While I am not an expert in anthropology, I do remember from my classes in this field the concept of matrilocal and patrilocal family structures. I know that those concepts are quite helpful to understand certain societies and migration effects (for instance, migration of Latin American people). In the concrete field of migration, I just re-discovered the Weberian (Max, that is) concept of clan that actually can explain certain family processes in migration.

Thanks Ivo and Phillipp

Within the context of Africa, the two words can be used interchangeably. When someone says my family, it could include cousins, nephews, aunts and/or uncles from extended family which normally can be regarded as household in other climes where the family consists of husband, wife and the children. What is important is tor you to define your word within a context.

Thanks Sheriffdeen, do you have some references I can use to substantiate this argument.  

PS Greetings and I hope everything is fine with you in Nigeria.

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Dear Bruno, I'm in no way a specialist in African matters, but taken from a wider perspective family seems to be usually seen as a group bound by biologically-centered encoding systems while household as a ways-of-living-centered unit including humans (not necessarily bound by biological ties), animals, objects, buildings, spaces etc. Although the latter can be easily encoded through the symbolical systems based on the former.

There has been a long debate about this in the anthropological literature. I believe the consensus is that they are not the same, but they may overlap in certain contexts. The terms household and domestic group pay more attention to the hierarchies and unequal relationships among people who live together, who may or may not be related through kinship. Family, on the other hand, tends to gloss over these unequal relationships, and may assume that all decisions that are made have everyone's best interest in mind. A few classic texts that take up the issue are (in no particular order):

1. Jelin, Elizabeth, ed. (1991) Family, Household and Gender Relations in Latin America. Keagen Paul International, London.

2. Yanagisako, S. (1979) Family and Household: the Analysis of Domestic Groups. Annual Review of Anthropology  8:161-205

3. Wilk, Richard (1989) The Household Economy: Reconsidering the Domestic Mode of Production. Westview Press, Boulder.

Thanks Elizabeth, although I am not looking at them from an anthropological angle, still your imputs are very valuable

Hi Bruno, maybe this could be helpful: The Household as a Focus for Research (Jane Wheelock and Elizabeth Oughton, Journal of Economic Issues, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Mar.,1996), pp. 143-159).

We used concept of household (based on common budget), not family in research of livelihood strategies in post-socialist rural space. One of the reasons was, that despite the fact that the interests and strategies of the individual household members may be individual, each individual strategy adopted includes the other members of the household, so the strategy is the result of households common agreement. Household has become the unit of analysis, because it is the household, which defines the economic objectives, makes important decisions as to fulfill these objectives and (to some extent) also has the power to organize decisions of its members.

If we consider the changing living situations in the modern world, the two are not always the same. In an age of migration, many individuals stay away from their families. Some of them pool together resources to set up a common living establishment. It functions like a household but the members are not kin. 

Thanks Ekena and Nilanjiana for your inputs

Hi Bruno, I am a gerontologist.  A household and family are not the same.  A household may have people living together in the same building and may or may not be related.  An example is as a group home or board and care facility.  A family is bound by common shared characteristics.  A family may also have fictive kin.  Jan Vinita White, PhD

Thanks Jan

I guess it depends on your variables of analysis. Researchers in the area of family economics often interested in analyzing household as they mostly analyzing the dynamics of resources. The use of household will provide distinct boundaries as individuals in a household are those who share resources although they might not related as family (individual who are related by blood, marriage, adoption, etc.). On the other hand, researcher in family science for example mostly interested to analyze family as their variable of interest are mostly related with social and psychological aspect of individual and family life.  

Yes,  I have worked  on research studies where those being interviewed were asked about the family members living in his/her house (as explained above, related...) and then asked about "household" defines as everyone living in the house related or not.  Also, the IRS (US tax agency) also defines household.

Thanks Agus and Mary Helen, I understand your point then if we look at the impact of remittances (both economic and social) one should use the family as the unit of analaysis and not the household 

I think that in academia there is definitely a distinction between household and family. In the literature and in research, the first thing the writer does is define the terms or definitions of the topic at hand.  Have you done a  lit review on the terms?.  Beyond that, I would think that most people do not equate household with family, as most people are aware that living arrangements are not always limited to family members living together--even when it is extended family.

Also, it is the same in my country of origin-- Mexico, where it is rare, if non-existent to find single persons, male or female living in rented apartments, alone or sharing with roommates (other singles).

Check out this link from the UN on defining "family" and "household."  Perhaps it might help. http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/sconcerns/fam/fammethods.htm

Hi Artur, thanks for your comments which have "forced' me to think better to answer you. yYs what you are saying regarding Italt is correct from a cultural point of view, in the sense that until few years ago you normally left home late and only because you were going to get married (although there were many exceptions) however now a day despite the economic crisis people tent the leave home as soon as they can and this is not anymore regarded as a break of the family link since the support both financial and social from the parents still remain, a bit like what you have described for the USA. And that is exacly what I am trying to understand better here with the distiction between family and household. Household is related to the physical place where people who may or not may be related by "family links" stay pooling resourses together, while in the family concept the element of generational/blood link is present; so in many cases the two concepts are similar. What I want to try to uderstad it what of the two is better to use when analysing the impact of migrtation. As for academia i refer to the econoic and socioogical literature on the argument. 

"Friends with privileges" is a rather  recent phrase of the young (er) generation(s)  that refers to a couple who are engaging in sexual relations, but are "just friends"  i.e. not involved romantically.

It is not nice to make such indiscriminate, generalizations that end up as stereotyping an entire nation of people, based solely on one person's experience with a very  small part of a very large number of people.   "IT IS NOT TRUE!!!  The phrase," what I heard.." is typically used for gossip.

Migration has its own meaning, apart from family and household, so to define is as separating family and household is unusual and questionable.  How does migration do that?  Family and household are not necessarily separated when there is migration.

Hi Mary - Helen, yes I agree with your comment; I am going to send you the paraghrap on family and household as soon as I finish, for your critical view..... just kidding.

Thanks to all for your comments 

"Household" usually refers to a living arrangement--whether in one structure (building) or separate structures--and often implies eating together or drawing on a common budget.  "Family", on the other hand, is typically a larger, nonresidential unit.  In my own case, my "household" once consisted of myself, my wife, and two daughters; now, it is just my wife and me, as the daughters married and moved away--but the daughters are still "family," of course.  My own mother and sister live about 800 miles distant from me; of course, they are "family" but are not in my "household."  In short, the concept HOUSEHOLD is best reserved for a residential unit (in a single structure or in a multi-structure compound), whereas FAMIY is a kinship grouping that may be quite scattered.

I'm sure there are other ways of managing these concepts, but the foregoing has always served me well in the field.  

Hi Barry thanks for your input, it is actually where I was leading too, infact it appears to me that while the household concept is much more suitable for census purposes, the family one, irrespectively from the physical residency, is more appropriate to analyse the socio-economic mpact of migration particularly in an African contest

Hi Nahda, thanks for your comments, I have posted a brief note in the research section where I have indicated how I have apporached the debate family - household and the definition I am going to use for my work. If you have time to read and comment I would appreciate

"who decides about the budget? what to spend on how?.....who migrates, when and how? etc.... "  These decisions have to be made in a "family" also, as you describe it, is  is assigned by society as the man/husband/father is the decision  maker.

"who goes to school and who does not?"  Unless you mean college/university, school attendance is mandated by law in most first world countries. who migrates, when and how? etc. I personally prefer not to use 'household' due to its extreme neutrality.

It is precisely because of the difference and debate over the meaning and definition of the terms "family" and "household' that any researcher must absolutely define how he/she is using the terms in their study ( which should be done in all research, anyway).

Also, why throw out a specific term because of one's own definition? Especially when it is useful and does exist in reality, i.e. people who are not "family" (related by blood or marriage, as defined in this case) can come together to live in the same place for many reasons, from college room mates (or any room mates) to someone taking in a friend or another/separate "family" due to need.

In many languages there is one word for home and house and coloquially used for household (e.g. Greek and Albanian). Check the concept of houe in anthropoogy house societies etc.  I think that this will clarify your question.

Thanks Dimitris

In one of my articles we have discussed how social worker define  and conceptualize family. Household was one of terms they have used. Some social workers defined family according to household while others defined the family according to law or the need of support and help...

Family is based on relationship and a nonresidential unit but household usually used as a residential unit with or without family relationships.