Studying Family Structure. The study of the family from an historically informed perspective is a challenging exercise. Indeed, concepts of the social unit known as the family have varied widely from time to time and place to place. Reconstructing ancient family forms is perhaps one of the historian's or sociologist's most difficult tasks, especially when it comes to studying the family and social life of ancient West Africa, from which there exist few written records other than travelers' chronicles. It is difficult to speak about a single ancient West African family pattern in the same way that one might speak about the Chinese or the European family. Despite regional variations, however, throughout West Africa people placed a strong emphasis on familial relations, and the family played a primary role in structuring social and economic relations. While African cultural forms have been distorted by colonial contact and rapid modernization...