What is Family, in structure or in spirit?

We seem to be extremely confused. What is family?

"Definitions of family on the Web:

* a social unit living together; "he moved his family to Virginia"; "It was a good Christian household"; "I waited until the whole house was asleep ...
* primary social group; parents and children; "he wanted to have a good job before starting a family"
* people descended from a common ancestor; "his family has lived in Massachusetts since the Mayflower"
* class: a collection of things sharing a common attribute; "there are two classes of detergents"
* an association of people who share common beliefs or activities; "the message was addressed not just to employees but to every member of the company family"; "the church welcomed new members into its fellowship"
* (biology) a taxonomic group containing one or more genera; "sharks belong to the fish family"
* kin: a person having kinship with another or others; "he's kin"; "he's family"
* syndicate: a loose affiliation of gangsters in charge of organized criminal activities
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

* A family consists of a domestic group of people (or a number of domestic groups), typically affiliated by birth or marriage, or by analogous or comparable relationships — including domestic partnership, cohabitation, adoption, surname and (in some cases) ownership (as occurred in the Roman ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family"

We learnt something very interesting today call "Familism", which is, no matter what "structure or form" of family you take, as long as there is "spirit of family", that can be considered as "family." A reciprocal sense of commitment, sharing, cooperation, and intimacy that is taken as defining the bonds between family members.

Modern family emphasis on emotional bonds. The research of Stone on English elites in he 17 century suggested the ideas of intimacy and privacy for the couple began to be articulated and emphasis on duty to one another was gradually supplanted by an emphasis on love for one another. Industrialization and expanding of trade and commerce led the change of hierarchy structure family. The result was o undermine the authority of husband-father as family head, which also promoted the form of nuclear family. i.e. the reliance to kins decreased. Husband and wife are to become companions, lovers, and partners in their emotional enterprise.


The spirit of family? is like kind of wishy-washing kind of thinking. The majority from all societies are still holding 'traditional family concept and traditional family value", will lesbians or gays "family" be legitimized? What is social impact? Are we ready to accept such norms as "historical modernization process?"