A quick look of our history of family..

The Roman Family


The Greco-Roman Model displays a completely different system in that everything is contingent upon and subject to the control of the "Father" of the house. In this model, the father is fundamentally the absolute authority, in that family members are solely dependent upon, not to the community, but the father of the home. The Latin term "familia", does not necessarily refer to the nuclear family but to all persons under the legal power of the male head of the family or the "paterfamilias".
This Roman model of family really did not mean family but a better interpretation would be "the household".  The father has the authority to determine whether his child lived or died. He had the legal power to receive or reject his newborn infant. The father could also sell his children into slavery or even banish them. In contrast with family systems today, this would be considered barbaric at best and completely unacceptable. However, it is offered as an illustration of the cultural differences between some historical models of family systems and family systems that exist today.

For more information on Family Systems, please visit the "Resource" page to find articles and web sites related to this subject.

The Judiasm Family System

Historically, we are able to compare Family Systems in post-modern cultures and how they relate to modern culture of today. The Judaism Family System Model displays the role of hierarchical structure differently from that of the Greco-Roman Model, in that the families are interconnected into clans and clans are collectively joined to form a tribe. This model shows a system, though independent to itself,is reliant to other families, jointly interacting to form the tribe. Basically, independent families connected to other families formulate a system of community and stability founded within the whole system.
The Judaism Family System was grounded in kinship. The term "Kinship" is referred to as one blood flowing through the veins of the kinship group. We can find a "Covenant" interaction in this model.