Family & Kinship

The Social Importance of Kinship

-Kinship is very important socially. It is often the basis for group formation and may be based on biological relatedness, marriage, or social kinship. Fictive kinship is a term used for when kin are not related by blood or marriage, for example a godparent. -A status is a culturally-designated position that a person occupies in a particular setting. In terms of kinship, that may refer to a status as a parent, child, grandchild, sibling, cousin, or godparent, for example. -A role is the set of norms, values, or behaviors expected of a person who occupies a certain status. -For example, consider a mother, a grandmother, and a godmother. The individuals that occupy these different statuses are all associated with the same kind of roles: caregiver. These roles are dynamic. In the 1950s, the role of mother likely included the responsibilities associated with a homemaker. In 2018, the responsibilities associated with the role as a mother likely include working for wages outside of the home. Consider how these terms interact with each other if several different statuses could have similar roles for an individual. For example, mother, mother-in-law, and godmother-- these statuses are related to roles of parent/mentor/caregiver even though one is parent by blood, one is parent by marriage, and one is a form of fictive kinship. -These roles in kinship guide our behavior as we interact with those we consider as a part of our kinship network to determine how you can interact with each other, who is considered a proper marriage partner, and who you are obligated to help in a time of crisis. -For example, let's think about appropriate interactions between you and your Granny compared to you and your nephew or younger brother. If you see your nephew or younger brother jumping on couch, it may be appropriate to raise your voice and shout, "No jumping on the couch! Get down from there! You are going to be in BIG TROUBLE!" But if you see your Granny jumping on the couch, are you going to shout at her? You may be concerned, even alarmed, but you are not likely to raise your voice, shout, and scold her because, although it is appropriate to shout at your nephew when he is misbehaving, it is not appropriate to shout at your Granny—even when she's misbehaving.

Why study kinship ?

-Why is kinship so important to anthropologists? Kinship is a basic organizing feature of social structure in that it organizes people into families based on descent and marriage and structures communities, interactions, and expectations among each other. -It is made up of culturally defined relationships. These relationships designate rights, roles, and responsibilities in relation to other relatives, within a household, and the larger community. Kinship determines how a person fits into a family unit, the obligations he or she has to others, and how our relationships to other people in that family unit are defined. -Take a look at this picture, for example. This is a picture of my family. From left to right: My father-in-law, my mother-in-law, my husband, my daughter, myself, my sister, my brother-in-law, my niece and nephew, my Mom, and my Step-dad. In this picture we see a variety of ways that kinship is culturally defined: by blood, by marriage, gender, generation. -In this image, we also see an example of two different concepts. The family of orientation, which is the family one is born and grows up, and the family of procreation, which is the family formed when one marries and has children. -Kinship is dynamic—it changes over our lifetime—and it is culturally specific. Kinship is important as It has tremendous social and economic importance.

Descent Groups

A descent group is a permanent social unit that shares a common ancestry. Members of a descent group may change as new individuals are born, marry into another group, or diet, but the descent group itself persists for generations. In many instances, descent groups may span multiple villages and may establish alliances through frequent intermarriage. A lineage is a lineal descent group that can demonstrate a common ancestry by naming their forebears in each generation from the (apical) first ancestor to the present. A clan is a descent group that claims common descent but cannot actually demonstrate it. For example, individuals who identify with a Scottish clan. In some cases, a clan recognizes a nonhuman ancestor. When a nonhuman ancestor is considered the apical ancestor, this is called a totem. The Betsileo of Madagascar have both lineages and clans. They may demonstrate descent by listing ancestors as far back as 4 to 13 generations and then claim ancestry much further back in the past, including mermaids and mythological royalty.

Kinship Classification Systems

As you can see, all cultures classify kin but there is tremendous variation in how detailed it gets. In many western cultures, the kinship system is relatively vague. We only distinguish kin based on generation and gender, for the most part. We have some extremely vague terms that do not distinguish generation or gender. For example, what do you call your mother's brother's children? What do you call your father's sister's children? Both are called cousins but this word doesn't tell us anything about how we are related to them, how close in age we are, which generation they are in relative to us, or their sex. Other kinship systems are incredibly specific. Each individual relative is given a distinct term based on genealogical distance and familial relatedness to the ego. Highly specific kinship systems like this are more typical of societies with patrilineal descent. For example, Chinese kinship terminology is very specific! There is a specific name for your mother's older sister, your mother's younger sister, Distinctions between kind mirror society's desire to distinguish people on the basis of class, occupation, and political power.

Types of Descent

How is descent traced through a lineage? There are two broad categories of descent: unilineal descent and cognatic descent. Unilineal descent rules trace descent through only one lineage or side. For example, patrilineal or matrilineal descent. In unilineal descent systems, individuals would only consider themselves related to either their father's side or their mother's side of the family. Approximately 60% of the world's cultures practice unilineal descent rules. This pattern of descent is associated with a fixed resource base that allows control and exclusion. Cognatic descent rules trace descent through either both lineages—bilineal descent—or through either lineage—ambilineal. Cognatic descent rules provide members of a social group with flexible ways of establishing ties to kin who do not live in one place.

Matrilineal Descent

In a matrilineal descent system, an individual traces lineage through their female ancestors only. This descent system is relatively rare, accounting for only 15% of known societies. In these societies, women control subsistence production and the uncle plays a much more prominent role in a child's life compared to the father.

Patrilineal Descent

In a patrilineal descent system, an individual traces lineage through their male ancestors only. This descent system is by far the most common in the world, accounting for only 45% of known societies. In these societies, men control subsistence production and a woman and her children affiliate almost exclusively with her husband's kin.

The Economic Importance of Kinship

In addition to social aspects, kinship has major economic importance. It is frequently a means for determining how property and wealth are passed from generation to generation. Moreover, it may also be a means of transmitting social prestige. Consider the British royal family. It is historically preferred that the line of succession passes through a male heir first, and then completely through his lineage with preference for all male offspring above female offspring, before passing back to the next male heir. In practice, this means that when Queen Elizabeth passes away, the line of succession will proceed as follows: Charles, William, George, Louis, and Charlotte (even though she's older than baby Louis). We can calculate the line of succession in the British royal family all the way to the 18th in line—Mia. Once Harry and Meagan Markle have kids, the whole line of succession will be recalculated. The line of succession in the royal family is not only a means of passing down the political monarchy. It is a means of passing down generations of accumulated wealth, property, social titles, and power.

Mapping Kin

In order to study kinship, an anthropologist must first understand what terms are used in a culture to refer to different relatives. Like race, ethnicity, sex, and gender, kinship is culturally constructed and there is considerable variation across-cultures in how relationships are defined. When an anthropologist wants to determine how an individual is related to others, she will create a kinship chart. Creating a kinship chart starts with the "ego"; the ego is the individual whose kinship is being mapped and is always represented by a square (□). Male kin are represented by a triangle (Δ). Female kin are represented by a circle (Ο). When an individual is deceased, their symbol will have a slash through the middle (ex: Ø). When two individuals are married, they are connected by an equal sign (=). When two individuals are divorced, they are connected by an equal sign with a forward slash through the middle (≠). Blood relationships are connected together with a solid line. By mapping kin and comparing the different charts for individuals in a family, you can begin to understand relationship patterns and the value of those relationships to individuals. Through the process of mapping and naming kin, you can also understand how different individuals are classified within a system.

Classifying Kin 7

The seventh way to distinguish kin is by the sex of the linking relative. In this system, kin are classified as either siblings or cousins, depending on the sex of the linking relative. This is kind of an extension of bifurcate merging. So the mother's sister's children or the father's brother's children are considered siblings and the mother's brother's children or the father's sister's children are considered cousins. Anthropologists refer to these siblings as parallel cousins and these cousins as cross cousins. It is important to note that these terms, parallel and cross cousin, are used by anthropologists. These terms are not necessarily used by the groups themselves. These are the terms that I find student's find most confusing.

Classifying Kin 3,4,& 5

The third way to distinguish kin is based on whether they are lineal kin or collateral kin. A lineal relative is someone from whom you are directly descended or who is directly descended from you. A collateral relative is someone who is "off to the side" of your direct lineage. For example, your mother, father, grandparents, and any children you have are considered lineal relatives. Your aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, and nieces and nephews would all be considered collateral kin. The fourth way to distinguish kin is based on gender. For example, aunts are female relatives and uncles are male relatives. Cousin is a vague term that does not contain any additional information about an individual's gender, although the words primo and prima in Spanish do tell us information about an individual's gender. The fifth way to distinguish kin is based on consanguineal or affinal relatedness. You can think of this as individuals that you are related to via blood or marriage. Consanguineal kin are relatives that are related to you by blood. Affinal kin are relatives by marriage. In Spanish, for example, madre refers to your mother and the word suegra refers to your spouse's mother.

Classifying Kin: 1 & 2

There are 7 different ways to classify or distinguish kin. Some of these terms will be very familiar to you as you may use them in your own kinship classification system, even if you have never explicitly thought about them before. Some of these terms will be very unfamiliar to you as your culture may not distinguish kin in this way. The first way that cultures may classify kin is based on generation. Generation refers to the individuals above and below your age set. For example, your aunt and your nephew are terms that define individuals as belonging to the age set above you (your parents' age set) and the age set below you (your children's age set). However, these terms tell us nothing about the relative age of an individual. You may be the youngest of seven children with an age gap of 15 years between yourself and your oldest sibling who's eldest child, your niece, is actually older than you. But she is still considered your niece and you are her aunt, even though she is older than you and you are younger than her. Generational kinship terminology also does not distinguish whether someone is related to you on your mother's side or your father's side. Generational terminology is commonly found in ambilineal descent groups, where an individual may form a closer association with either side of their parent's family. The second way that cultures may classify kin is based on relative age. Relative age refers to whether an individual is older or younger than another. For example, in Balinese, there are three different terms to distinguish between children: abang means older brother, kakak means older sister, and adik can refer to either a younger brother or younger sister. This terminology indicates that there is more prestige associated with older children because their status is more differentiated compared to younger children, who are simply grouped together with one term.

Classifying Kin 6

Up to this point, many of the ways of distinguishing and classifying kin are likely to be fairly intuitive to most of us. The next two ways of classifying kin are a little less intuitive and a little trickier. These last two are most common in groups that trace descent unilineal. The sixth way to distinguish kin is called bifurcation. This is a way of distinguishing between kin on the mother's side of the family and kin on the father's side of the family. For example, the Swedish kin terms morbror and farbror refer to a mother's brother and the father's brother. Bifurcate merging is a form of kinship that builds on bifurcation but merges the terminology of same sex siblings of parents. For example, the Yanomami would consider both the father's brother and the mother's sister are considered parents. This pattern of kinship makes sense if you think about the descent groups. In a patrilineal descent group, children reside with and associate with their father's kin. An individual's father and father's brother share a lineage, gender, and generation. However, the mother's brother resides with a different kin group and would have little association with an individual. Similarly, in a matrilineal descent group, children reside with and associate with their mother's kin. An individual's mother and mother's sister share a lineage, gender, and generation. However, the father's sister resides with a different kin group and would have little association with an individual.