Using the above concepts, let us briefly introduce the family in three Asian countries, namely the Philippines, Thailand and Japan, as they represent very distinct family systems to serve as a backdrop to understand family in India.
The Philippines14
The Philippines is an archipelago that has Malay connections, but was significantly influenced by its colonizers—Spain and the United States. While there are tribal groups living in remote islands, there are also other indigenous groups and those converted to Islam and living in Mindanao. But the majority of modern Filipinos are devout Catholics. Thus, the country has different types of family systems. The Ifugao tribe of this country has been vastly quoted in anthropological literature. Both urbanization and modernization have differently affected the more than 7,000 islands that constitute the Philippine archipelago.
In the Philippines, the term family is liberally used without making any distinction between family and household. The term is used for: (i) a living arrangement to delineate membership, and (ii) as a pattern of socially defined relationship. The census has used a ‘structural’ (that is, architectural) criterion for identifying the family unit. Accordingly, all persons living in a common house are regarded as family. This is convenient for enumeration, but unhelpful in sociological interpretation.
Family in the mainstream Philippines continues to be guided by a ‘bilaterally extended’ kinship system inherited from their Malay ancestry. They reckon descent from both male and female lines. A clear example is their naming pattern, as shown below:
| First Name | : | Individual’s own Name |
| Middle Name | : | Mother’s Name |
| Last Name | : | Father’s Name |
In terms of residence, too, there is no preference for either virilocal or uxorilocal residence. Depending upon individual circumstances, the couple may reside virilocally or uxorilocally, or even neolocally. Because of bilateral descent, even kinship terms tend to be classificatory, not distinguishing between different types of uncles (Tiyo) and aunts (Tiya).
Tiyo is used for FaBr, MoBr, FaSiHu, MoSiHu
Tiya is used for MoSi, FaSi, FaBrWi, MoBrWi
In addition to consanguineal and affinal kinsmen, the Filipinos also have the institution of ritual kin, called Kumpadre—a derivative of the Spanish word compadrazgo.
Since most families are a combination of nuclear and bilateral patterns and the census does not classify them in terms of kinship composition, we have only estimates of their size. Between 1903 and 1973, the Filipino family size increased from 4.7 to 6.1, but then it started a decline, standing at 5.6 in 1980. There is also rising number of conjugal units that we have called residual nuclear family. Filipino sociologists use the phrase ‘empty nest’ for such units. The number of conjugal units combined with those of the nuclear families is estimated to be in the vicinity of 80 per cent. There are also vertically and horizontally or both verti-hori extended families, but those are small in number.
Marriage continues to be an important institution in the Philippines: only 6 per cent of women and 5.2 per cent of men above the age of 45 were found to be unmarried in a 1975 survey. Being a Christian society, mate selection is the responsibility of the children. The first crush occurs around the age of 14, and the first dating takes place when the girl is 17. At the acquaintance stage, boys and girls generally ‘group date’. Romantic love and freedom of choice are the operating principles. Even though there is a freedom of choice, Filipino youth tend to marry endogamously (that is, within their own class, linguistic group and religion). Philippine society forbids marriage between collaterals and yet marriages between cross-cousins occur. Education and employment prospects have helped in increasing the age at marriage.
Most Filipinos are Catholic Christians. As such, divorce is virtually absent. It is difficult even to obtain legal separation. It is therefore not very surprising to learn that a 1983 survey found that 94.8 per cent of all first marriages have remained intact, and only 3.7 per cent of all ever-married women have been married more than once. The absence of a legal provision for separation does not, however, mean that there is an absence of marital dissolution. Families do break up, with the spouses living separately and having extra marital relationships either on an ad hoc or on a steady basis. The pattern of keeping mistresses is called Querida.
Japan
The family in Japan is known as Uchi. However, this term is used for (i) a nuclear family of parents and unmarried children, (ii) a line of descent, and also for (iii) the household seen as a unit of production or consumption. In Japan’s past, there is evidence of matrilocal residence and later of patriliny.
The traditional form of family mentioned in sociological literature is called Ie in Japanese. This is associated with the Edo era (1600–1868), when the Japanese society was divided into a system of “‘four castes‘’15—Shi (Samurai warriors), No (peasants), Ko (artisans) and Sho (merchants). There was also an untouchable caste called Eta. These groups, being endogamous, qualify to be the castes. In the Tokugawa period, there is mention of a social class named Chōnin (町人, ‘townsman’). The majority of chōnin were merchants, but some were craftsmen as well. Chōnin were distinguished from Nōmin (farmers).
The word for family, Ie (家), or ‘household’, in the Chinese character, means people under one roof. But this particular type of family was indeed a three generation family. The eldest generation consisted of Husband and Wife, who were joined by one of the son’s (always the eldest) nuclear family. The other brothers moved out to form their own family, and the daughter went to reside with her husband’s family. In such a family, a special relationship existed between the Mother-in-law (HuMo) and the daughter-in-law (SoWi). The former was known as Shutome and the latter Yome. It is said that Ie was found only amongst the upper stratum of the Samurai warriors, and not in the lower strata of society. The Civil Code of 1898 abolished the caste system and also affected the Ie. In Japan, there is a preponderance now of the nuclear family. But because of the increasing longevity, children are obliged to take care of the elderly. In 1988, as many as 61.9 per cent of the elderly (65 and over) were found to be residing with their adult children. This is causing the return of the stem family (Ie). One consequence of this has been the return of the Yome to work, as children at home can be looked after by the grandparents. ‘Japanese family today contains both modern elements of the nuclear and traditional characters of the stem.’
Another special feature of the Japanese family is the long absence of the father from the home. What we have mentioned as a non-familial unit in our typology is known in Japan as Tansin-Funin. ‘It is a situation where a married man is forced to lead a bachelor’s life mainly for the consideration of his children’s education….Tansin-Funin in Japan is an acceptable family alternative, but not indicative of the family dissolution….‘The wife has nearly total responsibility for raising the children, ensuring their careers and marriages, running the household, and managing the family budget. It is she who maintains social relations with the wider circles of relatives, neighbours and acquaintances. Her social life thus remains separate from that of her husband. It is increasingly likely that in addition to these family responsibilities, she may also have a part-time job or participate in other community activities. Approximately half of the Tansin-Funin husbands are in their late 40s and another 30 per cent are in their 50s … Japanese children whose fathers are in their late 40s and 50s are preparing for impending entrance examinations to high schools or colleges. Therefore, it is likely that the Tansin-Funin syndrome is closely related to the Japanese educational system … This Tansin-Funin phenomenon has been an increasingly serious problem in the Japanese family The mother and child relationships are becoming closer with the father figure seen as a casual visitor. Also, children regard their mother as a strict disciplinarian. Thus, the entire process of socialization of children is getting influenced by this phenomenon and is redefining relationships within the family.16
Thailand
Ever since John F. Embree published his paper ‘Thailand—A loosely Structured Social System’ (in American Anthropologist, 1950, Vol. 52, pp. 118–39), scholars working on Thai society have begun employing that framework. For more than a decade after the publication of that seminal article, many scholars remained preoccupied with this concept.
Embree built his model on the premise that the ‘Thai people … appear to have come into the southern area from Yunnan, spreading out in Thailand…’; they display ‘historic influences of Hindu culture in … drama and literature, the form of dress (panung), and the Indian court terminology’ (Embree, 1950: 118). With people of Chinese origin with a high exposure to Buddhist religion and Indian culture, Thai society evolved with an assimilation of cultural traits and practices from different sources. To Speak of present-day Thai society is also to speak of a multi-cultural society. The Thai nationals include the indigenous Thais, the Chinese, Indians, the Malay Muslims, and the north hill tribal groups.
Embree viewed the coexistence of such groups as loosely structured: ‘loosely integrated here signifying a culture in which considerable variation of individual behaviour is sanctioned’. He listed the following features of such integration:
- Considerable variation in individual behaviour (making it difficult to predict responses);
- Little importance to the observance of reciprocal rights and duties;
- Determined lack of regularity, discipline, and regimentation; and
- Lack of respect for administrative regularity, and an absence of industrial time sense (punctuality).
Embree regards looseness as functional. ‘In such a society the processes of acculturation may produce fewer dysfunctional social situations.’
Thailand has remained for a long time a field for expatriate researchers—mainly anthropologists, who have done work in the rural and tribal areas. It is only recently that studies are being taken up in urban areas. Studies of the villages carried out in the past are regarded as a good source for reconstructing the traditional pattern in the absence of any other past records.
Figure 10.8 Family Structure in Thai Society
It is suggested that rather than focusing on a single family type, attention ought to be paid to the changes in the family composition at different stages of the domestic cycle. The following stages may be noticed.
Figure 10.9 Different Stages of the Domestic Cycle in Thailand
In Central Thailand, too, there is a predominance of uxorilocal residence. However, wealthier families have begun promoting virilocal residence. The usual pattern is that a daughter lives with her husband’s family after the marriage for a while and then she is helped by her parents to move into a neolocal residence, usually in the same compound, or on the land donated by the WiFa. The youngest daughter lives with her husband in her parents’ family and inherits a major share of the property; this practice of ultimogeniture is similar to the Nokrom and Nokna Dona institution among the matrilineal Garos of Assam, India. While there is uxorilocal residence and inheritance of property along the maternal line, the Thais practise patronymy. Thus, the wives use the family name of their husbands while continuing to reside with their parents. The institution of ‘minor wives’ is also prevalent. Unlike the Querida system practised in the Philippines, where only separated couples enter into such arrangements in the absence of a legal provision for divorce, the Thais can have a minor wife without breaking relations with the legally married spouse. These minor wives do not share the family premises. They live separately and are financially supported by their visiting husbands. At the time of severing the relationship with the minor wife, the visiting husband makes a handsome parting gift which may include a house, a car, and an account in the bank. Such women can remarry. Often, they become bartenders or massage girls. The educated among them may even run their own business. Since the society accepts this institution, such women do not suffer from any social indignity or stigma. But no systematic study of such women has ever been carried out. There are visible trends towards the decline in the family size in Thailand.
However, it is difficult to conclude whether this reflects a change in the family type, say from ‘extended’ to ‘nuclear’ or vice versa. It is nevertheless asserted that urbanization and industrialization do not necessarily challenge extended residence. These processes have certainly affected the rural family in Thailand in the sense that there is an influx both of men and women in the younger age groups into the urban areas. Such individuals remain ‘isolates’, as non-familial units during their sojourn in the town. They may develop live in arrangement without getting married. Instances are on the rise of unwed.CopycopyHighlighthighlightAdd NotenoteGet Linklink
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