Cultural Anthropology (10) Kinship and Descent

nonunilineal descent

Form of descent in which individuals do not regularly associate with either matrilineal or patrilineal relatives, but make choices about whom to live with, whose land to use, and so forth.

patrilineal descent

Form of descent in which individuals trace their most important kinship relationships through their fathers.

matrilineal descent

Form of descent in which individuals trace their most important kinship relationships through their mothers.

cognatic descent

Form of descent in which relationships may be traced through both females and males.

unilineally extended families

Group of nuclear families formed by tracing kinship relationships through only one sex.

Omaha kinship model

A distinction is made between cross cousins on the mother's side (the children of mother's brother) and cross cousins on the father's side (the children of father's sister) . The mother's brother's daughters are called "mother," and the mother's brother's sons are called "mother's brother." If Ego is a male, he calls his father's sister's children, "niece" and "nephew." If Ego is a female, she calls her father's sisters' children "son" and daughter."

fictive kinship

A kinship relationship that is "adoptive," and not related by blood or marriage.

affineal kinship

A kinship relationship that is based on marriage or by law.

consonguineal kinsip

A kinship relationship traced by blood, or biologically.

kindred

All bilateral relatives recognized by an individual.

Hawaiian kinship model

All of Ego's relatives in the first ascending generation are called either "mother" or "father." Mother is extended to include Ego's mother's sister and Ego's father's sister, and Father is extended to include father's brother and mother's brother. Relatives are called "brother" or "sister" in own generation. No terms for "Uncle" or "Aunt."

cross cousin

Children of your parents' siblings of the opposite sex; your father's sisters' children and your mother's brother's children.

unilineal descent

Descent through "one line;" either through patrilineal or matrilineal descent.

Eskimo kinship model

Emphasis on bilateral descent, no division between patrilineal and matrilineal kin. Nuclear family members are assigned unique labels: mother, father, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, cousin.

unilineal descent group

Group of relatives formed by tracing kinship relationships through only one sex, either female or male, but not both.

descent group

Group whose members believe themselves to be descended from a common ancestor.

cultural construction of kinship

Idea that the kinship relationships a given people recognize do nor perfectly reflect biological relationships; reflected in the kinship terminology.

cognatic

Nonunilineal form of descent and kinship through either the male or female line.

bilateral descent

Kinship system in which individuals trace their kinship relationships equally through both parents.

bilateral kinship

Kinship system in which individuals trace their kinship relationships equally through both parents.

kin terms

Labels that individuals use to refer to his or her relatives of various kinds.

kinship terminology

Logically consistent system by which people classify their relatives into labeled categories ("kinds of relatives").

totemic

Members of clans are symbolically identified with certain supernatural powers associated with particular animals, plants, and natural forces such as lightning, the sun, and the moon.

clan

Named unilineal descent group, some of whose members are unable to trace how they are related, but who still believe themselves to be kinfolk.

parallel cousin

Parents are siblings of the same sex; father's brothers' children and mother's sisters' children.

form of descent

Principle through which people trace their descent from previous generations.

Iroquois kinship model

The term "father" includes the father's brother but not the mother's brother. "Mother" includes the mother's sister but not the father's sister. The children of father's brother and mother's sister are called "brother" and "sister." The children of the father's sister and the mother's sister are called cousin.

lineage

Unilineal descent group larger than an extended family whose members can actually trace how they are related.