Family Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa: Continuity (Tradition) and Evolution

In sub-Saharan Africa the phenomenology of the family and marriage is of great interest owing to the extraordinary diversification and complexity of the traditional family systems and to the variety and novelty of the ongoing changes. Ancient traditions and cultures have produced family forms (patrilineal, matrilineal or bilateral lineage systems, co-residential or non co-residential polygamy, fostering) that do not conform to western categories and are difficult to be captured through large scale international surveys (Gage 1997). The continuous evolution and “globalization” interact with these cultural contexts introducing further elements of complexity and developing original dynamics To explore these issues, we analyze the household structures in several sub-Saharan countries, attempting to enlighten the interaction between “modernization” and cultural heritage in shaping family systems We investigate how the characteristics of family systems combine with the level of fertility and the degree of socio-economic development and how countries and ethnic groups resemble each other or differ with regard to these aspects. A temporal perspective has been adopted, as well as the ethnic and rural/urban differentials