These are my 2nd great (paternal) grandparents, Jacob Craig Rippy and his wife Charlsy Ann Wright-Rippy (both born in the mid 1800s), and their full brood of 9 children. There were a lot of reasons that families were larger then, owing mostly to lack of birth control -- but also, children served many purposes with each family member contributing something significant to the family economy. Even the youngest child could fetch eggs from the henhouse. What are some of the functions of the family as an institution, and why (besides the introduction of birth control) has family size decreased so dramatically? Have the roles and functions of children changed and why? How did those events contribute to the dramatic shift?
Watch several minutes of the first video to get a sense of how family life has changed from just 50-60 years ago. Watch the 2nd video to learn about shifts in marriage patterns. Watch the 3rd video to learn about some of the signs of child abuse.
YouTube: A Date With Your Family (1950)
Note the strict division of labor and how academics is not to be a
priority for the daughter, though she has to be hers later after she's
exhausted from dinner and domestic chores. The rules for children are
quite distinct too.
YouTube: Marriage as a Status Symbol (Andrew Cherlin)
7 Year Limit on Marriage?
YouTube: Child Abuse (signs of)
U.S. Divorce Rates & Stats (what's a divorce "rate?")
Are Boomers Divorce Prone? (CNN)
World First: Scientists Modify the Genomes of Human Embryos
Do abused have a higher risk of abusing their own?
There's also an exercise I want you to perform
before the last lecture class of the semester and then bring it to that last lecture class.
Make 3 columns side by side:
1) List the top 10 characteristics you can't live without in a mate, partner, spouse, significant other. Consider drug use or addiction, arrest record, age, race, divorce, their sex and level of androgyny, illness or disability, if they have children, where they live, being honest or humorous, etc. Narrowing the list to your top 10 won't be easy. Whole sentences are not needed; just list.
2) List the top 10 characteristics that you have to offer a mate, partner, spouse, significant other. Toot your own horn! Call a friend to ask them about your best qualities.
3) Given your years of experience in dating, list the top 10 characteristics you know that a mate, partner, spouse, significant other would want from you. If you're not sure, think back to the relationships you've had and the characteristics your previous partners complained about (not enough or too much of something), plus the basic characteristics of limits on drug use, age, sex, race, education, social class, etc. (I wouldn't recommend calling an ex to remind you!)
This exercise is called Commodity Dating and I will check to see that you've done it and
deduct 3 points from your last exam score for not doing it. It's also called the "Be Careful What You Ask For" exercise and has a fun component added in.
If you have questions or need clarification prior to the final exam, let me know.
Christa
SOC 101 neophytes: By now you should be settled in and on track.
Someone mentioned in class one semester that they were afraid they might check back on the Blog and see a picture of my grandpa! Well, here's a challenge. I've been doing family genealogy over the past 17 years and the person you see here is my 3rd great grandfather. His name was Leonard "Yankee" Wilson and he was born 07 Oct 1813 in Schodack, Rensselaer, New York and died 02 Feb 1889 in Orillia, Simcoe, Ontario, Canada. He was a merchant.
Well, you made it through exam 1 and we're marching onward.
Burgeoning Sociologists:
Social Stratification (layering groups or countries by wealth and assets) plays a huge role in personal relationships. We hear of someone looking for a "sugar daddy" or "sugar momma," but can those relationships really work?
Just when you thought you could finally get away from pictures of my ancestors, up pops another one. But this one is also relevant to our discussions for the next 2 classes after exam 2. 
These are my 2nd great (paternal) grandparents, Jacob Craig Rippy and his wife Charlsy Ann Wright-Rippy (both born in the mid 1800s), and their full brood of 9 children. There were a lot of reasons that families were larger then, owing mostly to lack of birth control -- but also, children served many purposes with each family member contributing something significant to the family economy. Even the youngest child could fetch eggs from the henhouse. What are some of the functions of the family as an institution, and why (besides the introduction of birth control) has family size decreased so dramatically? Have the roles and functions of children changed and why? How did those events contribute to the dramatic shift?
