The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page. Close relationships Affinity ? Attachment ? Bonding ? Casual ? Cohabitation ? Compersion ? Concubinage ? Courtship ? Divorce ? Dower, dowry and bride price ? Friendship ? Family ? Husband ? Infatuation ? Intimacy ? Jealousy ? Limerence ? Love ? Marriage ? Monogamy ? Nonmonogamy ? Office romance ? Passion ? Partner ? Pederasty ? Polyamory? Polygamy? Platonic love ? Psychology of monogamy ? Relationship abuse ? Romance ? Sexuality ? Separation ? Wedding ? Widowhood ? Wife v ? d ? e

a family of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in 1997 Family denotes a domestic group of people, or a number of domestic groups linked through descent (demonstrated or stipulated) from a common ancestor, marriage or adoption. A family may be defined specifically as a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, and co-residence. Although the concept of consanguinity originally referred to relations by blood. The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. This section has been tagged since December 2007. According to many sociologists and anthropologists, the primary function of the family is to reproduce society, either biologically, socially, or both. Thus, one's experience of one's family shifts over time. From the perspective of children, the family is a family of orientation: the family serves to locate children socially, and plays a major role in their enculturation and socialization. From the point of view of the parent(s), the family is a family of procreation the goal of which is to produce and enculturate and socialize children.[1] However, producing children is not the only function of the family. In societies with a sexual division of labor, marriage, and the resulting relationship between a husband and wife, is necessary for the formation of an economically productive household. In modern societies marriage entails particular rights and privilege that encourage the formation of new families even when there is no intention of having children.[citation needed] The structure of families traditionally hinges on relations between parents and children, between spouses, or both. Consequently, there are three major types of family: matrifocal, consanguineal and conjugal. (Note: these are ideal families. In all societies there are acceptable deviations from the ideal or statistical norm, owing either to incidental circumstances, such as the death of a member of the family, infertility or personal preferences).[citation needed] A matrifocal family consists of a mother and her children. Generally, these children are her biological offspring, although adoption of children is a practice in nearly every society. This kind of family is common where women have the resources to rear their children by themselves, or where men are more mobile than women. A consanguineal family consists of a mother and her children, and other people ? usually the family of the mother. This kind of family is common where mothers do not have the resources to rear their children on their own, and especially where property is inherited. When important property is owned by men, consanguineal families commonly consist of a husband and wife, their children and other members of the husband's family. A conjugal family consists of one or more mothers and their children, and/or one or more spouses (usually husbands). This kind of family is common where men desire to assert control over children, or where there is a sexual division of labor requiring the participation of both men and women, and where families are relatively mobile.