DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - Joint family concept .....where is it now ??

**Peptobismol** · 09-18-2006, 08:00 AM

One of the causes for the breaking up of the joint family into smaller nuclear units is, the decline in family values. Previously the patricarch of the family was held in great respect and he took most of the important decisions for all the members in the family. But due to the influence of western culture, the younger generation started deviating from these values. Women became more empowered and started asserting themselves within the family.

I think this is not the case in 100% of the households. Our lives today revolve around work. Most of us are not doing what our parents did. So making decisions in our work, falls down to us. Even having family functions are governed by availability of the relatives involved. For example, having the traditional ear pricking ceremony for a child. In olden days i am sure the whole thing was decided by the patriarch of the family and an invitation was sent out to dear and near. But in today's life it depends on when the child's mama will get holidays to come down from US. So the involvement of the patriarch is very limited.
I think we had very strong women from time immemorial. Well may be education and career opportunities were limited, but within the household they were strong and very assertive.
Attributing women empowerment to the demise of the joint family system is unacceptable IMO.

As i said earlier there are many families which still maintain the joint family system. But most of them are families were all have the same trade and are jointly involved in building/maintaining the trade. In such cases the patriarch of the family has a lot of say and is looked up to in decision making process.

09-18-2006, 08:00 AM	#40
Peptobismol Join Date Oct 2005 Age 58 Posts 4,386 Senior Member	One of the causes for the breaking up of the joint family into smaller nuclear units is, the decline in family values. Previously the patricarch of the family was held in great respect and he took most of the important decisions for all the members in the family. But due to the influence of western culture, the younger generation started deviating from these values. Women became more empowered and started asserting themselves within the family. I think this is not the case in 100% of the households. Our lives today revolve around work. Most of us are not doing what our parents did. So making decisions in our work, falls down to us. Even having family functions are governed by availability of the relatives involved. For example, having the traditional ear pricking ceremony for a child. In olden days i am sure the whole thing was decided by the patriarch of the family and an invitation was sent out to dear and near. But in today's life it depends on when the child's mama will get holidays to come down from US. So the involvement of the patriarch is very limited. I think we had very strong women from time immemorial. Well may be education and career opportunities were limited, but within the household they were strong and very assertive. Attributing women empowerment to the demise of the joint family system is unacceptable IMO. As i said earlier there are many families which still maintain the joint family system. But most of them are families were all have the same trade and are jointly involved in building/maintaining the trade. In such cases the patriarch of the family has a lot of say and is looked up to in decision making process.
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