Families can be further categorised into five different types:
A nuclear family - a two-generation family consisting of a father and mother and
their children or a single, possibly widowed, parent and his/her children.
A stem family - a three-generation family consisting of a father and mother, a married
child, their spouse and their children.
In a patriarchal stem family, the aging parents and one or more of their usually married
male offspring live together. Unmarried female children also stay in the family until they
are married.
In cultures that are not patriarchal, the married child who cares for the parents, either in
the parents’ or the married child’s home, may be either male or female.
A lineal family – this term describes the families of several married siblings who are
linked to their common family of orientation, that is, to the family of their parents.
Such a family dissolves with the death of the parents and may become a laterally
extended family, where links are maintained, or split into individual nuclear families.
They do not necessarily live together.
An extended or joint family - three or more generations live together with both vertical
and lateral extensions, with a single line of authority, either patrilineal or matrilineal.
A patrilineal example of this type of family includes parents, their married sons and
their spouses, and the grandchildren. Authority is through the male line. A matrilineal
example would include the parents, the married daughters and their spouses and the
grandchildren. Authority usually still resides with males.
A compound family, when two families combine after divorce (UNESCO 1992).
Descent may be calculated bilaterally, that is through both parents as is the case with
Maori whakapapa, or unilineally through males or females. Descent through males is
described as patrilineal or agnatic descent. Descent through females is called matrilineal
or uterine kinship (Uberoi 1993).
Families also have status vis-a-vis one another based on local principles of hierarchical
attributes. These often include birth order, with descendants of the oldest line being
senior to descendants of the junior line. Pollock (2000) believes that this factor is
particularly evident in matrilineages, which are prevalent in the Pacific, and under
recognised within so-called patri-dominated systems (Pollock 2000).
Primary relationships are ‘one stage’ relationships within a family, for example, between
parents, parent and child, husband and wife and between siblings. Secondary
relationships include a mother or father and their sister or brother, while an example of a
tertiary relationship would be a mother and her sister’s son.