Family, Marriage and Kinship I: Theoretical Approaches, Gender and Power, Inheritance and Authority, Sexuality and Reproduction, the Life Course and Emotions
2. Gender relations and power dynamics; inheritance, succession and authority
Feminist scholarship opened the household to scrutiny. Amartya Sen described it as a site of 'cooperative conflict', in which members cooperate for common gain but bargain over its division, and women's weaker fall-back positions and internalised sense of lesser entitlement leave them worse off; Bina Agarwal extended bargaining analysis to property, social norms and the state. Deniz Kandiyoti's 'Bargaining with Patriarchy' (1988) described 'classic patriarchy' in parts of South Asia and the Middle East: a young bride enters her husband's household in a subordinate position but can expect power as a mother of sons and later as a mother-in-law, which gives women a stake in the system itself. Leela Dube analysed the 'seed and earth' symbolism of Indian kinship, in which the man provides the seed that determines the child's identity and the woman is the field — an idiom that justifies patrilineal claims over children and women's lack of rights in natal property.
| System | Rule of inheritance and authority |
|---|---|
| Mitakshara (Vijnaneshwara) | Sons acquire a right in ancestral property by birth, forming a coparcenary; followed in most of India |
| Dayabhaga (Jimutavahana) | Heirs acquire rights only on the father's death; followed in Bengal and Assam |
| Hindu Succession Act (1956), amended 2005 | The 2005 amendment made daughters coparceners by birth with the same rights as sons; the Supreme Court in Vineeta Sharma (2020) held this applies whether or not the father was alive in 2005 |
| Nayar taravad (Kerala) | Matrilineal joint household managed by the karanavar, the senior male of the matriline; abolished by Kerala law in 1975 |
| Khasi and Garo (Meghalaya) | Matrilineal descent; among the Khasi the youngest daughter (khadduh) inherits the ancestral house and property, while authority often rests with the mother's brother |
3. Gender, sexuality and reproduction; children, youth and elderly
Reproduction is socially organised. Son preference, dowry and small-family norms combined with ultrasound technology to produce sex-selective abortion, reflected in a falling child sex ratio; the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (1994, amended 2003) bans sex determination. New reproductive technologies raise questions of who counts as a parent — Marilyn Strathern's Reproducing the Future (1992) examined them — and India's Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021 prohibits commercial surrogacy while permitting altruistic arrangements. On sexuality, the Supreme Court recognised transgender persons as a third gender in NALSA (2014) and, in Navtej Singh Johar (2018), decriminalised consensual same-sex relations between adults by reading down Section 377.
- Children: Philippe Ariès (Centuries of Childhood, 1960) argued that childhood as a distinct, protected stage of life is a modern European construction; the 'new sociology of childhood' (Allison James and Alan Prout, 1990) treats children as social actors, not only objects of socialisation. Child labour and child marriage show that Indian childhood varies sharply by class, caste and gender.
- Youth: Mannheim's generations as social units, and youth subcultures studied by the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies as symbolic resistance; in India, a large youth population facing educated unemployment.
- Elderly: disengagement theory (Cumming and Henry, Growing Old, 1961) held that withdrawal of the old from social roles is mutual and functional; activity theory countered that well-being depends on staying active. India's ageing population, the migration of children and the 'feminisation of ageing' (women outliving men, often widowed and dependent) strain family care; the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act (2007) makes maintenance of parents a legal duty.
4. Emotions and family
The sociology of emotions treats feelings as socially shaped rather than purely private. Arlie Hochschild (1979) described 'feeling rules' — social norms about what one should feel in a situation — and the 'emotion work' family members do to meet them, such as a bride managing grief on leaving her natal home. Historians of the family, such as Lawrence Stone (The Family, Sex and Marriage in England, 1500–1800, 1977), traced the rise of 'affective individualism', in which marriage came to be based on companionship and love. Giddens's The Transformation of Intimacy (1992) described the 'pure relationship', entered into for its own sake and sustained by mutual disclosure, and 'confluent love', which, unlike romantic love, is contingent rather than 'forever'. Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim (The Normal Chaos of Love, 1995) argued that individualisation makes love both more important and more fragile.
Key takeaways
- Descent theory (Radcliffe-Brown, Fortes, Evans-Pritchard) studies corporate lineages; alliance theory (Lévi-Strauss, Dumont, Leach) studies marriage exchange; cultural theory (Schneider, Carsten) studies kinship as symbols and relatedness.
- Sen's cooperative conflict, Agarwal's bargaining, Kandiyoti's bargaining with patriarchy and Dube's seed-and-earth symbolism analyse power within the family.
- Mitakshara gives sons a right by birth, Dayabhaga only on the father's death; the 2005 amendment made daughters coparceners; matriliny passes property through women while authority often stays with men.
- Sex-selective abortion, the PCPNDT Act, surrogacy regulation and the NALSA and Navtej judgments frame gender, sexuality and reproduction; Ariès, disengagement and activity theories frame childhood and ageing.
- Hochschild's feeling rules, Stone's affective individualism and Giddens's pure relationship and confluent love define the sociology of emotions in the family.
Practice questions (10)
Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.
David Schneider's American Kinship: A Cultural Account identified which two symbolic elements at the core of American kinship?
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Answer: C — Blood and law
Schneider found American kinship defined by shared biogenetic substance ('blood') and a code for conduct ('in law'). Seed and earth is Leela Dube's analysis of Indian kinship symbolism.Louis Dumont's analysis of Dravidian kinship terminology is a contribution to which approach?
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Answer: A — Alliance theory
Dumont argued that Dravidian terms divide relatives into kin and affines and that affinity (marriage alliance) is inherited across generations, as with cross-cousin marriage — an alliance-theory reading influenced by Lévi-Strauss.Under the Mitakshara school, sons acquire a right in ancestral property:
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Answer: C — By birth
Mitakshara creates a coparcenary in which sons (and, since 2005, daughters) have a right by birth; under Dayabhaga, followed in Bengal and Assam, rights arise only on the father's death.Deniz Kandiyoti's idea of 'classic patriarchy' explains why:
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Answer: D — Older women may support the system because they gain power as mothers of sons and mothers-in-law
In 'Bargaining with Patriarchy' (1988), the hardships of the young bride are offset by the prospect of authority over daughters-in-law, giving women a stake in reproducing the system.Which of the following statements about kinship and inheritance in India are correct? Select all that apply.
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Answer: A — The 2005 amendment to the Hindu Succession Act made daughters coparceners by birth; B — Among the Khasi, the youngest daughter inherits the ancestral property; C — The Nayar taravad was managed by the karanavar
The statements on the 2005 amendment, the Khasi and the Nayar taravad are correct. Dayabhaga prevailed only in Bengal and Assam; Mitakshara was followed in most of India.Philippe Ariès's Centuries of Childhood is known for the argument that:
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Answer: B — Childhood as a distinct, protected stage of life is a modern social construction
Ariès (1960) argued from paintings, diaries and documents that medieval Europe did not treat childhood as a separate stage; the modern idea emerged with schooling and the private family.Assertion (A): Giddens contrasted 'confluent love' with romantic love. Reason (R): Confluent love is contingent and lasts only as long as both partners find the relationship rewarding, whereas romantic love idealises a union 'for ever'. Choose the correct option.
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Answer: A — Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
In The Transformation of Intimacy (1992), the contingency of confluent love, tied to the pure relationship, is exactly what distinguishes it from romantic love, so R explains A.Which term did Arlie Hochschild use for the social norms that define what people should feel in particular situations? (Two words)
Numerical answer — type the value.
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Answer: feeling rules
Feeling rules (Hochschild, 1979) tell us, for example, that we should feel sad at a funeral and happy at a wedding; emotion work is the effort to bring actual feelings into line with them.Disengagement theory of ageing, proposed by Cumming and Henry, holds that:
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Answer: B — The mutual withdrawal of the elderly and society from social roles is natural and functional
Growing Old (1961) treated disengagement as a functional process allowing smooth transfer of roles to the young; activity theory challenged it by linking well-being in old age to continued activity.Janet Carsten's concept of 'relatedness' was introduced to capture the idea that:
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Answer: D — Kin ties can be created through everyday practices such as feeding, living together and care
Working in Langkawi, Malaysia, Carsten found that sharing food cooked in the same hearth made people kin; 'relatedness' frees kinship analysis from the biology-versus-culture opposition. The other options describe descent and alliance theory.