family regardless of the feelings of the persons involved. Of course for your purpose it does not really matter if they are family (in the strict sense) or not and I think your attitude of openness is really the correct one. Besides what you can be witnessing is a change in the social definition of extended family in the finish society, and that is a very exciting issue.

According to Durkheim the family is not solely based on blood lines but on membership of the clan. What distinguishes a family is a shared totem or namesake.

I consider a family to be the people most important to a person.

Family as a social institution could be viewed from two perspectives. Family of orientation or family of procreation. The two types have one thing in common. Blood relationship. In a family of orientation, we are looking at you, your parents and sibblings of the same father and mother or of the same father or same mother. This could be polyandrous or polygynous types. In this situation one is connected to a family either through the father or mother. Also, in consideration here, is the extended type which includes your cousins, nephews, nieces, uncles and aunties. In the procreation family, we are looking at you, your spouse and you children. Every family of procreation is a family of orientation to the children. All families share same culture or part of same culture to some extent and there is always an ancestral link to all the members no matter how extended such family is, either large, matrilineal or partrilineal. It is not a sate of the mind as claimed by some contributors but rather it a relationship by birth which of course one cannot determine. You may decide to dissociate your self from a family but that does not remove your birth connection with that family. Likewise you may include another fellow into the family group but hsitory will never record such inclussion as mebership by birth but by induction which could be withdrawn by either party at will.

in other words, we can term as affinal and consenguine family. In affinal, kinship is related through marriage and in consenguine, kinship is related through blood relations..........