Nuclear Family

The family is an important social unit.It is the first institution in the history of man that was founded on man's essential biological and social imperative needs.The family is the most basic and fundamental unit.The family is universal grouping in human societies.It is the bond of kinship which primarily unites the members of a familial grouping together. The two fundamental principles of integration that serve as binding force to keep a family intact are based on the connections arising through Marriage and Descent.These principles operate to produce three major kinds of relationships are those existing between- husband and wife,parents and children and siblings.

Several anthropologists have attempted to provide classification of families based on the differences in the composition of members within each type of familial grouping.The most simple and elementary form of family comprises of a married couple with their unmarried children.

Nuclear Family consists of a husband and wife along with their unmarried children.

Subnuclear Family consists only of a married couple - a husband and wife.It is likely to be completed in a course of time when the couple have children.

Broken Family consists of only one of the parents while the other is dead and the unmarried children of whom at least one may be an adult in order to help in the maintence of the family.

Nuclear Family with Dependents is a familial grouping which includes an extra person or persons who do not have a complete nuclear family of their own and hence have become dependent on anotherlinked nuclear family.

Polygynous Family consists of a man and two or more of his wives along with their children.

Polyandrous Family consists of a woman and two or more of her husbands along with their children.