Topic 5 : Kinship

Corporate Descent Groups

Permanent kinship groups that have an existence beyond the membership at any given time. Where lineages own land collectively and where the members are held responsible for one's another behavior, the lineage is considered a corporate group.

Nonunilineal Descent

Any system of descent in which both father's and mother's lineages have equal claim to the individual.

Seniority

If you are older, you have higher rank.

Transmigrant

Immigrants who maintain close relations with their home countries.

Collateral Kin

Kin descended from a common ancestor but not in a direct ascendent or descendent line, such as sibligns and cousins.

#Nuer in Sudan, East Africa.

Patrilineage, Patrilocal

Classification of Kin

is important because it regulates behavior in most societies, outlining each person's rights and obligations and specifying the ways in which a person must act toward others and they toward him or her. Related to other aspects of culture : the types of social group that are formed, the systems of marriage and inheritance, and even deeper and broader cultural values.

Cognatic Descent

Any nonunilineal system of descent

Phratry

A unilineal descent group composed of a number of clans whose members feel themselves to be closely related.

Clan

A unilineal kinship group whose members believe themselves to be descended from a common ancestor but who cannot trace this link through known relatives. Generally not residential units but tend to spread out over many villages. Often have political and religious functions rather than primarily domestic and economic ones. Regulate Marriages. : Regulate in-clan marriage, and it strengthens unilineal character. (ex. Crow Indians in North America)

Kindred

A unique kin network made up of all the people related to a specific individual in a bilateral kinship system.

Genitor

A biological father

Totem

An animal, plant, or other aspect of the natural world held to be ancetral or to have other intimate relationships with members of a group.

#Minangkabau of Sumatra

- West Sumatra in Indonesia - Matrilineal Islamic Society - Matrilocal : 1. Younger daughter's family live farthest from the central matrihouse. 2. One room next to the kitchen is men's room, for any divorced or widowed men forced to return home.

Principles of Classifying Kin

1. Generation 2. Relative Age 3. Lineality vs Collaterality 4. Gender 5. Consanguineal vs Affinal Kin 6. Side of the Family (bifurcation) 7. Sex of Linking Relative - Parallel Cousin - Cross Cousin

Types of Kinship Terminologies

1. Hawaiian : - Found in Polynesia. - Emphasizes the distinctions between generations and reflects the equality between the mother's and the father's sides of the family in relation to Ego. 2. Eskimo : - Found among hunting-and-gathering peoples in North America, is correlated with bilateral descent. - Emphasizes the nuclear family by using terms for its members (mother, father, sister, brother, daughter, son). Outside the nuclear family, are lumped together. 3. Iroquois : - The Iroquois system is associated with matrilineal or double descent. - Emphasizes the importance of unilineal descent groups. - Same terms apply to mother and mother's sisters, and a common term also applies to father and father's brothers. - Parallel cousins are referred to by the same term as those for brother and sister. - Father's sister and mother's brother are distinguishied from other kin, as are the children of father's sister and mother's brother (Ego's cross cousin) 4. Omaha : - Found among patrilineal peoples, including the Native American group of that name. - The same term is used for father and father's brother and for mother and mother's sister. - Parallel cousins are equated with siblings, but cross cousins are referred to by separate terms. - A man refers to his brother's children by the same term he applies to his own children, but he refers to his sister's children by different terms. - There is a merging of generations on the mother's side. 5. Crow - Named for the Crow Indians of North America, is the matrilineal equivalent of the Omaha system. 6. Sudanese - No North American groups used Morgan's final kinship system, so he named it Sudanese, after the African groups, primarily in Ethiopia, who do use it. - Also used in some places in Turkey and was used in Ancient Rome. - Use different terms for practically every relative: siblings, paternal parallel cousins, maternal parallel cousins, paternal cross cousins, and maternal cross cousins. - Ego refers to his or her parents by terms distinct from those for father's brother, father's sister, mother's sister, and mother's brother. -Sudanese kinship tent to be strongly patrilineal and very concerned with issues of wealth, class, and political power.

Two Types of Kinship Ideology and its Differences

1. Unilineal Descent : Kin groups do not overlap. - Patrilineal Descent - Matrilineal Descent 2. Bilateral Descent : Kin groups do overlap.

Kinship

A culturally defined relationship established on the basis of blood ties or through marriage. Kinship provides 1. The orderly transmission of property and social position between generations. 2. Depend for aid.

Ambilineal Descent

A form of bilateral descent in which an individual may choose to aflliate with either the father's or mother's descent group. Many in Pacific Island societies

Segmentary Lineage System

A form of sociopolitical organization in which multiple descent groups (usually patrilineages) from at different levels and function in different contexts.

Descent Group

A group of kin who are descendants of a common ancestor, extending beyond two generations.

Lineage

A group of kin whose members trace descent from a known common ancestor. Often a local residential or domestic group whose members cooperate on a daily basis.

Matrilineage

A lineage formed by descent in the female line.

Patrilineages

A lineage formed by descent in the male line.

Complementary Opposition

A political structure in which higher-order units form alliances that emerge only when lower-order units come into conflict.

Bifurcation

A principle of classifying kin under which different kinship terms are used for the mother's side of the family and the father's side of the family.

Patrilineal Descent

A rile that affiliates a person to kin of both sexes through males only.

Exogamy

A rule specifying that a person must marry outside a particular group.

Matrilineal Descent

A rule that affiliates a person to kin of both sexes through females only.

Lineal Kin

Blood relations linked through descent, such as Ego, Ego's mother, Ego's grandmother, and Ego's daughter.

Consanguinity

Blood ties between people

Clan vs Lineages

Both have different functions in different societies. Lineages : often a local residential or domestic group whose members cooperate on a daily basis. Clans : often have political and religious functions rather than primarily domestic and economic ones.

Unilineal Descent

Descent group membership based on links through either the maternal or the paternal line, but not both.

Bifurcation

Differentiation according to whether they are from the mother's side ofr the father's side of the family.

Consanguineal Relatives

Relatives by blood.

Affinal

Relatives by marriage, in-laws.

Bilateral Descent

System of descent under which individuals are equally affiliated with their mothers' and their fathers' descent group.

Parallel Cousins

The children of a parent's same-sex siblings (mother's sisters, father's brothers).

Cross Cousins

The children of a parent's siblings of the opposite sex (mother's brothers, father's sisters).

Descent

The culturally established affiliation between a child and one or both parents.

Primogeniture

The eldest son inherits all of his father's property.

Nepotism

The granting of privilege or favoritism on the basis of family relationships.

Filial Piety

The obligation of sons to their fathers.

Transnationalism

The pattern of close ties and frequent visits by immigrants to their home countries.

Pater

The socially designated father of a child, who may or may not be the biological father. ex) Toda of India

Kinship System

The totality of kin relations, kin groups, and terms for classifying kin in a society.

Double Descent

The tracing of descent through both matrilineal and patrilineal links, each of which is used for different purposes.

Succession

The transfer of office or social position between generations.

Inheritance

The transfer of property between generations

Kinship Terminology

The words used to identify different categories of kin in a particular culture.