A father (or dad) is defined as a male parent or Individual progenitor of human offspring. The adjective "paternal" refers to a father and comparatively to "maternal" for a mother. The verb "to father" means to procreate or to sire a child from which also derives the gerund "fathering". Fathers determine the gender of their child through a sperm cell which either contains an X chromosome (female), or Y chromosome (male). Related terms of endearment are dad, daddy, pa, pop or pops.
Etymology
From Middle English fader, from Old English f?der, from Proto-Germanic *fad?r (cf. East Frisian foar, Dutch vader, German vater), from Proto-Indo-European *ph?t?r (cf. Irish athair, Tocharian A p?car, B p?cer, Lithuanian patinas ("male animal")), akin to Latin pater, akin to Ancient Greek ????? (pat?r), akin to Sanskrit ???? (pit?).Welsh and Breton tad (Cornish tas), from Brittonic tatos, has given us modern English dad.
Relationship with children
Traditionally, fathers act in a protective, supportive and responsible way towards their children. Involved fathers offer developmentally specific provisions to their sons and daughters throughout the life cycle and are impacted themselves by doing so. Active father figures may play a role in reducing behavior and psychological problems in young men and women. An increased amount of father?child involvement may help increase a child's social stability, educational achievement, and their potential to have a solid marriage as an adult. Their children may also be more curious about the world around them and develop greater problem solving skills. The father figure does not always have to be a child's biological father and some children will have a biological father as well as a step- or nurturing father. When the biological father dies, or divorces, the mother may marry a second man who becomes the stepfather of the child. Where a child is conceived as a result of sperm donation, the donor will be the "biological father" of the child, and if the mother has a male partner, he will be the nurturing father.According to the 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.
Determination of parenthood
Since Roman times fatherhood has been determined with this famous sentence: Mater semper certa; pater est quem nuptiae demonstrant ("The [identity of the] mother is always certain; the father is whom the marriage vows indicate"). 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.Like mothers, human fathers may be categorized according to their biological, social or legal relationship with the child. 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.
An individual who is a genetic chimera could theoretically have more than one biological father. No example of this has been reported but human chimeras were unknown to exist until recently and scientists are currently uncertain as to the extent of chimerism within the human population.
History of fatherhood
The discovery of fatherhood is likely to have been as important for the development of the human race as the discovery of fire. The discovery of fatherhood took place in a historical period for which information sources are rare, but the few scholars focusing on that period gave us a sufficiently clear picture of this discovery.The link between sexual acts and procreation can be empirically identified, but it is by no means of immediate evidence. In fact, the conception of life cannot be observed, whereas its birth is obviously visible. The extended time lag between the former and the latter certainly does not help to identify their link, but on the contrary it makes even more difficult to assume any kind of relationship between these two events. As a result, human beings ignored that males impregnate females for thousands of years. During this extended period procreation was considered to be an autonomous 'ability' of women: men were essential in order to ensure the survival and defence of the social group, but only women could enhance and reintegrate it through their ability to create new individuals. This gave women a role of primary and indisputable importance within their social groups.
This situation probably persisted during the whole Palaeolithic age. Some scholars believe the well-known Venus figurines of that age to be clear witnesses of it. During the transition to the Neolithic age, agriculture and cattle breeding became the core activities of a growing number of human communities. Breeding in particular is likely to have led womenwho used to spend more time than men taking care of the cattleto observations and considerations which gradually allowed them to discover the procreative effect of the sexual act between a male and a female.
For communities which looked at sexuality just as a source of pleasure and an element of social cohesion without attaching any taboo character to it, this discovery must have led to a sense of upset with consequences not only on the regulation of sexuality itself, but on the whole political, social, and economic system. The time to arrive to sufficient certainty about the mechanism of life conception must have been very long, but this time length cannot have prevented the implications of this acquired certainty from being extremely dramatic. Eventually, these implications led to the model of society whichin different times and shapeswas adopted by most human cultural communities.
Still today, this social model founded on the capacity of the man to fecundate women tends globally to prevail: this capacity allowed men to free themselves from the secular frustration derived from having recognized only to women the ability to generate life and led them to configure a society affirming their supremacy over women. And, of course, their supremacy over the human beings they created: their children. We find an enlightening example of this social development in Aeschylus's tragedy The Eumenides. The Coryphaeus of the Erinyes blames matricidal Orestes for having shed his own blood, but God Apollo replies that this is absolutely untrue because the mother is only a wet-nurse and not a progenitor of the child, whose blood derives from his/her unique parent: the father. This argument is accepted by the judges and Orestes finally obtains a verdict of not guilty. The extreme position taken here by God Apollo did not find complete acceptance, not even in Athens. In the regions where this position originally prevailed, it was gradually abandoned facing improving scientific explanations of human procreation. But traces of this position can still be found today in some cultural systems.
The discovery of fatherhood led to the supremacy of the father lineal over the matrilineal descentwhich is still characteristic of most models of family we observe todayand, most of all, to the sacral character assigned to the sexual act which was rapidly regulated by severe norms. These norms revoked the absolute freedom human beings used to enjoy with respect to their sexual behaviour, thus blaming and prohibiting all sexual acts not aimed at a fecundation of the woman. Moreover, the discovery of fatherhood and the sedentary forms of living developed during the Neolithic Age led the man to develop the first forms of private property and to defend them through conflictsand eventually warswith competing human beings.
Father?offspring conflict
In early human history there have been notable instances of father?offspring conflicts. For example:In more contemporary history there have also been instances of father?offspring conflicts, such as:
Categories
Baby Daddyslang term for several of the below categories. Denotes a natural father; implies that he is not married to the natural mother of the child, bears financial responsibility, may or may not imply other parental responsibilities, to includes the absent father (see below). Birth fatherthe biological father of a child who, due to adoption or parental separation, does not raise the child or cannot take care of one. Natural/biological fatherthe most common category: child product of man and woman Non-parental fatherunmarried father whose name does not appear on child's birth certificate: does not have legal responsibility but continues to have financial responsibility (UK) Posthumous fatherfather died before children were born (or even conceived in the case of artificial insemination) Sperm donorthe natural/biological father of the child but the man does not have legal or financial responsibility if procedure conducted through licensed clinics Surprise fatherwhere the men did not know that there was a child until possibly years afterward Teenage father/youthful fatherassociated with teenage sexual intercourseNon-biological (social and legal relationship between father and child)
Adoptive fathera father who has adopted a child Cuckolded fatherwhere the child is the product of the mother's adulterous relationship DI Dadsocial/legal father of children produced via Donor Insemination (where a donor's sperm were used to impregnate the DI Dad's spouse) Father-in-lawthe father of one's spouse Foster fatherchild is raised by a man who is not the biological or adoptive father usually as part of a couple. Mother's partnerassumption that current partner fills father role Mother's husbandunder some jurisdictions (e.g. in Quebec civil law), if the mother is married to another man, the latter will be defined as the father Social fatherwhere a man takes de facto responsibility for a child, such as caring for one who has been abandoned or orphaned (the child is known as a "child of the family" in English law) Stepfatherwife or husband has child from previous relationshipFatherhood defined by contact level with child
Absent fatherfather who cannot or will not spend time with his child(ren) Biological fatherthe natural father, or procreator of a child, who may or may not take part in the child's up-bringing. Often refers to a sperm donor who, if anonymous, usually has no contact with the childA 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. Second fathera 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 dadthe male equivalent of a housewife with child, where his spouse is breadwinner Weekend/holiday fatherwhere child(ren) only stay(s) with father on weekends, holidays, etc.Non-human fatherhood
For some animals, it is the fathers who take care of the young.Many species, though, display little or no paternal role in caring for offspring. The male leaves the female soon after mating and long before any offspring are born. It is the females who must do all the work of caring for the young.
Finally, in some species neither the father nor the mother provides any care.
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 persons considered father or mother of a field.References
Bibliography
S. Kraemer (1991) "The Origins of Fatherhood: An Ancient Family Process". Family Process 30 (4), 377?392.Category:Divorce Category:Human development Category:Family Category:Marriage Category:Terms for males Category:Fatherhood
af:Vader ar:?? arc:??? (???????) ay:Awki az:Ata bn:???? bjn:Abah ba:???? be:?????? be-x-old:?????? bh:?????? bg:???? bo:???? bs:Otac br:Tad ca:Pare cv:???? cs:Otec sn:Baba pdc:Paep de:Vater et:Isa es:Padre eo:Patro eu:Aita fa:??? fr:P?re gd:Athair gl:Pai gan:? hak:?-p? ko:??? hr:Otac id:Ayah it:Padre he:?? (?????) kk:??? ht:Papa la:Pater lv:T?vs lt:T?vas lij:Po? ln:?ba hu:Apa mk:????? ml:????? mr:???? ms:Ayah nah:Tahtli nl:Vaderschap nds-nl:Vaor new:??? ja:?? no:Far nn:Far nrm:P?the oc:Paire or:???? pa:???? pl:Ojciec pt:Pai ro:Tat? qu:Tayta ru:???? scn:Patri si:?????? simple:Father sk:Otec so:Aabe sr:???? sh:Otac su:Bapa fi:Is? sv:Fader tl:Ama ta:????? tt:??? te:?????? th:??? tg:????? tr:Baba uk:?????? ur:??? vi:Cha war:Am?y yi:???? yo:B?b? zh-yue:?? diq:Pi bat-smg:Tievs zh:??Source: http://article.wn.com/view/2013/02/23/Church_backflips_on_predator_priest/
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