A nuclear family is a family group consisting of two parents and their children, typically sharing one household. The term is comparatively recent: it was first recorded by Merriam-Webster in 1924 and entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1925. Historians Alan Macfarlane and Peter Laslett have argued the nuclear household was already the primary arrangement in England from at least the thirteenth century, distinguishing English patterns from the multi-generational households typical of much of Southern Europe and Asia.
Facts
Disputed
Typical RegionLong treated as normative in Western, especially Anglo-American, family sociology since mid-twentieth-century comparative studies such as George Murdock's survey of 250 societies found some form meeting the definition of family in every one; a 4,600-year-old German burial site is the earliest known archaeological example of a two-parent, multiple-child family unit. 1 Sourced to the subject's own accountWhether the nuclear family is the historically and cross-culturally dominant or "natural" human family form is disputed rather than settled: the source itself states that some sociologists and anthropologists consider the extended family, not the nuclear family, to be the most common family structure in most cultures and at most times for humans, and cautions that the German burial-site evidence does not establish the nuclear family as a universal or the most ancient institution. Descent RuleSourced to the subject's own accountTwo parents and their children, typically biological though some definitions include adopted or step-children, sharing one household and economic unit; distinguished from the extended family by the absence of co-resident grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
The terminology directly and distinctly names only the nuclear family, mother, father, brother, sister, matching the system's dominance in modern Western nuclear-family households.
One of the two household-composition patterns the family institution can take; see also Extended Family.
Held Differently
Why this is disputed. Contrasting household-composition patterns; which one is the more common or foundational human family form is a live scholarly dispute, not a settled classification (see the Nuclear Family typical-region fact and the wave's open question).
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Nuclear Family
WikipediaIntroduction and history sectionsQuote, Introduction and history sections
A nuclear family is a family group consisting of two parents and their children (one or more), typically living in one home residence.
1. Wikipedia: Nuclear Family
WikipediaIntroduction, definition variantsQuote, Introduction, definition variants
Some sociologists and anthropologists consider the nuclear family, at least among those in Western culture, to consist of a household with a mother, father and their biological or adopted offspring.
1. Wikipedia: Nuclear Family
WikipediaHistory and universality-debate sectionsQuote, History and universality-debate sections
Some sociologists and anthropologists consider the extended family structure to be the most common family structure in most cultures and at most times for humans, rather than the nuclear family.
1. Wikipedia: Nuclear Family
WikipediaLead sectionQuote, Lead section
A nuclear family - also called an elementary family, atomic family, or conjugal family - is a family group consisting of two parents and their children.
Wikipedia: Neolocal Residence
WikipediaAssociated With: Neolocal Residence, Lead sectionQuote, Associated With: Neolocal Residence, Lead section
Neolocal residence is a type of post-marital residence in which a newly married couple resides separately from both the husband's natal household and the wife's natal household.
Wikipedia: Inuit Kinship
Open Questions (1 open question)
Is the nuclear family the universal or original human family form, as much mid-twentieth-century family sociology assumed, or is the extended family the more common arrangement historically and cross-culturally?
George Murdock's mid-twentieth-century comparative study of 250 societies found some form meeting his definition of family in every one, and historians Alan Macfarlane and Peter Laslett argue the nuclear household was already primary in England from at least the thirteenth century, evidence often read as supporting the nuclear family as a basic or even universal unit. Against this, the source itself states that some sociologists and anthropologists consider the extended family, not the nuclear family, to be the most common family structure in most cultures and at most times for humans, and a 4,600-year-old German burial site, sometimes cited as the earliest known nuclear-family unit, is explicitly cautioned against being read as establishing the nuclear family as a universal or the most ancient institution.
What would resolve this A cross-cultural comparative standard for what counts as the "basic" family unit (the smallest reliably present grouping versus the most common lived arrangement) precise enough that the Murdock-style universality claim and the extended-family-primacy claim are answering the same question rather than different ones.
Comparative family sociology and kinship anthropologyWikipedia: Nuclear Family
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