Chapter 10 Kinship

Chapter Questions Why is kinship so important in nonstate societies? Can you explain why hunters and gatherers have kinship classification systems similar to those of industrialized societies?

Chapter Questions What are some of the functions of different kinds of kinship systems? How can people manipulate kinship rules to server their own interests? In what ways to kinship terminologies reflect other aspects of a culture?

Kinship Includes relationships through blood and through marriage. Functions: Provides continuity between generations. Defines a group on whom a person can rely for aid.

Descent Groups Affiliations between children and parents. Functions: Organize domestic life. Enculturate children. Allow transfer of property. Carry out religious ritual. Settle disputes.

Unilineal Descent Descent based on links through paternal or maternal line. Advantages: Forms nonoverlapping descent groups that perpetuate themselves over time even though membership changes. Provide clear group membership for everyone in the society.

Patrilineage Descent is traced through male lineage. Inheritance moves from father to son, as does succession to office. Man’s position as father and husband is the most important source of male authority. Example: Nuer or Sudan.

Matrilineage Descent is traced through the female line. Children belong to the mother’s descent group. The inclusion of a husband in the household is less important. Women usually have higher status. Example: Hopi.

Kinship Classification and Culture Outlines rights and obligations. Specifies how people act toward each other. Determines the types of social groups that are formed. Regulates the systems of marriage and inheritance.

Principles of Classifying Kin Generation Relative age Lineality vs. Collaterality Gender Consanguineal vs. Affinal kin Sex of linking relative Side of the family

Types of Kinship Terminologies Hawaiian - emphasizes distinctions between generations and reflects the equality between the mother’s and the father’s sides of the family. Eskimo - found among hunting-and-gathering people in North America and correlated with bilateral descent.

Types of Kinship Terminologies Iroquois - associated with matrilineal or double descent and emphasizes the importance of unilineal descent groups. Omaha - found among patrilineal peoples including the Native American group of that name.

Types of Kinship Terminologies Crow - named for the Crow Indians of North America, is the matrilineal equivalent of the Omaha system. Sudanese - most descriptive systems, named after the groups that use them in Africa (primarily Ethiopia).