Social+and+Political+Structures+and+Cross+Cutting+Ties

The Igbo society was mostly organized into lineage groups, organized along the lines of descent from father to son.

A person belonged to three groups:
 * Uno, or the house, which was a natural family consisting of a man, his wife and his children
 * Ummuna, or lineage, which was a group of related houses
 * obodo, which was a group of ummuna that composed a compact village or town

These communities were held together through a series of cross-cutting ties between political and social groups. The most important five cross cutting institutions were the coucils of elders, age groups, chiefs, women's associations and secret societies. These cross cutting ties disintegrated when the Europeans began to aggressively colonize that region of Africa in the 20th century.