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For other uses, see Father (disambiguation).
"Dad" redirects here. For other uses, see Dad (disambiguation).
"Fatherhood" redirects here. For other uses, see Fatherhood (disambiguation).
Father with child
Father reading with children
Father with two little children

A father is defined as the male parent of an offspring.[citation needed]

According to anthropologist Maurice Godelier, a critical novelty in human society, compared to humans closest biological relatives (chimpanzees and bonobos), is the parental role assumed by the males, which were unaware of their "father" connection.[1][2]

The father is an authority figure.[3][4][5][6] According to Deleuze, the father authority exercises repression over sexual desire.[7] 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.[8] In this sense, links have been shown between the concepts of "patriarchal", "paternalistic", "cult of personality", "fascist", "totalitarian", "imperial".[8] The fundamental common grounds between domestic and national authority, are the mechanisms of naming (exercise the authority in someone's name) and identification.[8] Authority typically uses such rhetoric of fatherhood and family to implement their rule and advocate its legitimacy.[9]

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."[10][11] In Western culture patriarchy and authority have been synonymous.[12] 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".[13][14][8] 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".[8] 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".[8]

Like mothers, human fathers may be categorised according to their biological, social or legal relationship with the child.[citation needed] 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.

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

Categories

Rice farmer with daughter. Kantharalak, Thailand. (January 2005).
  • 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
  • Step-father - 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.

Interpretation by Religions

Christianity

Viktor Vasnetsov, Fatherhood

The word Father is, by followers of the Christian religion, applied to God, whom they believe is creator of the universe and humanity and who, according to them, is also the Father of Jesus Christ.

Father is also the title used almost universally for a Priest in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian Churches. While not as widespread, it also had wide use in the Church of England, other churches in the Anglican Communion, as well as for ministers in several other denominations, such as some Lutheran denominations. The term "Padre" is used for military chaplains, being Spanish and Italian for "Father". The terms "Abbot" and "Pope" also mean "Father." Some Protestants believe priests should not be called "Father" because Jesus said, "And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven" (Matthew 23:9).

Catholic & Orthodox Christians give this title to their clergy because they believe that all Christian believers make up the Body of Christ (or the Church). They believe that the clergy who receive this title are spiritual fathers because as one is a member of the Body, so there are also "elders,", "rabbis," and other leaders. Father can be translated as an elder because it presumes that one has, because of age or study, wisdom and knowledge of the doctrines of the Church. St. Paul also refers to himself as having spiritually begotten his fellow Christians in Christ due to their "new birth" (or baptism) as in 1 Corinthians 2:15, 2 Timothy 1:2, 2 Tim 2:1, 1 Tim 5:1, Titus 1:4, 1 Peter 1:18, 2 Pet 3:4, 1 John 2:13.

"I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel." (1 Corinthians 4:14-15)

The term "father" in the Old Testament was applied to priests (Judges 17:10) and Prophets (2 Kings 2:12, 6:21, 8:9), Abraham (name, Isaiah 51:2), and the Master of the Palace (Isaiah 22:21). And of course this reference to people such as Abraham and Presbyters as "father" is maintained in the New Testament, as shown previously, leading one to believe Christ did not place a complete ban on naming men father when His own followers addressed others as such.

The title father is also applied to certain influential early Christian figures: church father and apostolic fathers.

See also: Godparent

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.

Look up father in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.


References

  1. ^ Maurice Godelier, Métamorphoses de la parenté, 2004
  2. ^ "New Left Review - Jack Goody: The Labyrinth of Kinship". Retrieved 2007-07-24.
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ [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]
  5. ^ Eva L. Corredor (Dis)embodiments of the Father in Maghrebian Fiction. The French Review, Vol. 66, No. 2 (Dec., 1992), pp. 295-304
  6. ^ Paul 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]
  7. ^ Deleuze, Gilles. Coldness and Cruelty. Masochism. Trans. Jean McNeil. New York: Zone, 1989. pp. 63-68. [1]
  8. ^ a b c d e f Borneman, John (2004) Death Of The Father: An Anthropology Of The End In Political Authority ISBN 1571811117 [2] pp.1-2, 11-12, 75-75
  9. ^ [3]
  10. ^ David Foster Taming the Father: John Locke's Critique of Patriarchal Fatherhood. The Review of Politics, Vol. 56, No. 4 (Autumn, 1994), pp. 641-670
  11. ^ Alexis de Tocqueville 1830
  12. ^ WHITE, NICHOLAS review of Questioning the Father: From Darwin to Zola, Ibsen, Strindberg, and Hardy Journal of European Studies, December, 2000
  13. ^ Jules Simon 1869
  14. ^ Michelle Perrot 1990 A History of Private Life p.167

Bibliography

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