Introduction to Kinship Family and Marriage

                                       Defining Kinship 

Anthropologist Robin Fox states that "the study of kinship is the study of what man does with these basic facts of life – mating, gestation, parenthood, socialization, siblingship etc''. He argues that human society is unique in that we are working with the same raw material as exists in the animal world, but [we] can conceptualize and categorize it to serve social ends. These social ends include the socialization of children and the formation of basic economic, political and religious groups.

The ‘facts of life with which man has had to come to terms in the process of adaption and which are immediately relevant to the study of kinship and marriage can be reduced to four basic principles;

1. A lengthy infant maturation period that requires a major commitment from one and usually both parents to nurture and educate dependent children ( the women have the children)

2. The presence of a marital bond that creates an enduring and socially regulated sexual and domestic relationship between two or more people (the men impregnate women)

3. A division of labour based on gender (the men usually exercise control)

4. Prohibition on intercourse and marriage between close kin creates a widely articulated network of relationships between individuals related by marriage. (primary kin do not mate with each other)

Kinship is a cultural universal. It is the fundamental relationship between human beings. Kinship relationships arise out of two different kinds of bonds that cement people together. They are;

A. Consanguineal kinship (it forms the family of orientation).

B. Affinal kinship (it forms the family of procreation).

Relationships based on the consanguineal bond of birth are called descent, and relationships based on the affinal bond of sex and marriage is called alliance. The mutually conditioned interplay between the two constitutes kinship.

Some scholarly definitions of kinship ;

1. W.H.R. Rivers (1924) defines Kinship as the “social recognition of biological ties”.

2. According to Evans-Pritchard, Meyer Fortes, Lucy Mair and several anthropologists, ‘Kinship is defined as a relationship based on the culturally defined principle of consanguinity.’

3. According to Miller, ‘Kinship refers solely to the relationships based on descent and marriage.’

4. Robin Fox: “Kinship is simply the relations between ‘kin’ that is persons related by real putative or fictive consanguinity”.

5. A.R. Radcliffe Brown: Kinship is “a system of dynamic relations between person and person in a community, the behaviour of any two persons in any of these relations being regulated in some way, and to a greater or less extent by social usage”.

6. According to Claude Levi Strauss, “Kinship and its related notions are at the same time prior and exterior to biological relations to which we tend to reduce them”.

7. Malinowski (1954): According to him, the kinship system can be referred to as a complex and elaborate one; and he referred to it as ‘KINSHIP ALGEBRA’.

Kinship refers to a principle by which individuals or groups are organized into social groups, roles, categories, and genealogy through kinship terminologies. Kinship is the method of reckoning relationships. In simple words, “The bond of blood or marriage which binds people together in a group is called kinship”.

In kinship, we find;

1. Different ideas concerning parenthood

2. Relations between sexes, nature of marriage relations

3. Particular symbols used to denote kinship

4. Different ways of rationalizing the existence of a particular marriage or descent system.

5.Tools that help us describe more accurately particular indigenous world views and the circumstances of their existence.

In any society, every normal adult individual belongs to two different nuclear families. The family in which he has born and reared is called the “family of orientation”. The other family to which he establishes relation through marriage is called the “family of procreation”. The universal fact of individual membership in two nuclear families gives rise to the kinship system.

Murdock (1949), while analyzing the interrelation between Kinship terminology and kinship behaviour; provides two categories;

- Term of Reference - It is a more formal term used to denote a person. For example The term Mother, Father, are term of Reference

- Term of Address - This is the term used while talking to the kin. This differs from place to place. For example The terms Maa, Papa are terms of address in the Indian context.

Kinship terminologies –

L.H Morgan in his ethnographic work among the Iroquois, observed certain terminologies being employed to classify the kins.

1. Classificatory kinship System: Under the classificatory system, the various kins are included in one category, and all referred to by the same term. All of them were referred to by the same term of designation; thus, the term ‘uncle’ is a classificatory term. It is used for chacha, mama, mausa, Foofa,tau, etc. Similarly, the terms ‘nephew’ ‘cousin’ and ‘in-law’ are classificatory terms. The Sema Naga of Assam uses Aja for mother, father’s brother’s wife, and mother’s sister. Among Kuki clans, hepu is used for father’s father, mother’s father, brother’s son, wife’s brother, wife’s brother’s son. Thus, people of various age groups are designated by the same term. Among Angami Naga, the same terms are used for members of the opposite sexes. The word she stands for elder brother, wife’s elder sister; husband’s elder brother, elder sister’s husband, brother’s wife; father’s brother’s wife. In Hindi, the word ‘Samadhin’ is a classificatory term as it refers to father and mother of Daugther in-law and son-in-law.

2. Descriptive kinship system: In the descriptive system, there is a separate term for every kin whereby each such term describes the exact relation of the ego with the kin in question.

In reality, the words “Classificatory” and “Descriptive” refer to the kinship terms only, not the whole terminology system. 

The logic of  Cultural Construction of Kinship

To understand the logic by which they are culturally constructed. By “logic”, we mean the principles that people use to distinguish one kind of relative from others. There are many principles, but only five are relevant for our purposes.

First, every kin term has a reciprocal term. For example, the reciprocal term for grandfather is either granddaughter or grandson. If you call a woman mother, she will call you son or daughter.

Second, for some terms, the gender of the individuals to whom the term applies makes a difference. In English, gender matters for terms like brother and sister, uncle and aunt, and grandfather and grandmother. Indeed, gender is the only criterion that distinguishes the relatives just mentioned from one another. Gender is irrelevant, however, for cousins.

Third, kinship terms usually reflect whether the individual referred to is of the same or a different generation than Ego’s. In English, specific terms are used for relatives in Ego’s own generation (like cousin), in Ego’s parents’ generation (aunt), and in Ego’s children’s generation.

(niece). In describing kinship terminologies, we call Ego’s parents’ generation the first ascending generation and Ego’s children’s generation the first descending generation. Although the terms used in most kinship terminologies reflect generational differences, some systems use terms that transcend generations.

Fourth, the sex of the relative who connects Ego to another relative usually matters. The distinction between a cross and parallel cousins illustrates this logical principle: among many peoples, a mother’s brother’s daughter is called by a different term than the mother’s sister’s daughter.

Often, too, the father’s sister and mother’s sister have different labels.

The side of the family is a fifth criterion by which kin terminologies are constructed. In English, the side of the family is irrelevant: your relatives through your mother receive the same terms as relatives through your father. As we know, many other cultures place special emphasis on relationships through females (mothers—matrilineal) or males (fathers—patrilineal). As you suspect, this emphasis is reflected in terminological systems.

These five principles are among the ones that various peoples use to culturally construct kinship. The most general point is that different peoples combine these logical principles—as you can see, they are logical possibilities—in various ways to form categories or kinds of relatives.

Kinship Diagram -a kinship diagram, a schematic way of presenting the kinship relationships of an individual, called ego, using a set of symbols to depict all the kin relations of ego.

An adopted individual is denoted by - dotted vertical line. 

Kinship codes

Kin	Symbol (Europe)	Symbol (America)	Symbol	Symbol
Father	F	Fa	F	F
Mother	M	Mo	m	M
Brother	B	Br	B	B
Sister	Z	si	S	S
Son	S	so	S	S
Husband	H	Hu	H	H
Wife	W	Wi	w	W
Sibling	G	Sb
Spouse	E	Sp
Child	C	Ch
Daughter	D	Da	d	d

P- Parent –pa              ms- male speaking              GC- Grand children

Os – opposite sex       fs- female speaking            GP- Grandparents

Oss –opposite same-sex    e- elder, y- younger     LA–in–law

Links from father- Patrilineal or agnatic descent

Links from mother – Matrilineal or uterine descent

In contrast to a kinship diagram, genealogy is a schematic way of presenting a family tree, constructed by beginning with the earliest ancestors that can be traced, then working down to the present. A genealogy, thus, does not begin with ego.

WHR rivers have been known as the founder of the " Genealogical method ".

Genealogical diagrams are only representations of reality using arbitrary conventions and symbols.

Genealogical diagrams show us-

1. Real living or dead individuals are said to be related in the society in question.

2. The model of a particular kinship system

3. The context of such relationships or a particular subsidiary aspect of them or the system (e.g., circulation of gifts).

4. The Abstraction model of kinship ismore or less common to a number of societies (cross-cousin marriage).

5. Analytical and folk model design

MN Srinivas coined the term Sanskritization to show how marginalized castes, while undergoing social mobility, sometimes reinvent their genealogies as part of remaking their ritual status in the caste hierarchy.

KINSHIP USAGES

The study of kinship does not restrict itself with the description of the kins or basis of their classification or general forms of kinship behaviour. There are certain special kinship usages, which hold special significance in respect to the non-literate societies.

1. Teknonymy: The word ‘teknonymy’ has been taken from the Greek word and was used in anthropology for the first time by Tylor. According to this usage, kin is not referred to directly, but he is referred to through another kin. The kin becomes the medium of reference between two kin. Thus in a traditional Hindu family, a wife does utter the name of her husband. She calls him through her son or daughter. James Frazer has said this kind of usage is found amongst the people in many places such as Australia, New Guinea, China, North Siberia, Africa, Andaman Island and so on.

2. Avanculate: This is a queer usage found between a mother‟s brother and his sister‟s children. Among some matrilineal societies, maternal uncle assumes many of the duties of the father as a matter of convention. His nephew and niece remain under his authority. They inherit his property also. Such a relationship exists among the Trobriand Islanders of Melanesia, the Fijians, the African tribes and the Nayers of south India. This usage is found in a matriarchal system in which prominence is given to the maternal uncle in the life of his nephews and nieces.

3. Amitate : This kind of usage is more or less similar to the avanculate and found among patrilineal people. Here, the father‟s sister gets great respect and prime importance. She is more than a mother to her nephew and exerts her authority on him in many life events. In fact, it is a social mechanism, which protects fathers ‟s sisters from falling into neglect, especially in situations when they are driven off from their in-laws house. Polynesian Tonga, Toda of South India etc., communities exhibit this type of kinship usage. Among Todas, the child gets the name not through its parents but through the father's sister. Naming the child is her privilege

4. Couvades: This is another strange usage of kinship between a husband and his wife. Toda and Khasi communities of India can be cited as examples. Here the husband is compelled to undergo an austere life whenever his wife gives birth to a child. He has to maintain a strict diet and observe several taboos along with his wife. Anthropologists regard couvades as a symbolic representation of establishing paternity on the child. Some years back, this particular usage was popular among the Nayers of South India, Ainus of Japan and also a few communities of China.

5. Avoidance; In most societies, the usages of avoidance acts as an incest taboo. A father-in-law avoids his daughter–in–law according to traditional social norms. The same relation prevails between a mother–in–law and between the husband‟s elder brother and the younger brother‟s wife. This is a protective measure against incestuous sexual srelations among close relatives who remain in the face-to-face contact every day. The purdah system in Hindu families in the north illustrates the usage of avoidance.

6. Joking Relationship: It is just the opposite type of kinship usage in contrast to “avoidance”. This special privileged relationship indulges in testing each other by different kinds of jokes, including vulgar sexual jokes. Usually, such relationships exist between a man and his wife‟s younger sisters or between a woman and her husband‟s younger brothers, between cross cousins, between grandparents and grandchildren. Joking relationships are found in tribal as well as in Hindu society. Anthropologists consider the kinship terms in society as extremely functional as well as resistant to change. These terms distinguish the relatives and indicate the form of families, rules of residence, rules of descent, and many other important features of a social system. Such a relationship prevails between a grandson and granddaughter, on the one hand,  their grandfather and grandmother, on the other. e.g. Orans of Orissa and Baigas of Madhya Pradesh, such relationships prevail.

Degree of kinship

Based on the nearness of distance, relatives can be classified into several categories. For every kin category, we have an affinal and consanguieal kin. 

                               

1. Primary Kins: Some relatives are very close direct, and near, for example, father, son, sister-brother, husband-wife. They are called primary kin. According to Dr SC Dubey, there are eight such primary kin. They are husband-wife, father-son, mother-daughter, father-daughter-mother-son, younger-elder brothers, younger-elder sister and sister-brother.

2. Secondary Kins: There are secondary kins. They are primary kin of primary kin. In other words, they are related through primary kin. They are not our primary kin but are the primary kin of our primary kin, hence our secondary kin. For example, father’s brother. The father is my primary kin, and his brother is the primary kin of my father. Therefore, my father’s brother is my secondary kin, the primary kin of primary kin.

3. Tertiary Kins: There are tertiary kins. They are secondary kin of our primary kin and the primary kin of our secondary kin. Thus the wife of brother-in-law (sala), called sarhaj in Hindi, is tertiary kin because brother-in-law is my secondary kin and his wife is the primary kin of brother-in-law similarly, the brother-in-law of my brother is my tertiary kin because the brother is my primary kin and his the brother-in-law is the secondary kin of my brother.

According to Murdock, there are thirty-three secondary and 151 tertiary kin of a person.

Fictive kinship is used to create links to people who otherwise would not be kinsmen. This can be expedient for dealing with irregular circumstances or even a mere social courtesy.

Godparenthood and the adoption of children are examples of fictive relationships in European cultures. Godparenting has been particularly important in Latin America, where friends voluntarily create lasting ties of shared responsibility for their children--they become respected compadres (co-fathers) or comadres (co-mothers). Fictive kinship is provided by the "namesake kin" system of the San peoples of the Kalahari desert. They believe that everyone bearing the same name is the descendant of a common ancestor, even when genealogical connections are not documented. Residence rights and incest prohibitions are frequently extended solely based on people's names.

Systems of kinship terminologies

G.P. Murdock had identified six major systems of terminology on a global basis;

1. The Eskimo system   2. The Hawaiian system  3. The Iroquois system 4. The Omaha system    5. The Crow system       6. Sudanese system

According to him, kinship terms are technically classified in 3 different ways:

1. By the mode of use- Basing on the mode of use, the kinship terms can be divided into two sections. Some terms are for direct addressing, and others are for indirect reference. A “term of address” is used to call a relative, where a “term of reference” is used to designate a relative for speaking about him/her to a third person.

2. By the linguistic structure- When classified according to linguistic structure, kinship terms are distinguished as elementary, derivative and descriptive. An elementary term is an irreducible word like English “Father” “Nephew”, which cannot be analyzed into components having kinship meanings. Therefore called “elementary term” A derivative term is one that combines two or more elementary terms to denote a specific relative. A derivative term is like a grandfather, father–in–law, stepdaughter, etc.\

3. By the range of application, the kinship term is differentiated into two groups: denotative and classificatoryterm. Denotative terms are applied to the relatives of a single kinship category, defined by the generation, sex and genealogical connection. For example, the English terms brother, sister, daughter, son-in-law, etc., denote several persons with the same designation. In contrast, a classificatory term is the term that applies to the persons of two or more kinship categories. For instance, in English, the term grandmother stands for both mother‟s mother and father‟s mother, uncle maybe the brother of anyone f the parents or maybe the husband of the father‟s sister or mother‟s sister.

A.     Eskimo system

1. The most common kin naming pattern in North America and Europe today is known as the Eskimo system. Members of the nuclear family are given terms of reference based only on their gender and generation. 

2. Aunts and uncles are distinguished from parents in the Eskimo system and separated only by gender, the spouses of aunts and uncles may also be allocated these kin terms. 

3. All cousins are lumped together. No kinship distinction is made between uncles, aunts, and cousins with regards to side of the family.  For instance, there is no kin term for aunts on the mother's side of the family in contrast to those on the father's side--they are all called aunt.  

4. The Eskimo the kin naming system is found mainly in societies that use the bilateral principle of descent and that strongly emphasize the nuclear family over more distant kinsmen.   Both ego's mother's and father's collateral relatives are considered equally important.  That is to say, no distinction is made between relatives on the mother's and father's side of the family.  This is reflected in the kin names.  

Even though some relatives are lumped together with the same linguistic terms in the Eskimo and other kin naming systems, people do make distinctions between them as unique individuals.  For instance, someone would make a distinction between your uncle John and your uncle Pete by using their first names along with the kinship term.

The Eskimo system is one of the simplest, even though it is found among some of the most technologically complex societies.  It is also found among hunters and gatherers living in harsh environments, such as the Inuit, or Eskimo.  In both of these extremes, the common denominator for the Eskimo kin naming system is an economy that forces the nuclear family to be mostly independent.  The Eskimo system is used today by about 10% of the world's societies. 

5. Both classificatory and descriptive terms are used in differentiating between gender, generation, lineal relatives (relatives in the direct line of descent), and collateral relatives (blood relatives not in the direct line of descent). The Eskimo system is defined by its "cognatic" or "bilateral" emphasis - no distinction is made between patrilineal and matrilineal relatives.

Example- Ju/'hoansi and English kin system.

B. Hawaiian kinship 

It is also referred to as the generational system. 

1. The Hawaiian system is the simplest classificatory system of kinship. In it, differences are distinguished by generation and by gender. There is a parental generation and a generation of children. 

2. In this system, a person (called Ego ) refers to all females of his parents' generation as "Mother" and all of the males as "Father". In the generation of children, all brothers and male cousins are referred to as "Brother", all sisters and female cousins as "Sister". Associated with ambilineal descent. 

3. The nuclear family is de-emphasized. Relatives within the extended family are distinguished only by generation and gender. This results in just four different terms of reference. 

4.  Ego's father and all male relatives in his generation have the same kin name. Likewise, ego's mother and all-female relatives in her generation are referred to by the same kin term. Similarly, all brothers and male cousins are linked by giving them the same kin term Sister.

5.All-female cousins are also referred to by the same term.

6. Not surprisingly, a marriage of cousins is generally forbidden since they are treated like brothers and sisters. It is found widely in the islands of Polynesia, where it is usually associated with ambilineal descent. Since both sides of the family are treated equally, an individual's choice of ancestral line to trace is less biased.

C. Sudanese system 

1. It is a descriptive system. The Sudanese kinship system is the most complicated of all kinship systems. It maintains a separate designation for almost every one of Ego's kin, based on their distance from Ego, their relation, and gender. 

2. Ego's father is distinguished from Ego's father's brother and Ego's mother's brother. 

3. Ego's mother is similarly distinguished from Ego's mother's sister and from Ego's father's sister.

4. For cousins, there are eight possible terms. 

5. The Sudanese system is found in Sudan, Turkey, and some other societies with patrilineal descent and considerable social complexity. 

6. The fine distinctions made between kinsmen mirrors the society's desire to distinguish people based on class, occupation, and political power.

E.g.- Turkish kin terms.

D.  Omaha system

1. Ego uses the same categorization for father, father's brother and mother's brother.

2. There is a significant difference in cousin terminology. 

3. Parallel cousins are merged with siblings.

4. Ego uses the same term for his mother's brother son as he does for his mother's brother and the same terms for mother's brother daughter as for his mother. This lumping of generations is called skewing.

5. Siblings and parallel cousins of the same gender are given the same term of reference. 

6. the system follows a strong patrilineal descent principle reflecting the unimportance of the mother's of the family.

Eg, Dani kin terms, Igbo kin terms.

E. Crow System 

1.  An almost mirror image of the Omaha pattern is the matrilineally based Crow kin naming system.

 2. Relatives are also lumped together based on descent and gender. 

3.Siblings and parallel cousins of the same gender are given the same term of reference.

4.  Mother and mother's sister also have the same kin term.

5.Other people in ego's father's matrilineage are lumped across generations.This reflects the comparative unimportance of the father's side of the family in a society that strongly follows the matrilineal principle of descent.

6. Relatives on the mother's side of the family have more descriptive terms, and relatives on the father's side have more classificatory terms.

E.g.- Akan kin  terms

F. Iroquois system 

1.In the Iroquois kin naming system, the same term of reference is used for father and father's brother and mother and mother's sister. This merging is related to shared membership in unilineages, as it is in the Omaha and Crow systems. 

2. However, the Iroquois system may be either patrilineal or matrilineal and is usually not as strongly one or the other. 

3. The Iroquois system lumps together parallel cousins from both sides of the family with siblings but distinguishes them by gender. 

4.What sets the Iroquois system apart is that cross cousins are also lumped together and distinguished by gender. The reason is that there usually is a preference for marriage to cross cousins in societies that use the Iroquois system. 

5. The system has both classificatory and descriptive terms.

E.g.- Yanomamo Kin terms

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