Only about one village household in four contained more than one married couple, and even fewer two or more established families see Table 2, p 38). Each young couple is expected to have a room of their own; and once they have their own children, ech couple becomes a separate family unit with interests to some extent in conflict with the interests of others in the household. People often spoke of the desire of the young family for independence, and a tug of war always takes place between the pressure of the young family to escape and the pressure of the rest of the household, especially the household head, to keep them loyally attached.
The paired relationships which I discussed above operate within a group organised on these three different and not entirely consistent principles. The way they work out in any given case depends largely on the overall structural pattern of the particular household. Of course, personal idiosyncracies and likes and dislikes play a great part, but they do so within a traditional household structure, and not in an arbitrary way. Indeed, this particular society, by the strength of its rules of conduct, and especially by the social segregation of the sexes and of young and old, minimises the potential disruption caused by personal dislike.