what is kinship? forms?
- Relatedness, refers to the socially recognized ties that connect people to one another including:
- Friendship, marriage, parenthood, shared links to a common ancestor, work place associations, etc
what are kinship systems based on?
- Based on social relationships of mating, birth, and nurturance
- Believed to be based on shared substance and its transmission, either bodily (blood, genes, milk) or spiritual (soul nurturance, love)
what is descent?
• Descent is the cultural principle that defines social categories through culturally recognized parent-child connections
what should a kinship diagram include?
• Kinship diagram must have a clear legend (male ego, female ego, male, female, non-specific gender, deceased, married to, divorced, lines connecting parents and children, lines connecting siblings)
example of a kinship diagram exam question
mac informed me he has two sisters, but only 1 is married. Macs sister and her husband have two children, a boy and a girl- macs parents were married for many years, but they have since divorced.
what was found connected to the kwaday dan ts’inchi tribe?
- Scientists find 17 living relatives of ‘iceman’ discovered in B.C.
- Kinship, connection to community.
what is a clan?
• A clan is A descent group made up of lineages whose members believe they are related, even if they can no longer specify the links.
what is patrilineage?
• A patrilineage is a social group formed by people connected through father-child links.
what is matrilineage?
• A matrilineage is a social group formed by people connected through mother- child links.
how is descent usually traced? who is typically the most important man in a boy’s life?
- Descent is traced through women rather than men.
- They do not mirror patrilineage- the sister brother pair is important
- The most important man in a boy’s life is his maternal uncle
how is adoption positioned within the kinship system?
- Position with kinship system are often viewed as examples of ascribed statuses- social positions given to people at birth
- Achieved status are those social positions that can be attained later in life
- Adoption: people transform achieved status into ascribed status, thus changing a relation of nurturance into one of kinship.
how does marriage embed human mating? what does it create?
- Marriage embeds human mating within an elaborately constructed social and cultural niche
- It creates new relationships between the kin of spouses, called affinal relationships, in contrast to consanguineal relationships (based on descent)
define endogamy and exogamy
relationships (based on descent)
• Endogamy: marriage contracted within a defined social group
Exogamy: marriage outside a defined group
describe neolocal marriage
• Neolocal residence: couple sets up independent household in a new location, found in societies rather than individualistic
describe patrilocal residence
• Patrilocal residence: couple lives with/near husbands father, common among patrilineal pastoral and farming communities
describe matrilocal residence
• Matrilocal residence: couple lives with/near wifes mother. Common among matrilineal groups
describe Avunculocal residence
• Avunculocal residence: couple lives with/near husbands mothers brother, found among matrilineal groups
what is a nuclear family?
• Nuclear family: parents and their unmarried children
what is a polygynous family?
• Polygynous family: consists minimally of a husband, all his wives, and their children
what is extended family?
• Extended family: parents, married children, and grandchildren
what is joint family?
• Joint family: brothers and their wives, or sisters and their husbands, living together with children
what is a blended family?
• Blended family: created when divorced or widowed people remarry, bringing with them children from previous families
what is family by choice?
Families by choice: gays and lesbians may be rejected by their families, and so find that blood ties cannot guarantee enduring solidarity
what is friendship?
• Unofficial bonds created between people that tend to be personal, and often a matter of choice
• Line between friendship and kinship may be fuzzy:
Kin may be friends and friends may be seen as relatives
