Amor, familia y sociedad: Una mirada desde la sociología

Abstract

Social Sciences, and Sociology in particular, have widely analyzed, and with varying depth, aspects of social relations that together constitute society. A basic element of these relations between human beings, as social beings, is love, studied with various emphases given its importance and relevance in social action. Sociology has done so since its inception, and in recent years this has increased due to its importance in contemporary society, which highlights phenomena such as growing individualization, mutual ignorance, the primacy of private interests over general ones, the decay of ethical and moral principles that supported solidarity, as well as the decay of kinship ties that implied bonds of solidarity and mutual trust involving fidelity and trust that united people and communities. Given the above, love is analyzed in its different modalities (agape love, philia, passion) as a social fact that contributes to giving meaning between individuals who constitute their social world based on subjective relations that allow, thanks to love, to be accepted as what one is, without reservations or discrimination, making them feel fulfilled and understood, allowing for a more human, sincere, and true relationship, enriching life in society. The matter is not minor because, as Carl Jung said, love is the most important problem in life. The research presented starts from the analysis of love in its different meanings and modalities in the West, and then synthesizes its conception in the great historical eras of humanity (Classical, Medieval, Modern, and Contemporary), analyzing from a sociological point of view the development of the amorous feeling: falling in love, conjugality, gender, sexuality, the development of various types of families and households, and crucial matters such as reproduction or its rejection and homosexual unions, seeking to understand how the family is presented in contemporary society, characterized by a "disenchantment of the world" in the words of Max Weber. This analysis is considered necessary in a society like the Colombian one, in a process of accelerated change, in which it has not always been easy to overcome circumstances that marked its development and that remain present in today's daily life, events that caused divisions and hatreds and that continue to be present in our society, marking its development. Only by understanding the characteristics, values, and organization will we be able to understand ourselves, propose alternatives, and discover elements that, like love, can not only help us understand what we are and have been as people and as a society, but also rediscover the principles that make life in society kinder and more humane. The research intends to be a reflection that encourages and stimulates new efforts of understanding for action.