ANTH /WMGS 326 Issues in the Anthropology of Kinship

Susan Vincent

BASIC KIN SYMBOLS AND TERMINOLOGY (somewhat old fashioned and carry assumptions)

BASES FOR KINSHIP TIES:

KIN DIAGRAMS:

   Symbols:

     � - woman

    ∆ - man

 □ - gender unknown or unimportant

  €, >, Ž - ego of: unknown gender, male, female

 ¶ - links people married to each other

 # - links parents and children

 ÿ - links siblings

Ego: the person from whose point of view the diagram is understood.

F - father

Z - sister

S - son

H - husband

M - mother

 B - brother

D - daughter

W - wife

- Bilateral (or cognatic) descent

                    - kin usually organized in kindred

- Unilineal descent

                    -patrilineal (includes children of men in the lineage)

                    -matrilineal (includes children of women in the lineage)

- Double descent

Note lineages are considered to be corporate descent groups (i.e. of political and economic importance in social organization). The standard example is considered to be the segmentary lineage system.

Terms:

- genitor versus pater

- genetrix versus mater

- patronym, matronym

- cross cousins, parallel cousins

- principles for classifying kin in cultural kin terminology systems:

                    - generation (eg. parents as opposed to children)

                    - relative age (eg. older sister as opposed to younger sister)

                    - lineality versus collaterality (eg. father as opposed to uncle)

                    - gender (eg. brother as opposed to sister)

                    - consanguineal versus affinal (eg. mother as opposed to mother-in-law)

                    - sex of linking relative (eg. mother’s brother’s child as opposed to mother’s sister’s child)

                    - side of family (eg. father’s relatives as opposed to mother’s relatives)

- family: nuclear, extended or compound

Monogamy - one spouse

Serial monogamy - one spouse at a time, but several through one’s life

Polygamy - multiple spouses:

                    - polygyny (one man, several wives);

                    - polyandry (one woman, several husbands (usually brothers))

                    - group marriage

Exogamy - rule that prescribes marriage outside a specific group

Endogamy - rule that prescribes marriage within a specific group

Incest taboo - rule that prohibits marriage within a specific subset of kin

Levirate: practice by which, when a woman’s husband dies, she becomes the wife of his close male relative

Sororate: practice by which, when a man’s wife dies, her close female relative becomes his wife.

Marital exchanges:

                    - bridewealth: goods that go from the groom’s family to the wife’s family

                    - brideservice: work performed by the groom for the wife’s family

                    - dowry: goods given by the wife’s family to the groom, or the groom’s family, or held in trust for the children

                    - wedding presents: goods given by family and friends to the bride and groom

Residence after marriage:

                    - neolocal: in a separate place from the couple’s families

                    - bilocal: shifting back and forth between the families of the couple

                    - ambilocal: some couples in the society live with the groom’s family, some with the bride’s family

                    - patrilocal: with the groom’s family

                    - matrilocal: with the bride’s family

                    - avunculocal: with the man’s mother’s brother (common in matrilineal societies, they live with HIS matrilineage rather than HERS)

Examples include godparenthood, use of kin terms in unions, use of kin terms for close family friends, etc.