Concept

Social institutions are permanent social entities governed through social norms and values help to control the human actions and interactions along with other social activities.

According to Bogardus, “Social institution is a structure of a society that is organized it meet the needs of people chiefly through well established procedures.”

A social institution may be defined as an organizational system which functions to satisfy basic social needs by providing an ordered framework linking the individual to the larger culture. A social institution is a group of social positions, connected by social relations that perform a social role.

Types of Social Institution

There are two types of social institution. They are:-

  1. Micro Social Institution- Marriage, Family
  2. Macro Social Institution- Economic, Political, Religious, and Educational Institutions 

Micro Social Institution

Marriage

Marriage is a legal relationship, usually involving economic cooperation, sexual activity, and childbearing. Marriage is one of the universal social institutions. It is established by the human society to control and regulate the sex life of man. It is closely connected with the institution of family. In fact, family and marriage are complementary to each other. As Gillin and Gillin have said, “Marriage is a socially approved way of establishing a family of procreation”.

Marriage is an institution of society which can have very different implications in different cultures. Its purpose, functions, and forms may differ from society to society, but it is present everywhere as an institution.

Malinowski says that marriage is a “contract for the production and maintenance of children”.

Characteristics of marriage

  • Relationship between Man and Women.
  • Marriage bond is enduring.
  • Marriage requires social approval.
  • Marriage is associated with some civil or religious ceremony.
  • Marriage creates mutual obligations.

Functions and Importance’s of Marriage

  • Regulation of sex life.
  • Marriage leads to the establishment of the family.
  • Provides for economic cooperation.
  • Marriage contributes to emotional and intellectual inter-stimulation of the parents.
  • Marriage aims at social solidarity.

Forms/ Types of Marriage

  1. Endogamy( Marriage between people of the same social category)
  2. Exogamy ( Marriage between people of different social category)
  3. Monogamy ( Marriage that unites two partners)
  4. Polygamy ( Marriage that units a person with two or more spouses)
  5. Polygyny (Marriage that unites one man and two or more women)
  6. Polyandry ( Marriage that unites one women and two or more men)
  7. Group Marriage ( Marriage of two or more women with two or more men)

*Common Forms of Marriage in Nepal

  • Endogamy
  • Monogamy
  • Arrange Marriage
  • Love marriage
  • Exogamy/Inter-caste marriage
  • Paper marriage/ Court marriage
  • Cross-cousin marriage
  • Homosexual marriage
  • Unmarried
  • Marriage
  • Separation
  • Divorced
  • remarriage

Family

The family is a social institution found in all societies that unites people in cooperative groups to care for one another, including any children. The family varies across cultures and over time. IN preindustrial societies recognize the extended family, and industrialization gives rise to the nuclear family. The family is the most important primary group in society. It is the simplest and the most elementary form of society. The word ‘Family’ has been taken over from Latin word ‘Famulus’ which means a servant.

According to MacIver, Family is “a group defined by sex relationship sufficiently precise and enduring to provide for the procreation and upbringing of children”.

Characteristics of Family

  • Emotional basis.
  • Limited size.
  • Formative influence.
  • Nuclear position in the social structure.
  • Responsibility of the members.
  • Social regulation.
  • The permanent and temporary nature of the family.
  • A common Residence.
  • An economic provision.

Functions of the family

The family as a social institution performs several functions .Kingsley Davis speaks of four main functions of the family: a. Reproduction, b. Maintenance c. Placement, and d. Socialization.

The primary functions

  • Stable satisfaction of sex need.
  • Reproduction or procreation.
  • Production and rearing of the child.
  • Provision of home.
  • Family-An instrument of culture.
  • Status ascribing function.
  • Affection functional

Secondary Functions:

  • Economic function.
  • Educational function.
  • Religious function.
  • The recreational function.

Types or Forms of the family

  1. Extended family (A family composed of parents and children as well as other kin)
  2. Nuclear family ( A family composed of one or two parents and their children)
  3. Patrilocality family ( A residential pattern in which a married couple lives with or near the husband’s family)
  4. Matrilocality family ( A residential pattern in which a married couple lives with or near the wife’s family)
  5. Neo-locality family ( A residential pattern in which a married couple lives apart from both sets of parents)

Causes for the changes in the joint family system

  • Influence of Education.
  • Impact of industrialization.
  • Influence of urbanization.
  • Change in marriage system.
  • Legislative measures.
  • Influence of western values.