Family – Latin: familia, plural familiae, is one of eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks (domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species) in the Linnaean taxonomy system (1758). The taxonomic rank is a position of a group of organisms, or a taxon (a group of organisms classified as a unit) within an ancestral or hereditary hierarchy. The Linnaean taxonomic classification system places family in the biological hierarchy between order and genus. The classification of family can be used for evolutionary, paleontological and genetic studies, and tends to be more stable than lower taxonomic levels such as genera and species.

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The nuclear family (circa 1955) is the basis for the development of social structures that form societies populated by an assemblage of these fundamental units. A family unit typically consists of parents and their children. The genesis for the later expression, nuclear family as a social foundation, was first recognized in the 13th century in England. Back on the 1920’s, the academic disciplines of anthropology and sociology were instrumental in introducing a fundamental social structure as the, ‘nuclear family.’ The expression was first introduced by the Polish social anthropologist, Bronisław Kasper Malinowski. At the time, ‘nuclear’ was associated with the nucleus or basic element of the family. The term ‘nucleus’ means, a central or significant part, thus, its critical value as the basis of a social construct for Homo sapiens.

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The term ‘race’ is a social construct defined by societies, not by genes. It has no scientifically defensible place in the present accepted taxonomic structure. People about the world do differ genetically due to their ancestry, but race does not mean ancestry. Biological races are not a current scientific concept, rather that argument has only been applied to reinforce historical biases leading to extreme prejudices within the human condition.