Examining a "Typical" Household
             A family is defined as a group of people who consider themselves related through kinship, while a household is a group of people living together who may or may not be related though kinship. The group which will be the focus of this paper is my household, which consists of four family members. Our household is a nuclear family. It consists of my two parents, my younger brother, and I.
             Nuclear households seem to be very common in this country, but worldwide they make up only one fourth of the total. Another fourth consists of polygamous households, and the remaining half was extended households (Miller 215). For about four years, our household was a matrilineal extended household because when my grandfather became sick with pancreatic cancer, he and my grandmother moved in with us. Such matrilineal households, containing more than one adult couple related through the mother-daughter line, are commonly found in certain regions in Taiwan (Miller 214). Living with us helped our grandmother get through his agonizing and inevitable journey towards death as the disease progressed. We provided an emotional support system for her and were able to help her care for him. My grandmother lived with us for one year after my grandpa died, before remarrying and moving out. Her identity as a widow controlled many of her social interactions because grieving spouses are not supposed to date or return to the social scene for a certain amount of time. In China and South Asia the social expectations of widows are much more severe. They are supposed to become asexual, deny themselves of any pleasure, and
             are sometimes abandoned by their families. In African tribes, widows and widowers shave their heads and dress in drab clothing (Miller 228). There are many traditions which dictate how a widow should act, but ultimately it is the widow's decision when to come out of mourning. Remarriage is common in Nort...