ABSTRACT
Within the anthropological literature on Africa two groupings predominate: those of the household and those of lineage (Guyer 1981). Both are relevant to the lives of the people of Kikole, and both will be addressed here. Bohannon (1963 p78) defines a household as “a local or spatial group, marked by propinquity” and a family as “a kinship group, marked by kinship relationships”. He adds that there is no need for a family to live as a single household, nor for a household to consist entirely of members of a single family. Ageing adults will increasingly need support from others, who are not necessarily found exclusively within either household or family. This analysis does not, therefore, aim to separate and discuss the significance of lineage and household individually, but through the exploration of the relationship between them, to produce information relevant to the livelihoods of the study participants.
