Father

For other uses, see Father (disambiguation).

"Dad" redirects here. For other uses, see Dad (disambiguation).

"Fatherhood" redirects here. For other uses, see Fatherhood (disambiguation).

Rice farmer with daughter. Kantharalak, Thailand. (January 2005).

Father with child

The father is defined as a male parent of an offspring.WordNet. Retrieved on 2007-12-14. The term "paternal" refers to father, parallel to "maternal" for mother.

According to anthropologist Maurice Godelier, the parental role assumed by human males is a critical difference between human society and that of humans\' closest biological relatives - chimpanzees and bonobos - who appear to be unaware of their "father" connection.Maurice Godelier, Métamorphoses de la parenté, 2004New Left Review - Jack Goody: The Labyrinth of Kinship. Retrieved on 2007-07-24.

The father-child relationship is the defining factor of the fatherhood role.Early Childhood Longitudinal Study 2006. "Measuring Father Involvement in Young Children\'s Lives." National Center for Education Statistics. Fathers of U.S. children born in 2001.Minnesota Fathers & Families Network. "Do We Count Fathers in Minnesota?" (Saint Paul, MN: Author, 2007). 51. "Fathers who are able to develop into responsible parents are able to engender a number of significant benefits for themselves, their communities, and most importantly, their children."Minnesota Fathers & Families Network. "Fathers to the Forefront: A five-year plan to strengthen Minnesota families." (Saint Paul, MN: Author. 2007).[1] For example, children who experience significant father involvement tend to exhibit higher scores on assessments of cognitive development, enhanced social skills and fewer behavior problems.Pruett, K. "Fatherneed: Why father care is as essential as mother care for your child," New York: Free Press, 2000."The Effects of Father Involvement: A Summary of the Research Evidence," Father Involvement Initiative Ontario Network, Fall 2002 newsletter.Anderson Moore, K. "Family Structure and Child Well-being" Washington, DC: Child Trends, 2003.

The father is often seen as an authority figure.Osaki, Harumi Killing Oneself, Killing the Father: On Deleuze\'s Suicide in Comparison with Blanchot\'s Notion of Death Literature and Theology, doi:10.1093/litthe/frm019[Foucault\'s response to Freud: sado-masochism and the aestheticization of power http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2342/is_n3_v29/ai_18096757/pg_4]Eva L. Corredor (Dis)embodiments of the Father in Maghrebian Fiction. The French Review, Vol. 66, No. 2 (Dec., 1992), pp. 295-304Paul Rosefeldt; Peter Lang, 1996. The Absent Father in Modern Drama [CHAPTER 3 - QUESTIONING THE FATHER\'S AUTHORITY http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=9916349] According to Deleuze, the father authority exercises repression over sexual desire.Deleuze, Gilles. Coldness and Cruelty. Masochism. Trans. Jean McNeil. New York: Zone, 1989. pp. 63-68. [2] A common observation among scholars is that the authority of the father and of the [political] leader are closely intertwined, that there is a symbolic identification between domestic authority and national political leadership.Borneman, John (2004) Death Of The Father: An Anthropology Of The End In Political Authority ISBN 1571811117 [3] pp.1-2, 11-12, 75-75 In this sense, links have been shown between the concepts of "patriarchal", "paternalistic", "cult of personality", "fascist", "totalitarian", "imperial". The fundamental common grounds between domestic and national authority, are the mechanisms of naming (exercise the authority in someone\'s name) and identification. In a patriarchal society, authority typically uses such rhetoric of fatherhood and family to implement their rule and advocate its legitimacy.[4]

In the Roman and aristocratic patriarchal family, "the husband and the father had a measure of political authority and served as intermediary between the household and the polity."David Foster Taming the Father: John Locke\'s Critique of Patriarchal Fatherhood. The Review of Politics, Vol. 56, No. 4 (Autumn, 1994), pp. 641-670Alexis de Tocqueville 1830 In Western culture patriarchy and authority have been synonymous.WHITE, NICHOLAS review of Questioning the Father: From Darwin to Zola, Ibsen, Strindberg, and Hardy Journal of European Studies, December, 2000 In the 19th century Europe, the idea was common, among both traditionalist and revolutionaries, that the authority of the domestic father should "be made omnipotent in the family so that it becomes less necessary in the state".Jules Simon 1869Michelle Perrot 1990 A History of Private Life p.167 In the second part of that century, there was an extension of the authority of the husband over his wife and the authority of the father over his children, including "increased demands for absolute obedience of children to the father". Europe saw the rise of "new ideological hegemony of the nuclear family form and a legal codification of patriarchy", which was contemporary with the solid spread of the "nation-state model as political norm of order".

Like mothers, human fathers may be categorised according to their biological, social or legal relationship with the child.Minnesota Fathers & Families Network. "Do We Count Fathers in Minnesota?" (Saint Paul, MN: Author, 2007). 14. Historically, the biological relationship paternity has been determinative of fatherhood. However, proof of paternity has been intrinsically problematic and so social rules often determined who would be regarded as a father, e.g. the husband of the mother.

This method of the determination of fatherhood has persisted since Roman times in the famous sentence: Mater semper certa; pater est quem nuptiae demonstrant (Mother is always certain; the father is whom the marriage shows). The historical approach has been destabilised with the recent emergence of accurate scientific testing, particularly DNA testing. As a result, the law on fatherhood is undergoing rapid changes. In the United States, the Uniform Parentage Act essentially defines a father as a man who conceives a child through sexual intercourse.^{[citation needed]}

The most familiar English terms for father include dad, daddy, papa, pop and pa. Other colloquial expressions include my old man.

Categories

Father reading with children

• Natural/Biological father - the most common category: child product of man and woman
• Birth father - the biological father of a child who, due to adoption or parental separation, does not raise the child
• Surprise father - where the men did not know that there was a child until possibly years afterwards
• Posthumous father - father died before children were born (or even conceived in the case of artificial insemination)
• Teenage father/youthful father - may be associated with premarital sexual intercourse
• Non-parental father - unmarried father whose name does not appear on child\'s birth certificate: does not have legal responsibility but continues to have financial responsibility (UK)
• Sperm donor father - a genetic connection but man does not have legal or financial responsibility if conducted through licensed clinics

Non-biological (social / legal relationship between father and child)

• Stepfather - wife/partner has child from previous relationship
• Father-in-law - the father of one\'s spouse
• Adoptive father - child is adopted(not of their blood)
• Foster father - child is raised by a man who is not the biological or adoptive father usually as part of a couple.
• Cuckolded father - where child is the product of the mother\'s adulterous relationship
• Social father - where man takes de facto responsibility for a child (in such a situation the child is known as a "child of the family" in English law)
• Mothers\'s partner - assumption that current partner fills father role
• Mothers\'s husband - under some jurisdictions (e.g. in Quebec civil law), if the mother is married to another man, the latter will be defined as the father
• DI Dad - social / legal father of children produced via Donor Insemination where a donor\'s sperm were used to impregnate the DI Dad\'s spouse.

Fatherhood defined by contact level with child

• Weekend/holiday father - where child(ren) only stay(s) with father at weekends, holidays, etc.
• Absent father - father who cannot or will not spend time with his child(ren)
• Second father - a non-parent whose contact and support is robust enough that near parental bond occurs (often used for older male siblings who significantly aid in raising a child).
• Stay at home dad - the male equivalent of a housewife with child

• Where man in couple originally seeking IVF treatment withdraws consent before fertilisation (UK)

• Where the apparently male partner in an IVF arrangement turns out to be legally a female (evidenced by birth certificate) at the time of the treatment (UK) (TLR 1st June 2006)

A biological child of a man who, for the special reason above, is not their legal father, has no automatic right to financial support or inheritance. Legal fatherlessness refers to a legal status and not to the issue of whether the father is now dead or alive.

See also

Father can also refer metaphorically to a person who is considered the founder of a body of knowledge or of an institution. In such context the meaning of "father" is similar to that of "founder". See List of people known as the father or mother of something.

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Fathers

• Paternal bond
• Sociology of fatherhood
• Non-human fatherhood
• Marriage strike
• Fathers\' rights
• Responsible Fatherhood
• Fathers\' Day
• Mother

References

Bibliography

• S Kraemer (1991) The Origins of Fatherhood: An Ancient Family Process. Family Process 30 (4), 377–392. doi:10.1111/j.1545-5300.1991.00377.x

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