Lineal Family

When families of procreation of several married siblings are linked to their common family of orientation, they constitute a Lineal Family. Such a family dissolves with the death of their parents, and may become a laterally extended family, or split into individual nuclear families.

 

Figure 9.10 Composite Group of Nuclear Families

 

The circled A, B and C are the nuclear families of three brothers that are joined to the family of their parents. Thus, this is a composite group of four nuclear families that are lineally related.

Extended Family or Joint Family

Here, one can find three or more generations living together with both vertical and lateral extensions, having a single line of authority: Matrilineal or Patrilineal. It is also called a Composite Unilineal Family. These could be either patrilineal or matrilineal. The joint family in India, especially amongst the Hindus (also amongst Sikhs and Jains), is an example of a patrilineal composite family. The Taravad amongst the Nayars of the Malabar Coast of India, in the state of Kerala, is an illustration of a matrilineal and uxorilocal¹² composite family.

Membership to such units must be distinguished from kindred, which is a bilateral kin group (although not a corporate one), but composed of persons that are related—consanguineally and affinally—to a particular individual. That is why members of an individual’s kindred are not all related to one another in the same manner.

Incomplete Family

It is important to identify different types of incomplete families in the event that they do not satisfy the definition of a nuclear (simple) family.

A family may be incomplete due to several reasons, which may be grouped under two main categories:

1. breakdown of the family (may be termed broken families) either due to death, separation, or migration (seasonal/temporal or permanent) of one or more of its members; and
2. initial stage of family formation when it is only a conjugal unit—a family-in-the-making; it may also be called a potential nuclear family. However, if a couple is past childbearing age, then such a unit is called a nugatory nuclear family. A nugatory nuclear family can become a nuclear family with the adoption of a child.

Another type of incomplete family is designated Non-Familial Unit. Such units are created by the breakdown of a family. These may be of the following types:

• Orphaned individual
• Residual individual (after the death of a spouse, or upon divorce, and separated from children): many senior citizens would belong to this category
• Dislocated Unit, for example, a migrant (living alone with family left behind)
• Units where a parent is absent (incomplete nuclear families). Even in such incomplete nuclear families, there can be several patterns. For example, where the father is absent, such a unit may have any of the following combinations:

Mo     So (or Sons)

Mo     Da (or Daughters)

Mo     So Da (there can be plurality of So or Da or both)

Similar patterns may be found when the mother is absent from the family, and the father has to look after the children.