Quote:
Originally Posted by mookiemookie
You harp on the definition of "family" but will only recognize the definition that has come about fairly recently in human history. What about polygamy? That was common in biblical times. Does a man and his concubines make up a family? People sure thought so then. The Romans considered slaves as part of the family. Were they?
You ignore the fact that the idea of what constitutes a "family" has changed over the millennia.
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Good points in that post. Made me think how the whole word "family" itself is a very culture and language specific thing. When I talk about "family" in Finnish, I have two different words. One to describe my immediate family (the people I'm living with: spouse, parents or in my case the dog) and one for describing the whole thing including cousins, grandparents etc., but in English I would (as far as I know) use the word "family" to describe both of those.