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TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > Sociology > Marxist, Functionalist and Anti-Family Theorists on the Family in Sociology

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Theorist	Name	Perspective	Criticism	Those who don't
Functionalism	Talcott Parsons	Uses the term 'family'.	Image of family most functional for American white middle class favouring the male.	Feminist
Marxist	Charles Murray Norman Dennis Halsey	See a two-parent family more productive than a single-parent family.	Fact that a family is raised single-handedly, does not rule out the possibility that problems can also occur through poverty and unemployment also.
Anti-family	Barrett McIntosh	Large numbers of people who neither wish to live in a family nor as monogamous or heterosexual couples are marginalized by the 'family'. Also females are seen as inferior when they live together with males.
	Peter Murdoch	'The family is a social group characterized by common residence, economic co-operation and reproduction. It includes both adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship, and one or more children, own or adopted, of the sexual cohabiting adults.'	Using the example of the Nayer people, Kathleen Gough was able to criticise Murdoch's view of 'family'. She noted that all Nayer girls before puberty were married to a suitable Nayer man. However, he did not live with his wife after the marriage and had no responsibilities or obligations in relation to her. Also the matrifocal family contradicts Murdoch’s view on family. A large number of West Indian families, and Black American families are headed single-handedly by women on their own, which disproves Murdoch's view that nuclear families are universal.

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