Scupin And Decorse: The Family Of Orientation

Scupin and Decorse (2012:308) state that a family is a universal feature of humans and may have its roots in our primate heritage. According to Scupin and Decorse (2012:307)” a family is a social group of two or more people related by blood, marriage, or adoption who live or reside together for an extended period, sharing economic resources and caring for their young”. Anthropologist say that there is a difference between a family of orientation and the family of procreation. The family of orientation is the family into which people are born and in which they receive basic enculturation. The family of orientation is the family of one’s parents and their relatives. The family of procreation is the within which people reproduce or adopt children

The family is universal and serves human basic needs. The primary function of the family is nurturing and to make sure that the enculturation of children is happening. Families have the responsibility of taking care of their children and in making sure they understand their cultures. The norms, values, knowledge and the worldview of the culture are transmitted to the children through their families. An additional function of the family is the regulation of sexual intercourse. Each and every culture has restrictions on how their children should engage in sexual intercourse. Sexual intercourse is important for reproduction and is therefore important for families (Scupin and Decorse, 2012:245). The family also serves to protect and support their members physically, emotionally and often economically. According to the functional definitions of family, a family is any unit in which there exists: sharing of resources and economic property, a caring and supportive relationship, commitment to or identification with other family members and preparation of children born to or raised by the members to become adult members of the society (Scupin and Decorse,

The first view is the “conjugal view”. According to the conjugal view, marriage is the union of a male and a female who make a permanent and exclusive commitment to each other of the type that is naturally fulfilled by bearing and rearing children together. The spouse seal and renew their coming together by conjugal acts – acts that constitute the behavioural part of the process of reproduction, thus uniting them as a reproductive unit. Marriage is seen as valuable in itself, but its inherent orientation to the bearing and raising of children contributes to the marriage structure, including the norms of monogamy and fidelity. This links to the wellbeing of children and explains why marriage is important to the common good and why it should be recognized by the state. The second view is the “conjugal view”. According to the conjugal view, marriage is the union of two people (whether of the opposite sex or of opposite sex) who commit to romantically loving and caring of domestic life. It is essentially a unison of hearts and minds, enhanced by whatever forms of sexual intimacy both partners find agreeable. The state should recognize and regulate marriage because it has an interest in stable romantic partnerships and in concrete needs of spouses and any children they may choose to raise (Girgis, George and Anderson,