The stem family is sometimes associated with inegalitarian inheritance practices, as in Japan and Korea, but the term has also been used in some contexts to describe a family type where parents live with a married child and his or her spouse and children, but the transfer of land and moveable property is more or less egalitarian, as in the case of traditional Romania, northeastern Thailand or Mesoamerican indigenous peoples.
Matična porodica se nekad povezuje sa nepravednom praksom nasleđivanja, kao u Japanu i Koreji, ali se ovaj termin takođe koristi i u kontekstu u kome opisuje tip porodice u kome roditelji žive sa detetom koje je u braku i njegovim ili njenim supružnikom i decom, ali prenos zemljišta  i pokretne imovine je više-manje jednako, kao u slučaju tradicionalne Rumunije, severoistočnog Tajlanda ili naroda Srednje Amerike.