outsiders. Although kin often shared strong emotional
bonds, families did not develop primarily out of people’s
desire for love, intimacy, and personal fulfillment but out
of the desire to survive.
Native Americans are often torn between the social
norms of their traditional culture and those of the domi-
nant society (Garrett, 1999; Yellowbird and Snipp, 1994).
One-third marry outside their ethnicity, and the extended
family model of the tribal society is common only on the
reservations. In the cities, most Native Americans live in
nuclear families (Sandefur and Sakamoto, 1988).
As with other minority groups, social problems such
as poverty put significant strains on both extended and
nuclear families (Harjo, 1999; Strong, 2004).The African American Family
Before slavery was abolished, most slaves in the United States and elsewhere were pro-
hibited from legal marriages. It was common practice to separate husbands and wives,
and children and parents, on arrival and to make sure they were sold to different plan-
tations, which, slave owners reasoned, would keep them more obedient and less likely
to maintain any attachments other than to the plantation. As a result, slaves created
their own permanent marital bonds, developing strong kinship ties similar to those
in the extended family models of West Africa. Mutual aid and emotional support
remained centered in kinship long after slavery (Strong, 2004).
Since the early 1970s, economic changes have resulted in a massive loss of blue-
collar jobs (disproportionately held by minorities), and as a result the nuclear family
model has become even less common. African Americans have lower marriage rates
and higher divorce rates than other ethnic groups (Clarkwest, 2006) and a greater
percentage of single mothers. Over half of African American families consist of only
one parent, usually the mother.
The completely self-sufficient nuclear family model is difficult enough with two
parents, but only one parent, trying to provide full-time emotional and financial sup-
port, is often severely overextended. As a survival mechanism, many African Amer-
ican communities have adopted the convention of “fictive kinship”—that is, stretching
the boundaries of kinship to include nonblood relations, friends, neighbors, and
co-workers, who are obligated to help out in hard times and whom one is obligated
to help out in turn (Stack, 1974).
Fictive kinship can also extend to women who have children with the same man.
Far from considering each other competition or “home wreckers,” they often con-
sider each other kin, with the same bonds of obligation and emotional support due
to sisters or sisters-in-law. When a woman has children with several different men,
each of whom has children with several different women, the bonds of fictive kinship
can extend across a community.The Asian American Family
Asian Americans trace their ancestry to many different cultural groups in more than
twenty languages, so they brought many different family systems to the United States
with them. The more recent the immigration, the more closely their family system
reflects that of their original culture. But even third- and fourth-generation families,390 CHAPTER 12THE FAMILYJNative Americans are often
torn between the social norms
of their traditional culture and
those of the dominant society.
This grandfather shows his
grandson how to mend
fishing nets.