maxist views on the family Flashcards

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1
Q

Karl Marx views on family (1848)

A
  • the family unit exists to better the capitalist ideology through the use of consumerism and inheritance
  • inheritance reproduces class inequality because it keeps the wealth in the hands of the bourgeousie
  • 3 main fuctions: inheritance, ideological function, consumption unit
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2
Q

Zaretsky (1976)

A
  • family life gives proletarian men something they could control and a space where they could be the ‘boss’
  • this meant that the workers would tolerate the pwerlessness and frustration of being exploited at work because they had this private domain to take out all their stress and frustration
  • they are made weak by factors that could be risked if they revolt form the boss, such as spouse and children
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3
Q

Engels (1884)

A
  • the emergence of capitalism created the nuclear family structure, so that the bourgeousie could pass down their private property through inheritance
  • these are based on legal contracts, therefore family is all about bloodlines and proof of heritage
  • previously to this, there was a ‘promiscuous horde’ which bred and mated indiscriminately
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4
Q

Evaluation of the marxist views on the family: Engels

A
  • Engels: family surely must be about more than just what happens to your money when you die, people who live in poverty choose to live in families, although he would argue that this is due to influence of the bourgeousie
  • this could perhaps show that there are different functions of the family among social classes
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5
Q

Evaluation of the marxist view on the family by functionalism (and economic factors)

A
  • they argue that families are universal and quite similar, so it is not just a feature of capitalist society
  • however, Parsons suggested that the family is dependent on the economy (functional fit theory), which could potentially support maxist ideas about capitalism’s influence on families
  • in communist russia, people have continued to live in family groups even after experiments with communal living and alternative households
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6
Q

Evaluation of the marxist view on the family: Zaretsky

A
  • clearly outdated because it assumes that the worker is male and there is a single-income household
  • ignores other benefits that all family members may get from family life: emotional support, comfort.
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