Radhika lives in a city with her mother, her sister and her uncles and aunts. What kind of family does she live in?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Extended Family
Option (1) Matrilocal Family — Incorrect. Matrilocal is a rule of residence: the newly married couple stays with the woman’s parents. The question does not say that a married couple has moved in with the wife’s parents.
Option (2) Matrilineal Family — Incorrect. Matrilineal is a rule of inheritance: property passes from mother to daughter. The question says nothing about how property passes.
Option (3) Matriarchal Family — Incorrect. Matriarchy is a family in which the women exercise authority and dominance. The question tells us who lives together, not who holds authority.
Option (4) Extended Family — Correct. An extended family has more than one couple, and often more than two generations, living together. Radhika lives with her mother and sister and also with her uncles and aunts, who are further couples in the same home, so hers is an extended family, not a nuclear one of one set of parents and their children.
NCERT (2025-26): “NUCLEAR AND EXTENDED FAMILY … A nuclear family consists of only one set of parents and their children. An extended family (commonly known as the ‘joint family’) can take different forms, but has more than one couple, and often more than two generations, living together. This could be a set of brothers with their individual families, or an elderly couple with their sons and grandsons and their respective families.…” “The Diverse Forms of the Family … Studies have shown how diverse family forms are found in different societies. With regard to the rule of residence, some societies are matrilocal in their marriage and family customs while others are patrilocal. In the first case, the newly married couple stays with the woman’s parents, whereas in the second case the couple lives with the man’s parents. With regard to the rules of inheritance, matrilineal societies pass on property from mother to daughter while patrilineal societies do so from father to son. A patriarchal family structure exists where the men exercise authority and dominance, and matriarchy where the women play a similarly dominant role.…” |