Sociocultural transmission is a necessary ingredient in societal stability, cohesion, and continuity everywhere. For the Akan of central and southern Ghana, an important aspect of societal cohesion occurred through intergenerational solidarity which existed principally in the extended family, with the elders acting as the primary instruments in cultural transmission. Even though the extended family covered a wide range of different residential and householding arrangements, it acted as one productive unit under one or a pair of family heads who exercised authority over and discharged ritual duties for the protection and well being of the family members. Thus, the extended family, especially as represented in the Akan traditional household, was regarded as one family. It provided the practical basis for membership of a domestic unit and the emerging social relations served to assign prestige, control, responsibility, and rights over property and services to certain categories of persons within the unit.