The mention of Solomon helps to remind us that “biblical” families were not nuclear and were not centered on husbands and wives but on fathers and lineages. Families changed dramatically after industrialization and urbanization to become centered on “couples” (now seen as a wage earner/“breadwinner” and the caregiver/ “haven in a heartless world” of capitalism). This was also a time of struggle to depose monarchs and other lineage-centered patriarchs in favor of collective male authority in nation-state elected legislatures and executives and judges/juries (“his peers”) since all the new democratic institutions were defined by and for white men of property (and not for either “colonial possessions” or women). More struggle, more family change as women and colonial subjects became full political citizens by 1960s and 1970s. The links between families and nations as “bodies” of politics was now really different. And it is AGAIN changing as the old welfare state assumptions about breadwinning men and their “family supporting wages” have fallen and “national” and racialized ethnic boundaries are no longer so firm. Yes, family and nation are related but a more inclusive and diverse family system will also be the grounding of a more inclusive and diverse nation (and vice versa). Maintaining the current system of masculinized power means defending both breadwinner families and militarized/masculinized nationalism. We can imagine better and see it actually emerging in partnership marriages (gay and straight, monogamous and plural, transracial and transnational, etc) and the rising consciousness of how competitive nationalism is just as dangerous to the planet as competitive consumption.
You are making a great point, the issue of the family as the “backbone” of society is complicated and evolving. It the patriarch’s point of view and the control that many use as guide. I’m happily married (more than 53 years) as you know, but I was raised by a single mother.
Well, you may be spot on, but many families are broken today. Any nation is better off with healthy families (intact, loving, dare I say egalitarian) than the shattered families we see so often now.
The mention of Solomon helps to remind us that “biblical” families were not nuclear and were not centered on husbands and wives but on fathers and lineages. Families changed dramatically after industrialization and urbanization to become centered on “couples” (now seen as a wage earner/“breadwinner” and the caregiver/ “haven in a heartless world” of capitalism). This was also a time of struggle to depose monarchs and other lineage-centered patriarchs in favor of collective male authority in nation-state elected legislatures and executives and judges/juries (“his peers”) since all the new democratic institutions were defined by and for white men of property (and not for either “colonial possessions” or women). More struggle, more family change as women and colonial subjects became full political citizens by 1960s and 1970s. The links between families and nations as “bodies” of politics was now really different. And it is AGAIN changing as the old welfare state assumptions about breadwinning men and their “family supporting wages” have fallen and “national” and racialized ethnic boundaries are no longer so firm. Yes, family and nation are related but a more inclusive and diverse family system will also be the grounding of a more inclusive and diverse nation (and vice versa). Maintaining the current system of masculinized power means defending both breadwinner families and militarized/masculinized nationalism. We can imagine better and see it actually emerging in partnership marriages (gay and straight, monogamous and plural, transracial and transnational, etc) and the rising consciousness of how competitive nationalism is just as dangerous to the planet as competitive consumption.
Thanks for filling in the family sociology I was just nodding at!
You are making a great point, the issue of the family as the “backbone” of society is complicated and evolving. It the patriarch’s point of view and the control that many use as guide. I’m happily married (more than 53 years) as you know, but I was raised by a single mother.
Well, you may be spot on, but many families are broken today. Any nation is better off with healthy families (intact, loving, dare I say egalitarian) than the shattered families we see so often now.