ABSTRACT
When dealing with Russian multiple family households, I have set aside the question of variability, ignoring any possible comparison between Russia and the Balkans, for example. Many reasons have inspired this decision. First, I have chosen these examples for their paradigmatic value. When analysing multiple family households (excluding the stem family and, by definition, including as a limit of residential growth the coresidence of more than one married son with the parents), it would be relatively easy to demonstrate how changes in the circumstances creating intra-and extraresidential hindrances or coercion would affect the timing and frequency of premortem and postmortem fission, as well as the timing of the development and reproduction of residential groups. Second, it appears that all multiple family households of the Russian type share one feature: in all instances, be they from Eastern or Southeastern Europe, the vector of power relationships seems always to flow from the older to the younger generations (except in the rare cases of ‘deposed’ bol’shaky and, where postmortem fission is delayed, in instances leading to the creation of frérèches). This, as we shall see, changes radically when contemplating so-called stem families.
