The Algerian family has faced internal and external cultural, social, economic, and ideological challenges, foremost among them French colonialism, that have sought, and continue to seek, to dismantle and fragment it. Most sociological studies, including those by Pierre Bourdieu, Addi Lahouari, Mustapha Boutefnouchet, and Mohamed Souidi, that examined the Algerian family during and after colonialism and up to the end of the nineteenth century indicate that the Algerian family underwent several changes in its structural configuration, internal relations, and social and religious values as a result of the aforementioned factors. This study examines the most significant changes affecting family structures, the factors that have contributed to these changes, and the social forms, or family patterns, resulting from them. It begins with the tribe as a social structure and the position of the traditional family within it, proceeds through transitional and modern forms of the family, and concludes with the individual as the focal point of social processes and as a historical actor, in Alain Touraine's formulation.