TYPES OF FAMILY

Family patterns vary from one society to another. Some of the various kinds of families include:
(a) Monogamous family:
This consists of one husband and one wife at a time with their children. This is often referred to as the nuclear family.
(b) Polygamous family:
This is a family in which the husband marries more than one wife at a time and all of them live in his house.
(c) Monandrous family:
This is a family in which the woman marries a man and brings him to her house to live. She exercises control over the household and the children belongs to her. This is a matrineal household.
(d) Polyandrous family:
This is a family in which a woman marries more than one man at a time and brings them to leave in her house. She exercises control over the household and the children belongs to her. It is also a matrilineal household.
(e) Group family:
In this family, men, by arrangement married several women. There is no sexual prohibition. The men, women and the children in the group form the family. The male children can have sexual intercourse with any female including mothers. It is an extreme form of communal life.
(f) The Extended family:
This is the traditional family set up in Africa. It comprises the entire lineage of a given family.

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