Kinship & Marriage

kinship = "family"
(in anthro-speak)

kinship is the key organizing structure in many societies studied by anthropologists

Eskimo / Inuit kin term system

Hawaiian kin term system

Iroquois kin term system

Kin groups can...

• be units of property ownership
• be units of economic cooperation
• govern the political units of a society
• relate to supernatural beliefs
• determine who one fights

Kinds of kin

• consanguineal - kin by "blood"
• affinal - kin by marriage
• fictive - kin based on ties other than "blood" or marriage

biology alone
does not determine kinship

According to Roman law:

"The father of the child
is the husband of the mother."

Systems of reckoning (determining)
kin vary cross-culturally.

The system dominant in U.S. largely follows biological lines.

Well, mostly...

On a piece of paper, list:

• first names of your siblings
• first names of your parents
• first names of your parents' siblings
• first names of your grandparents

Now draw a line, then list:

• first names of the siblings of each of your grandparents
• first names of your great-grandparents
• first names of the siblings of each of your great-grandparents
• first names of your great-great-grandparents
• first names of the siblings of your great-great-grandparents

The system dominant in U.S. largely follows biological lines.
Except that it tends to be pretty forgetful...

We eliminate most biological relatives from memory; thus effectively neutralizing our kinship with them.

- rules of descent -
rules determining who is recognized as kin

- rules of descent -
both exclusionary
& inclusionary

- rules of descent -
typically not as arbitrary as poor memory

kinship mechanics

• gender: triangles, circles, squares
• generational: vertical lines between shapes
• sibling: horizontal line above shapes
• marriage: horizontal line below shapes OR equals sign between shapes
• ego: shaded

lineal versus collateral kin

lineal kin: the direct ancestors or descendants of a particular Ego

collateral kin: Ego's siblings and their descendants, as well as the siblings of Ego's lineal kin of ascending generations and their descendants

lineal versus colateral kin

matrilateral versus patrilateral kin

matrilateral kin: all family members related through Ego's mother

patrilateral kin: all family members related through Ego's father

matrilateral versus patrilateral kin

matrilineal versus patrilineal kin

matrilineal kin: descent is traced exclusively through females from a founding female ancestor

patrilineal kin: descent is traced exclusively through males from a founding male ancestor

matrilineal versus patrilineal kin

cross relatives: kin that are neither matrilineal nor patrilineal relatives of ego

cross cousins: children of opposite sex siblings

parallel cousins: children of same sex siblings

cross relatives, cross cousins, & parallel cousins 

forms of descent

Patrilineal descent

• Descent is traced exclusively through males from a founding male ancestor
• Both males and females are included in the patrilineage, but only male links are utilized to include successive generations
• Men (and only men) pass kin membership on to their children
• A form of UNILINEAL DESCENT

patrilineage

patrilineage

Matrilineal descent

• Descent is traced exclusively through females from a founding female ancestor
• Both males and females are included in the matrilineage, but only female links are utilized to include successive generations
• Women (and only women) pass kin membership on to their children
• A form of UNILINEAL descent

matrilineage

matrilineage

The powerful West African Ashanti kingdom developed within a matrilineal society. Thus, the heir to the throne is not the king's (Asantehene's) own child but his sister's son. Early British emissaries to Ashanti learned about this family system the hard way. They supported several of the Asantehene's sons to be educated in England only to eventually disover that the allies they had so carefully cultivated were not in line to assume the throne.

dual descent

unilineal versus cognatic descent

cognatic descent: allows for the construction of social groups and categories through any or all of an ego's acknowledged relatives beginning with both ego's father and mother

Bilateral descent

• Typically ego focused, tracing relationships from both parents through an ever widening network of kinship called a kindred
• Kin membership can be passed through both females and males

bilateral

Ambilineal descent

• Involve an exclusive selection of membership in a father's or mother's group, usually upon adulthood
• Descent is traced from either father or mother, but not both, and back through a similarly restricted string of forbears

ambilineal

kin terms
versus kin types

kin types: a small set of etic terms that describe the entire possible range of kin relationships in a culture-neutral way

kin types include: ego; sibling (brother, sister); parent (mother, father); child (son, daughter); spouse (wife, husband)

kin type abbreviations:
Br, Zi, Mo, Fa, So, Da, Wi, Hu

kin terms: what particular kinds of kin are called within a particular cultural system

kin terms: individuals that ego calls by the same kin term have similar rights over and obligations to ego

kin terms: individuals that ego calls by the same kin term have similar rights over and obligations to ego

Eskimo / Inuit kin term system

Eskimo / Inuit kin term system

Hawaiian kin term system

Hawaiian kin term system

Iroquois kin term system

Iroquois kin term system

Omaha kin term system

Crow kin term system

Sudanese term system

Yanomamo kin term system

Individuals marry their cross cousins.

MATRILATERAL CROSS-COUSIN MARRIAGE

A man marries his mother's brother's daughter =MoBrDa.
(A woman marries her father's sister's son =FaZiSo.)








Examples: Chothe of Manipur, India; Aborigines of Australia

MATRILATERAL CROSS-COUSIN MARRIAGE

MATRILATERAL CROSS-COUSIN MARRIAGE