Household

The family constitutes the foundation of the society. The legal union of man and wife in marriage is a moral and social act highly respected by Fulani. Marriage is generally done within the group or clan. Through their offspring and through possible subsequent marriages, the household will continue its expansion and may form a compound family consisting of the household head, his several wives and their respective children. When the first child gets married, the household enters a new phase. It may still expand as the result of new births to junior wives mainly, but at the same time the household will be subject to reductions. Eventually, complete dissolution occurs when all offspring have married. Man and wives then take up residence with their eldest son which usually will mean distribution over several homesteads and the separation of a man from his junior wives. The elders will spend their last days on the periphery of the homesteads of their Sons; this is also where they are buried.

It is of great interest to see what happens between the two extremes of the life history of simple and compound families, to assess the major hazards to which they are exposed during their growth to maturity and subsequent dissolution. For a household to act as an independent unit that is self sufficient for labor and food at all seasons there should be a certain balance between the human group and the herd associated with it. While the herd should be large enough to meet the subsistence needs of the group, it is equally clear that there should be sufficient humans to tend the cattle and to take full advantage of their resources.