What are the attitudes about family in the culture(s) you are studying? How are families organized? Is the family evolving? How are these attitudes reflected in the language?
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Israel began as a nation of immigrants. In Europe, before the immigrants came to Israel, the Jews had very tight knit communities with arranged marriages, high fertility rates and rigid gender roles. When they came to Israel they decided to leave all of the faults of that society in Europe and create a new environment. They established a western, liberal family model where love drove two people together to have 2 to 4 children and parents had equal roles. Coming from such a hostile environment people put tons of effort, love and hope into their families and especially their children. The Afro-Asian Jews who followed the European Jews reignited the idea of child rearing but not much else changed. Now family structure, divorce rates and fertility rates (for Jewish, non-orthodox families) are about the same as the US. Families have an average of 3 children and men and women have increasingly equal roles. More and more women are becoming equal breadwinners to their husbands and they are making decisions together. These attitudes are reflected in the language because in Hebrew, if something is not gender specific it does not automatically use the masculine form like it does for most other languages. A lot of the time using the feminine version of numbers and other words is the norm.
Families (parivaar) is one of the most important aspects of the lives of Indian people. Family always comes first. Unlike the American culture, Indian culture does not leave room for individualism. Indian families usually all live together in big households where the men work outside and the women take care of the domestic chores and raise children. The children when they grow up they don’t leave the family house in search of their destinies. Thier destinies are joined with their family’s. They get married with the approval of the family once they reach a marriageable age and guys usually bring their brides home to live with his parents, while girls are sent off to live with her husband and in-laws. One acts and behaves in a way that will not taint the family honor and the family name because respect once again is very important. Not just respecting others but earning respect from the family, friends and community. I resonate with this aspect of the culture the most because it resembles my own culture. Family is one of the most important things in my life as well.
Family values in Israel are very similar to family values in the United States. Israel is very westernized in most parts of life, and family (except for in Orthodox families) is no different. Families are structured very similarly to families in the US. They consist of anywhere from 1-3 or 4 kids usually, and most families have a couple children. The standard of living for most Israelis isn't much different than it is for most Americans. It is ranked in the top 20 on the UN's list of standard of living. This means that the country is highly developed, and with it, the family unit is too. I think in Israel, the family is evolving in the same way the family is evolving in the United States, whatever that means to you. I think that means that it is a modern, egalitarian family unit. This is consistent with the language that Israelis use to describe their family. They don't use formal or informal language with any particular generation, and they aren't derogatory towards women automatically. This is very much in line with their attitudes towards their family units.
Family within the Indian culture is extremely important and very highly valued. Indians are extremely involved in their families lives. The Indian family dynamic is difficult to explain - they are so very much intertwined. Indian families are also huge. Very big indeed! Growing up, I couldnt do anything without the extended family finding out about it. Whenever I left town I would have to call all my family in town and say goodbye, and whenever I got back into town, I have to call all my family members in town and say hello. Indians highly value respect as well. One must respect their elders no matter what. If my elder is wrong, I can respectfully dispute, but I cannot talk back. I cannot be rude by any means. This affecrts the language in that there are many different terms for the different types of relationships. The term for your mothers brother is different than the term for your mothers sister which is different to the term used for your fathers brother and your fathers mother. You do not just call those people aunt. For example, one aunt of mine is referred to as Mami, another is referred to as Bua, and another aunt is referred to as Masi. Mami means Mother's brother's wife. Bua means father's sister. Masi means mother's sister. If I were to talk about my Masi with another Indian, they would immediately understand which aunt it is. Then following that, any other elderly woman stranger is referred to as aunty rather than Ma'am.
Family is an important and integral part of the culture in Ukraine. Ukrainians pride themselves off their family, they love get-togethers and usually invite even distant family members to these events. In Ukraine, the family is comprised of not only the traditional: grandparent, parent, child, sibling, cousin, etc., the god family of every person within a family is also considered "family". Historically, the father would be the main provider within the family, however that mentality has been slowly changing as a result of the rise in female employment. Still, women are having a very difficult time progressing on the workplace because of the prevalent "double standards" they are set to, therefore the male in the family continues to be the main provider. This is however not reflected in any way in the Ukrainian language since either employed or not, every adult within a family is typically addressed respectfully and on the same level as everyone else in the family. Families in the past have been dominantly large, with several children in the family, however that notion has been rapidly diminishing as the economic turmoil has made it difficult to support a large family under the current circumstances.
Also, I agree with Malory. I don't see anything about families in the language that suggests anything to me other than the fact that Swedes have more words for things like parental leave that are less sexist than our "maternity" leave.
Families are really important to Swedes! It is very common to be close with your second cousins, etc. Especially if they still live in the same area of Sweden as you. It gets harder when your family members are "utlandsvensks" or Swedes who live abroad. I would say though that I think Sweden is a really progressive country in that it accepts the family as being something more diverse than just a mom, a dad, two kids, and a dog. Swedes' outlooks on gay marriage are really positive and so Swedes consider a family to mean two dads, two moms, etc.
In Sweden, the family is very important and highly regarded. There is also a strong emphasis on the rights of a child as well. The mother and father both receive leave when giving birth to a child. Either parent has the right to reduce their work load by 25% until the child reaches age 8. Overtime is rarely taken due to the fact that the time runs into "family time". Sweden is also a very family friendly country, even trains have toy and play areas for children. There are a lot of governmental programs and welfare policies in place that are aimed towards families. The interesting thing to note that is in Sweden woman tend to wait to have families later in life than a lot of countries. The women want to establish a career, travel, make money before the settle down to a family. The organization of Swedish families vary across the country, but on average both parents work. They don't have maids, most of the chores are split evenly among the family. As for this mentality being reflected upon the language... I don't see any major reflection. I guess Swedish families tend to be efficient and you could argue that the Swedish language is efficient.