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Social Institutions Social institutions are established or standardized patterns of rule-governed behavior. They include the family, education, religion, and economic and political institutions.

1. The Family:

A socially defined set of relationships between at least two people related by birth, marriage, adoption, or, in some definitions, long-standing ties of intimacy. An extended family is a social organization with several generations or several nuclear family groups.

G.P Murdock a well know anthropologist has conducted 250 researches on families .he says family is different in structure but similar its functions in various society.a.    Some of the anthropologist and sociologist have defined family as under.
b.   Family may be defined as women with a child and a man to look after them.
c.    Family is a system of relationship between parents and children.

There is no better way to start than to talk about the role of family in our social development, as family is usually considered to be the most important agent of socialization. As infants, we are completely dependent on others to survive. Our parents, or those who play the parent role, are responsible for teaching us to function and care for ourselves. They, along with the rest of our family, also teach us about close relationships, group life, and how to share resources. Additionally, they provide us with our first system of values, norms, and beliefs - a system that is usually a reflection of their own social status, religion, ethnic group,

v In traditional as well as modern society this functions are of family institution.

Ø As family is a primary social institution of a society
Ø The function of family institution is to give formal and informal education to children.
Ø Children have to go to school for formal education but informal education is given by family institute.
Ø The family gives information about culture and helps to balanced personality development.
Ø Family carries out social regulations by developing personality.
Ø That family is a major social institution of society.

Economic Institution As the set of arrangements by which a society produces, distributes, and consume A company or an organization that deals with money or with managing the distribution of money, goods and services in an economy. Banks, government organizations and investment funds are all economic constitutions. Sociologists understand the economy s goods, services, and other resources.

Economy

he term economic institution has a broad meaning in the world of economics. Economists tend to use the term variably depending on the context. Some economics have been known to use this term interchangeably with another term financial institutions.

Although the two terms are closely related, they hardly refer to the same thing, at least not strictly speaking. While a financial institution refers to establishments such as banks which offer ‘financial services’ to their clients, the term ‘economic institution ‘refers to any institution that is a player in an economy. This includes manufacturers, traders, consumers as well as regulators of an economy.

You can think of the economic institution like the tires on the bicycle. Without them, the bike will not move. In society, without an economic system, the transfer of materials would break down. The economy is responsible for managing how a society produces and distributes its goods, services and resources.

There are two dominant economic systems in the world:

Ø Capitalism
Ø Socialism

Both of these have the same purpose but are structured differently. It's like having a pair of racing tires and a pair of all-terrain tires. Both will roll, but do so differently. For example, in China, a socialist society, the government controls the management of its goods and resources, with little say from the citizens. In the United States of America, a capitalist society, businesses and citizens control much of the materials, with some regulation from the government.

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