Chapter 13: Families & Religion

I chose this chapter because the family is a very important social institution that a majority of people in our society belong to. "The family is a social institution that emerges, changes, and persists over time." Our family dynamics play a key role in how we are socialized in society. We learn gender roles, behaviors, morals, and religious practices from the members in our family. Our personalities, likes and dislikes, attitudes, and world views often reflect those of our parents, siblings, and other people who are in the family circle. The family dynamics we see also reflect the religious views and practices. Yes, families all over the world despite their culture share some qualities, but the religion of a particular family is often the number one influence in the family's functionality.

Quote:
"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of spiritless conditions. It is the opiate of the masses." Karl Marx 


Internet Sites


-Karl Marx's Conventional Sociology of Religion. Explicates Marx's views on religion in order to facilitate the use of a Marxist perspective in the discipline.
http://www.angelfire.com/or/sociologyshop/msor.html

-Describes the family as the most important social institution. Author, Robert Young, also evaluates the family as a social group and system.
http://ryoung001.homestead.com/Family.html

Video

Scholarly Journal 

-A survey of Emile Durkheim's functionalist theory and the family. 

http://www.jstor.org/pss/349776