Ie (Japanese Family System)
The ie (家) is a Japanese term which translates directly to household. It can mean either a physical home or refer to a family’s lineage. It is popularly used as the “traditional” family structure. The physical definition of an ie consists of an estate that includes a house, rice paddies and vegetable gardens, and its own section in the local cemetery. The symbolic definition of ie has been referred to as the cultural medium for the physical processes of kinship, such as mating and procreation. The symbolic ie refers not only to blood lines, however, but also to economic and socioreligious functions that take place within the family
Read more about Ie (Japanese Family System): Family Registration and Status, Arranged Marriage, Household Duties
Famous quotes containing the word family:
“The family environment in which your children are growing up is different from that in which you grew up. The decisions our parents made and the strategies they used were developed in a different context from what we face today, even if the “content” of the problem is the same. It is a mistake to think that our own experience as children and adolescents will give us all we need to help our children. The rules of the game have changed.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)