Five basic social institutions can be found in all organized social systems. These are:
The family institution
Educational institution
Religious Institution
Political Institution
Economic institution
(1) THE FAMILY
It is a universal social organization, the smallest and occur in all social systems. The family is the building block of the society and it is the fundamental primary group in the society. The family is a group characterized by common residence, economic cooperation and reproduction. It includes at least two adults of both sexes who maintain a socially approved sexual relationship and one or more children owned or adopted by the sexually cohabiting adults. Simply put, the family is the union of a man and a woman ( almost always from different lineage ) usually along with their offspring living ina private or separate dwelling. Also, it could be defined as a socially sanctioned grouping of persons united by kinship(by blood),marriage or adoption ties who well-defined social roles created by common culture.
TYPES OF FAMILY
(1) Nuclear family: This consists of a married man and woman with their offsprings. The distinctive and vital functions of the nuclear family are sexual,economic, reproductive and educational.
(2) Extended family: This consist of two or more nuclear families affiliated through an extension of the parent -child relationship rather than of the husband -wife relationship. Defined differently it includes two or more nuclear families united by consanguineal kinship bonds such as those between parents and child or between two siblings. Extended families may be compounded from polygamous families,form monogamous nuclear family or both. Families linked together through common spouse. It can assume any one of the 3 possible forms:
(I) polygny: This is a marriage between one man and two or more women at the same time.
(ii)polyandry:Marriage between one women with two or more men.
(iii)group marriage: A marital union embracing at once several men and several women in marriage relationship with one another with no sense of exclusive ownership.
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