Understanding Black Households: The Problem

Abstract

Households can be taken for granted in the West because the nuclear family system with its bilateral descent ensures a fairly standard pattern of coresidence, with predictable patterns of pooling resources. In contemporary southern Africa, the tradition ofpatrilineal descent in blackfamilies entails a much wider set of options for co-residence as relatives disperse to make a living in the new global economy. The agnatic idiom continues to give coherence to volatile. contingent black households. The paper traces the distinctive historical roots of Western and African households and argues. against the assumption that black South Africans are engaged in some sort of transition to a Western pattern.

Understanding Fatherhood and Father Involvement in South Africa: Insights from Surveys and Population Cohorts

“…While young children born to unmarried parents will often live with their mothers, most children will be acknowledged by their father and paternal kin (Preston-Whyte, 1974Russell, 2003). While studies in rural areas of South Africa have reported that less than half all children are co-resident with their biological fathers at birth (Hosegood et al, 2009a), it is very common for children to be considered part of maternal and paternal households and move between them (Madhavan et al, 2008).…”

“…Many households, especially in rural areas, include members who whilst living somewhere else, are nonetheless still considered to be part of the household (Russell, 2003). Fathers of young children will often be non-resident members because they have migrated for work or to look for work.…”

Sequencing the real time of the elderly: Evidence from South Africa

“…The conjugal unit as the basis for household formation historically applies only to a minority of (particularly White) South Africans. The African tradition of family formation, by contrast, is based on a consanguineal and specifically patrilineal system of descent (Russell 2003). This system proved "resilient and adaptable" (Russell 2003: 10) as socioeconomic circumstances for Africans changed during apartheid and then during the post-apartheid decades.…”

Decomposing changes in household measures: Household size and services in South Africa, 1994–2012

“…Indeed Russell (2003aRussell ( , 2003b has criticised approaches that emphasise current location for not properly understanding the complexity of the social connections between people or how people move between households and locations. Posel, Fairburn, and Lund (2006) point out the importance of such rural-urban linkages in the context of analysing employment and migration behaviours.…”