The socio-affective role in family ties

Abstract

The socio-affective function in family ties historically, the concept of family in Argentine society has been framed within a structured vision, represented in a single social model of family that was understood as a duty. What did not fit within that structure or brief vision of the family was outside the law and the norms of the Civil Code in Argentina. And, what were the characteristics that this family had? The determining element was biological; blood determined the constitution of a family and the birth of many rights. Although affection always existed in human relationships, it was never a determining element for the law as consanguinity was.

Families are complex structures that cannot be reduced to just a biological fact. The central aspects of the classic definition of the family (sexuality, procreation and coexistence) underwent important transformations over the years. The maternal function and the paternal function exceed their merely genetic function, introducing the cultural and social dimension to the concept of families. The Civil Code, in its 2015 reform, incorporates equal marriage, expanding the maternal-paternal binary in filiation and is considered the “right of families”, contemplating its diversity, replacing its traditional name “family law”.

The socio-affective standard today becomes, along with the legal and biological ones, a new criterion for establishing the parental bond. The notion of socio-affectiveness is linked to the dynamic face of identity, in relation to having a name, a nationality, knowing one's mothers and fathers and being cared for by them.