Family, marriage and kinship

The essentials

The family is a social group of people related by marriage, blood or adoption who usually share a residence and cooperate economically. Marriage is a socially approved union that sets up rights and duties between spouses and establishes the social position of children. Kinship is the system of relationships based on descent (consanguineal kin) and marriage (affinal kin).

Key points

• Nuclear family: a married couple and their unmarried children.
• Joint family: two or more related nuclear families (often brothers with their wives and children and their parents) living together, sharing property, kitchen and worship; traditionally common in India.
• Extended family: a family extended across three or more generations or including other relatives.
• Monogamy: one spouse at a time. Polygamy: plural spouses, divided into polygyny (one man, several wives) and polyandry (one woman, several husbands). Fraternal (adelphic) polyandry, where brothers share a wife, has been reported among the Todas of the Nilgiris and the Khasas of Jaunsar-Bawar.
• Endogamy: marriage within one's own group (e.g. caste). Exogamy: marriage outside one's group (e.g. clan or gotra).
• Patrilineal descent: traced through the father's line; property and name pass through males. Matrilineal descent: traced through the mother's line; the Khasi and Garo of Meghalaya and the Nairs of Kerala are well-known examples.
• Residence: patrilocal (couple lives with husband's family), matrilocal (with wife's family), neolocal (new independent home).
• Levirate: a widow marries her deceased husband's brother. Sororate: a widower marries his deceased wife's sister.

Exam tips

• Matrilineal does not mean women hold all power; often the mother's brother has authority.
• Polygamy is the general term; polygyny and polyandry are its forms.

Common mistakes

• Confusing polyandry with polygyny.
• Mixing up descent (whose line you belong to) with residence (where the couple lives).