Marriage rules in Minoan Crete revealed by ancient DNA analysis

An international team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, reports completely new insights into Bronze Age marriage rules and family structures in Greece. Analyses ...

Ancient DNA reveals the world's oldest family tree

Analysis of ancient DNA from one of the best-preserved Neolithic tombs in Britain has revealed that most of the people buried there were from five continuous generations of a single extended family.

page 1 from 40

Family

In human context, a family (from Latin: familia) is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children. Extended from the human "family unit" by biological-cultural affinity, marriage, economy, culture, tradition, honour, and friendship are concepts of family that are physical and metaphorical, or that grow increasingly inclusive extending to community, village, city, region, nationhood, global village and humanism. A family group consisting of a father, mother and their children is called a nuclear family. This term can be contrasted with an extended family.

There are also concepts of family that break with tradition within particular societies, or those that are transplanted via migration to flourish or else cease within their new societies. As a unit of socialization and a basic institution key to the structure of society[clarification needed], the family is the object of analysis for sociologists of the family. Genealogy is a field which aims to trace family lineages through history. In science, the term "family" has come to be used as a means to classify groups of objects as being closely and exclusively related. In the study of animals it has been found that many species form groups that have similarities to human "family"—often called "packs." Sexual relations aong family members are regulated by rules concerning incest such as the incest taboo.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA