美国家庭-American Family

中国地质大学江城学院课程论文

题目:America, Its Culture

___Focus on American Family

聚焦美国文化

___浅析美国家庭

学生沈锦霞

学号4140100430

课程主要英语国家概况A2

教授郭萍

二○一二年五月三十日

声明

本人呈交的课程论文，是在导师的指导下，独立进行研究工作所取得的成果，所有数据、表格、图表真实可靠，尽我所知。除文中已经注明引用的内容外，本学位论文的研究成果不包含他人享有著作权的内容。对本论文所涉及的研究工作做出贡献的其他个人和集体，均已在文中以明确的方式标明。本学位论文的知识产权归属于培养单位。

本人签名: 日期： ______

摘要

想要了解一个国家的文化，应首先从它社会的基本组成单位家庭入手。随着社会科学、经济的发展，世界各国全方位交流的不断加快、加深，人们对于它国文化的了解很大一部分来源于对它国民众家庭的了解。家庭对于每个人来说都不陌生，它是人类社会的基本组成部分，每个人都生活在某个家庭之中。基于家庭为基础的家庭文化逐渐为人们所普遍关注。因为它可以说是了解它国文化的一个重要窗口，因此围绕家庭所产生的家庭文化成为一个世界性的议论热点。这篇文章从传统的美国家庭结构入手，由浅到深，到1950年起美国家庭结构发生巨变的原因，再着重分析隐藏在美国家庭工作中的价值观，并对价值观的形成无发展做了初步的解析。中间部分着着重讲了美国人对结婚与离婚的不同态度、孩子在美国家庭中扮演的角色和作用，美国人如何养育孩子，及家庭内部的平等的发展----孩子对父亲的由感情拘谨和恐惧发展到平等。这凸显了美国人强调个性自由、人人生而平等这一精神主旨。文章接着讲了婚姻关系发展的四个阶段，简要的阐述了上述精神主旨的发展过程。最后总括全对文家庭在社会中的作用和家庭价值观做了高度概括。

关键词：文化价值观社会婚姻

ABSTRACT

I f you want to learn about a country’ culture, you should first learn its basic components of society --- family.Full exchange of social sciences, economic development, the countries of the world continues to accelerate and deepen the understanding of its country's culture. Large part is from the understanding of the families of the people of its country. The family is not strange for everyone, it is an essential part of human society, every one is living among a family. Based on home-based family culture is slow.

The general concern. Because it can be said to be an important window of the culture of other nations, so the family around the family culture has become a worldwide discussion hot. This article is written from the traditional American family structure, from shallow to deep,to the reason of the change of family structure since 1950s, then it emphatically analyzes the values at work in the family, and show the development of the vslues. The middle part is mainly about Americans’ different attitude towards marriage and divorce, the role of the child, the way Americans raise their children, and the development of equality in the family----the childrens’ relationship with their father are from formal and fear to equality. And from all the above we can see the spirits of the emphasis on individual freedom and “ Every one is created equally”. Then the article is about four stages of marriage relationships, this paper briefly introduced the development process of the spirits above. The last paper is about the full text, it highly introduced the role of the family in society and the family values.

Key Words: culture value society marriage

CONTENTS

1. Introduction (1)

2. Family structure (1)

3. Individual Freedom and Equality in the family (2)

4. Marriage and divorce (3)

5. The role of child (4)

6. The Role of the Family in society (5)

7. The impact of educational thought in American families and culture of

American society (5)

8. Conclusion (6)

Acknowledgements (7)

Works cited (8)

America, its culture

___focus on the American family

1. Introduction

When we talk about Americans, the first word come into our mind is family. Americans take family as their most important part in their lives. So what is the typical American family? What is the family relationship, and how have the traditional American values affected it?It’s generally believed that before the 1960s, American families have experienced the evolution from the family to the nuclear family. Into the 1960s, that is, post-industrial society, with the rapid development of industrialization, urbanization, the values of Americans favor individualism and hedonism, coupled with the rise of anti-tradition and the feminist movement, the American nuclear family is under great impact. Divorce, cohabitation and homosexuality dramatic increase makes in the number of significant decline in marriage rates. The resulting single-parent families, following-parent families, dual-career families, single-parent families, DINK families, gay families, the American family patterns are showing a diversification trend.

The divorce rate is gradually increased, the transformation of gender roles in the family, the growing requirements of the material economic and social recognition are impacted American marriage patterns generated tremendous changes in the main factors. We Can not deny that the modern American family patterns do make up for the deficiencies of the old family patterns. But for many women and children, divorce and remarriage is not really no harm. On the economic front, the mother as the guardian of the single-parent families met with great difficulty.

2. Family structure

Typical American family

If Americans should name their family:

Married Americans would say the name of their wife or husband and children. Their brothers and sisters are just single units.

Aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents are extended family.

Traditional family

The American families were nuclear families which consumed of wife, husband and children and lived in a house or an apartment.

Grandparents were rarely found living with their married sons or daughters. And

uncles and aunts almost never do.

1950s

The classic American family where the father was the “breadwinner” and the family mother was the “homemaker” and the family had two children.

Reality today

Only today a small percentage of American families are living like “stay-at-home” mother, a working father and children under 18 years.

25% Americans is living alone

Structurally, Asian-American families historically included split-household families, transnational families, extended families, nuclear families, and multiple nuclear family households. Evelyn Nakano Glen (1983) described Chinese split-household families as part production or income earning by men sojourning abroad, and part reproduction or maintaining the family household, including childrearing and caring for the elderly by wives and relatives in China. Split-household families were common for Chinese between 1850 and the 1920s. In the 1930s Filipino families also had split-household families since men far exceeded women on the mainland. Gender roles became reversed when Filipina women migrated to become domestic workers and nurses in the health care system, becoming family breadwinners with children and spouses in the homeland. Transnational (split-household) families grew out of economic necessity, and transcended borders and spatial boundaries to take advantage of the lower cost of living for families in a developing country (Zhou and Gatewood 2000). Filipina women preferred having kin, rather than strangers, provide childcare, especially during infancy, even if that meant living away from their children. But this arrangement was considered a broken home because the ideal family was the nuclear family, and there was an emotional cost of not being able to supervise one's own children. These kinship patterns reinforced the cultural value of familism, or mutual cooperation, collectivism, and mutual obligation among kin

In the 1950s, man who had fought in Word War II had returned home, married, and began starting their families. There was a substantial increase in the birthrate, producing the “bab y boomers.”A second demographic factor is that today young people are marrying and having children later in life. Some couple now choose not to have children at all. A third factor is that people are living longer after their children are grown, and they often end up alone. And, of course, there is further factor---the high rate of divorce

3. Individual Freedom and Equality in the family

The belief in equality has had a strong effect on the family. As Alexis de Tocqueville said in 1830s, in aristocratic societies inequality extends into the family, particularly to the father’ relationship to his children. The father is accepted as ruler and master. The children’s relations with him are very formal, and love for him is

always combined with fear. But in America, there is less formal respect for, and fear of the father. But there is more affection expressed toward him. In fact, some Americans are worried that there is too much democracy in the home. Some parents seem to have little or on control over the behavior of their teenage children, particularly after they turn 16 and get their drivers’ licenses. On the other hand, they give their children a lot of freedom because they want to teach their children independence and self-reliant. Children are given a lot of freedom and equality in the family so that they can grow up independently. Traditionally American children have been expected “leave the nest” at about age eighteen, after they graduate from high school. By their mid-twenties, if children still living with their parents, some people will suspect that something is wrong. Today however, a number of young people are unable to find jobs that support the lifestyle they have grown up with, and they choose to move back in with their parents for a time. These young people are sometimes called “boomerang kids”.

Americans view the family as a group whose primary purpose is to advance the happiness of individual members. The result is that the needs of each individual take priority in the life of the family. This means that in contrast to many other cultures, the primary responsibility of the American family member is not to advance the family as a group, either socially or economically. Neither is to bring honor to the family name.

The American desire for freedom outside control clearly extends to the family. Americans do not like to have controls placed on them by other family members. They want to make independent decisions and not want to be told what to do by grandparents or uncles or aunts. What would be best for the family is not usually considered to be as important as what would be best for the individual. What would be best for the family is not usually considered to be as important as what would be best for the individual.

4. Marriage and divorce

Marriages are not arranged in the America. Young people are expected to find their husband or wife by their own; their parents do not usually help them. In other words, they will never tell those parents their marriage plan until they decided to marry. Parents have little control over their children marry. Americans believe that young people should fall in love and decide to marry some one they can live with happily with. Of course, in reality this does not always happen, but it remains the traditional ideal and it shapes the views courtship and marriage among young Americans.

In Americans value, marriage is determined largely by how happy the husband and wife make each other. So if the couple is not happy, they may choose to get a divorce.

A divorce is relatively easy to obtain in most parts of the United States. Most states have “no-fault” divorce. To obtain a no-fault divorce, a couple states that they can no longer live happily together, that they have irreconcilable differences, and that it is neither partner’s fault. The divorce rate rose rapidly in America after the 1950s, but it has decreased by the 1990s. Today, one out of every two marriages now ends in

divorce, children are often involved. The majority of American adult believe that unhappy couples should not stay married just because they have children at home. It is significant change in attitude since the 1950s.

5. The role of child

Americans affect their children in a contradictory way. That is mostly because they are emphasis on the individual, rather than the group. It may cause them to get more attention and even have more power than they should. What’s more, because most children have mothers who are working outside the home, they may not get enough attention from their parents. In general, American families tend to place more emphasis on the needs and desires of the children and less on their social and family responsibilities. Most American parents choose to learn how to plant children from books that made many books on how to raise children became the best sellers. Although Americans may not agree on how to raise children, they still hold the basic belief that the major purpose of the family is the development and welfare of each of its members as individuals.American children from an early age living in the environment of the "love" they are the love of many parents and families. Every parent is trying to create the best growth and educational environment for their children. Children in the very young, was sent to preschool and kindergarten, where there is specialized in research work in early childhood education teachers for the children arrange courses and activities. In choosing a primary school, the conditions of the parents should send their children to the relatively high fees of private schools, these schools have better teachers and equipment, and the class is relatively small. In family life, parents love their children and it is also reflected in the respect for the wishes of children, understanding and support of children's ideas. Parents usually try to meet the reasonable requirements of the child when the child's request can not be met, or the children have parents of different ideas, parents can patiently explained to speak the truth to persuade, never forced, but few have beaten children phenomenon. Americans in the speech of their children are to use polite language. Their children to help work with to discuss the tone, such as: "......" or "you can help me?" When the children finish afterwards, the parents never forget to say "thank you!" the child does something wrong and the parents of his critics, parents of the children said: "Thank you!" The children grew up in this democratic atmosphere, feel the respect of others, also felt a personal value, which formed they ask others to respect, but also respect other people's concepts.

6. The Role of the Family in society

According to Letha and John Canzone, two American sociologists, the institution of marriage in the America has experience four stages of development:

Stage 1: Wife as servant to husband. It happened during the 19th century. American wives were expected to be completely obedient to their husbands.

Stage 2: Husband-hand, wife-helper. It was during the late 19th and early 20th century. The wife’s power increased, but the husband remained the head of family. Stage 3:Husband-senior partner, wife-junior partner. It was during 1960s. More and more wives had jobs outside the house, but they had lower priority than their husbands.

Stage 4:Husband-wife equal partner. Husband and wife share their family duties equally; power over family decisions is also shared equally

We have seen that only one in four households consists of a traditional family—a father, mother and their children. Many of these are actually stepfamilies or blended families. Since most divorced people remarry, many children are living with a stepfather or stepmother. In a blended family, the parents many each have children from a previous marriage, and then have one or more children together. Blinding families is not easy, and, sadly, many second marriages fail.

In addition to traditional families and blended families, there are a number of single parents, both mothers and fathers, raising their children alone. Many of the single mothers are divorced, but some have never married. In deed by the mid-1990s, one-third of all new babies were born to single mothers, and this trend continues.

In recent years, lesbian couples have created family units, sometimes adopting children. Some states are considering same-sex marriages, and others may recognize them as civil unions. This is a very controversial issue. There is no doubt, that the definition of family has become much broader in the 2000s. The majority of Americans would now define a family as “people who live together and love each other.”

7. The impact of educational thought in American families and culture of American society

After 200 years of development, the United States eventually become the world's only superpower, the strength of its various aspects of living in the world. A centuries-old country only a short reason why we can obtain such a brilliant achievement, there are many reasons, but I think the unique family culture in the United States, especially in the field of education plays a particularly important role, their family culture democracy, freedom and equality thinking, independent and opening up the spirit of adventure, to a large extent, to stimulate the economic development of science and technology in the United States, its performance in three areas.

First, relying on this family culture, the United States each year attracts thousands of immigrants from all over the arrival of a large part is to learn a director or a certain skill that immigrants, they become an important part of the U.S. technology professionals. Such as Silicon Valley in the United States, 3/4 of its engineering and technical personnel come from China and India. Such immigrants can be said to promote the development of U.S. technology can not be ignored. Secondly, the adventure and the spirit of exploration in the American family culture encourage social progress. Not opposed to American society and culture of personal adventure, and even appreciation of personal risk-taking behavior, never ridiculed for losers ridicule. Because of this attitude in the scientific, economic and other fields of the United States, there is often a lot of unexpected invention to create. From the Nobel Prize winners in recent decades, nearly half of the winner from the U.S., this phenomenon is fully illustrates this point.

Third, American family is focus on the individual development, democracy and social development. Performance in a single family as parents, children can freely express their views, opinions, everyone can express their views on a problem from their own point of view is manifested in social life, so that the same problem can good to know and analyze, from which to select the most appropriate and reasonable solution to the problem, to avoid the detours taken the wrong road. This is why the United States there are a large number of advisory bodies of the important reasons.

As to the family values in America, Daniel Yankelovich has already reported it by 11 points, which is agreed by majority of Americans. He classifies 6 of them as clearly traditional. They are respecting one’s parents, being responsible for one’s actions, having faith in God, respecting authority, married to the same person for life, leaving the world in better shape. The other 5 are giving emotional support to other members of the family, respecting people for themselves, developing greater skill in communicating one’s feeling, respecting one’s children, living up to one’s potential as an individual

.

8. Conclusion

Aspects of American family culture can be said that the basic connotation of American families and culture, develop profiles and educational influence have a preliminary understanding, especially in contrast to the family culture in Sino-US educational differences, and further deepen our impression of the American family and culture. Family culture as a new type of culture, to some extent,it becomes us to understand American society and culture, a window, but also comprehensive and profound knowledge and understanding of the influence of educational thought in American culture has a positive effect.

Acknowledgements

It takes a long time to select subject and finalize a manuscript. During this spell, I have learned a lot and I would like to thank my teacher and those who give me a hand on this paper, especially my teacher Guo Ping. This paper is dedicated to my teacher’s guidance; she gives much information about the culture of American family and main direction for my paper, without which I would have never finished this article by myself.

Trough the study of the American family, I have learned how to do the research work, how to use valuable resources and how to be a distinguished person.

To all of these I owe a profound debt of gratitude, and to my classmates who offered me much help in the proofreading of this paper

Works cited

Maryanne Kearny Dates man, The American Ways, Beijing, World Publishing Company, 2002.

Shiva Zhu, Modern American Culture, Beijing, Social Sciences Academic Press, 2001.

Xiangtan Kong, the Western Culture, Xi’an, Northwestern Polytechnic University Press, 2007.

Inland Xia, Modern American Family Law, Beijing, China Politics and Law University Press, 1999.

乔安.克兰德尔2008 《美国文化背景第3版》世界图书出版公司