Extended family - extended family

A term coined by American anthropologist Murdoch, along with nuclear family and polygamous family. A nuclear family consisting of a married couple and their unmarried children has the potential to expand kinship ties along parent-child and sibling ties. An extended family is formed by binding such extended kinship ties with various family boundaries. The Japanese three-generation direct lineage family, in which elderly parents live with one married couple, and the joint family seen among Hindus in China and India, in which elderly parents live with multiple married couples for a certain period of time, are also examples of this type. Both types are characterized by the fact that multiple nuclear families are joined together to form a unified family through cohabitation. Compared to nuclear families, extended families tend to have a larger number of members, and the relationships between members are also qualitatively more complex. The so-called nuclear family phenomenon refers to the breakup of extended families. In contrast to the extended family, which is based on cohabitation, in today's world where nuclear families are more prevalent, families often maintain frequent close ties even if they live separately (under the "ie" system, the norm is that the eldest son's couple and his wife live together with the elderly parents, but they do not do so for some reason) or in different residences (under the era of nuclear families, the eldest son's couple and all other adult children's couples do not live with the elderly parents), and this type of family form is now known as the "modified extended family."

[Mitsuyoshi Masuda and Hisaya Nonoyama]

"Social Structure" by G.P. Murdoch, translated by Kanji Naito (1978, Shinsensha)" ▽ "From the Nuclear Family to the Single Family" by Masato Takumi (1997, Maruzen)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

核家族や複婚家族と並ぶ、アメリカの人類学者マードックの用語。夫婦と未婚の子よりなる核家族は、親子のつながり、および兄弟のつながりに沿って近親関係を拡大する可能性をもっている。このような拡大近親関係をさまざまな形の家族境界でくぎって成立するのが拡大家族である。老親が一組の子夫婦と同居する日本の3世代直系家族、老親が複数の子夫婦と一定の期間にわたって同居する中国やインドのヒンドゥー教徒にみられる合同家族joint familyもその類型の一部である。いずれも複数の核家族が接合して、同居を通して一体としての家族を形成している点に特色がある。核家族に比べて拡大家族は成員数が多くなりやすく、また成員間の関係という点で、質の面でも複雑化する。いわゆる核家族化現象とは、拡大家族の分裂をいう。同居を前提にする拡大家族に対して、核家族化の進んだ今日、別居（「家」制度のもとでは長男夫婦と老親夫婦とは同居が規範であるが、理由あって同居しない場合など）や異居（核家族時代のもとで長男夫婦はじめ、すべての成人した子夫婦たちが老親夫婦と同居しない場合）を前提にしていても頻繁な近親関係を維持していることが多く、そうした家族形態は新しく「修正拡大家族」とよばれている。

［増田光吉・野々山久也］

『G・P・マードック著、内藤莞爾監訳『社会構造』（1978・新泉社）』▽『匠雅音著『核家族から単家族へ』（1997・丸善）』

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