24 Family as Culture
Janelle Cruz


The term “culture” can be used in different sociological theoretical perspectives. In sociology, we can see family through a structural-functionalist lens, through a symbolic interactionist lens, or through an intersectional lens. The structural-functionalist approach describes macro-social interactions which can affect groups found on a large-scale, such as whole communities, provinces or states, and countries. Here, culture can refer to the idea of, for instance, what makes a nation, or what makes someone a member of a community. On the other hand, the symbolic interactionist approach describes micro-social interactions which tends to be more individualistic and face-to-face interactions with friends, peers, employers, etc. In this case, culture could be the family life-ways that are shared, like food served on special occasions and family recipes. The intersectional approach for families in sociology considers how oppression and privilege intersect in building personal identities and familial relationships. Culture in this sense could refer to preserving traditions that are systematically eradicated by dominant social ideologies, such as threatened languages. For example, Assiniboine is a critically endangered Siouan language of the Northern Plains of the USA and Canada;[1] preserving this language could concomitantly help preserve a way of life.
: shared ways of life associated with beliefs, values, rituals, good, art, and the like; the shared ideas of “a good life”
- See https://ftbelknaplanguagepreservation.com/FBLPPAssiniboine.html ↵
shared ways of life associated with beliefs, values, rituals, good, art, and the like; the shared ideas of "a good life"