ANTH 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Infertility, Kinship Terminology, Unilineality
Kinship
All culture have ways of defining kinship, a sense of being related to
another person or persons, the social system that organizes people in
families based on descent and marriage
-
Culture provides guidelines about who are kin and their expected
behaviours
-
Kinship is as ingrained in culture as language
-
Kinship and language are also connected
Terms used to define our relationships
○
-
Functions of Kinship Groups
Important organizing principle in societies
-
Ensure continuity of the group by arranging marriages
-
Maintains social order by setting moral rules and punishing offenders
-
Provides for the basic needs of members by regulating production,
consumption, and distribution of food and goods
-
Addresses questions like 'Who are the people I can count on?,'
'Where do I fit?'
-
What is a Family?
Groups of people who consider themselves related through kinship
-
Natal family - the family into which a person is born and (usually)
raised
-
Consanguineal family
People who are related by blood
○
Parents, grandparents, siblings, etc.
○
-
Conjugal family
People who are related by marriage
○
Your spouse, in-laws
○
-
What is a household?
A person living alone or one or more persons who occupy a shared
living space and who may or may not be related by kinship
You might have a roommate - together you share a household -
but that doesn’t make you family
○
-
Types of Households
Nuclear Household/Family
Domestic group that contains one adult couple and their
children
○
Foraging/industrial
○
Found in all cultures but only exclusive in 1/4 of them (*listen)
○
-
Extended household is a domestic group that contains more than
one adult married couple
Patrilineal (father), matrilineal (mother) and collateral (sibling)
extended households
○
1/2 of all cultures
○
Horticulture, pastoralists
○
-
Changes in Marriage, Changing Households
How we arrange ourselves into families and households reflects the
larger cultural system to which we belong
-
From extended towards nuclear
-
Increase in single - parent households
-
Blended family
-
Changing Households
International Migration
-
Multigenerational household (not to be confused with extended
household)
Boomerang kids
○
-
Defining kinship
Descent, sharing, marriage
-
Definitions of who counts as kin in different cultures varies
-
In the west, tend to emphasize 'blood' relations
'Blood' is not a universal
○
-
Even in cultures where it is, behaviour is also connected
-
Inuit
-
Ways of Organizing Kinship
Early 20th century - focus on finding out who is related to whom and
in what way
-
Kinship chart
Schematic way to presenting kinship relationships of an
individual using a set of symbols to depict all the kin relations
○
See textbook
○
-
Genealogy
Way of presenting a family tree, constructed by beginning at
the earliest ancestors and working down to the present
○
-
Descent and Kinship
Descent
The tracing of kinship relationships through parentage
○
-
Bilineal descent/Bilateral descent/Cognatic Clans
Where descent is traced through both parents and you are
equally related to the member's of both parent's families
○
-
Unilineal descent
When descent is traced primarily from your mother's line OR
your father's line
○
Patrilineal descent
Descent traced through male line
§
Related to modes of subsistence
§
Women 'marry out' (leave their family, and become
apart of the males family)
§
May be dependent on the lead males in her life; father,
husband, senior sons
§
Come with an assumption of a hierarchy
§
○
Matrilineal Descent
Descent traced through the female line
§
Mode of subsistence related - horticulture
§
Importance of mother's brother
§
○
-
More options for a woman and relatedness
Can be connected to her brothers□
Also to her husband's matrilineal kin□
§
Not just the mirror image of a patrilineage*
§
Brother marries out but maintain an active interest
§
Complicated
§
Patterns of Residence After Marriage
Marital residence tends to follow the prevailing direction of descent
rules
-
Neolocality - independent residence w/o their parents
-
Patrilocality - lives w/ or very near the husband's father's family
Most common
○
Social grouping of related men
○
-
Matrilocality - live w/ or very near the wife's family
Associated with matrilineages
○
Social grouping of related women along with their husbands
○
-
Modes of Subsistence, Kinship and Household Structure
In all cultures kinship is linked with modes of subsistence and
reproduction
-
Kinship terminologies
Kinship terminology are the words people use to refer to kin
-
'Aunt' 'cousin' 'father' 'mother'
-
Look at criteria
-
Found in both bilineal and unilineal descent groups
-
Organizes people, keeping track of many relatives by assigning
categorical terms
-
8 general principles (adapted from text)
-
Criteria Used in Kinship Terminology
Generation
Most common
○
Kin terms distinguish relatives according to the generation to
which they belong
○
'cousin' (refer to someone in the same generation)
○
1)
Collaterality
Kin in the direct line of lineage vs. those off to one side
○
Father vs. uncle
○
2)
Relative age
Relatives of the same category may be distinguished in where
they are in the birth order
○
Older siblings distinguished from younger siblings
○
3)
Gender (2 in text)
To differentiate kin of different genders
○
Aunt, Uncle, in some languages male and female cousins
○
4)
Gender of linking relative
Distinguishes cross relatives (usually cousins) from parallel
relatives (also usually cousins)
○
Parallel cousins are linked through 2 sisters or 2 brothers
○
Cross cousins are otherwise linked
○
Gender of cousins doesn’t matter, just the gender of the linking
relative
○
5)
Bifurcation
Terms used to refer to mother's side differ from those
used to refer to the father's side
§
6)
Affinity
Basis of connection through marriage
○
Mother in law vs. mother
○
7)
Condition of Life
Alive or dead, married or separated
○
8)
Sharing - Based Kinship
Emphasis on kinship ties based on acts of sharing and support
-
Can be informal or ritually formalized
-
Kinship through food sharing
Womb, breast
○
-
Kinship through adoption
Formal and permanent form of child transfer
○
Infertility, desire to gain a particular gender
○
Closed and open
○
-
Kinship through ritually established kinship
God parenthood and blood brothers
○
Can involve strong emotional and financial ties
○
-
Others - friendships, fraternities, secret societies, etc.
-
Today's Complicated Kinship and Descent Groups
As modern family becomes more complex, so does kinship
-
Blended families, half siblings, step relations
-
Reproductive technologies
-
Non traditional marriages
-
Globalization is pulling people away from their kinship loyalties
-
March 16-
Kinship
Week 10, Lecture 17
Thursday, March 16, 2017
Kinship
All culture have ways of defining kinship, a sense of being related to
another person or persons, the social system that organizes people in
families based on descent and marriage
-
Culture provides guidelines about who are kin and their expected
behaviours
-
Kinship is as ingrained in culture as language
-
Kinship and language are also connected
Terms used to define our relationships
○
-
Functions of Kinship Groups
Important organizing principle in societies
-
Ensure continuity of the group by arranging marriages
-
Maintains social order by setting moral rules and punishing offenders
-
Provides for the basic needs of members by regulating production,
consumption, and distribution of food and goods
-
Addresses questions like 'Who are the people I can count on?,'
'Where do I fit?'
-
What is a Family?
Groups of people who consider themselves related through kinship
-
Natal family - the family into which a person is born and (usually)
raised
-
Consanguineal family
People who are related by blood
○
Parents, grandparents, siblings, etc.
○
-
Conjugal family
People who are related by marriage
○
Your spouse, in-laws
○
-
What is a household?
A person living alone or one or more persons who occupy a shared
living space and who may or may not be related by kinship
You might have a roommate - together you share a household -
but that doesn’t make you family
○
-
Types of Households
Nuclear Household/Family
Domestic group that contains one adult couple and their
children
○
Foraging/industrial
○
Found in all cultures but only exclusive in 1/4 of them (*listen)
○
-
Extended household is a domestic group that contains more than
one adult married couple
Patrilineal (father), matrilineal (mother) and collateral (sibling)
extended households
○
1/2 of all cultures
○
Horticulture, pastoralists
○
-
Changes in Marriage, Changing Households
How we arrange ourselves into families and households reflects the
larger cultural system to which we belong
-
From extended towards nuclear
-
Increase in single - parent households
-
Blended family
-
Changing Households
International Migration
-
Multigenerational household (not to be confused with extended
household)
Boomerang kids
○
-
Defining kinship
Descent, sharing, marriage
-
Definitions of who counts as kin in different cultures varies
-
In the west, tend to emphasize 'blood' relations
'Blood' is not a universal
○
-
Even in cultures where it is, behaviour is also connected
-
Inuit
-
Ways of Organizing Kinship
Early 20th century - focus on finding out who is related to whom and
in what way
-
Kinship chart
Schematic way to presenting kinship relationships of an
individual using a set of symbols to depict all the kin relations
○
See textbook
○
-
Genealogy
Way of presenting a family tree, constructed by beginning at
the earliest ancestors and working down to the present
○
-
Descent and Kinship
Descent
The tracing of kinship relationships through parentage
○
-
Bilineal descent/Bilateral descent/Cognatic Clans
Where descent is traced through both parents and you are
equally related to the member's of both parent's families
○
-
Unilineal descent
When descent is traced primarily from your mother's line OR
your father's line
○
Patrilineal descent
Descent traced through male line
§
Related to modes of subsistence
§
Women 'marry out' (leave their family, and become
apart of the males family)
§
May be dependent on the lead males in her life; father,
husband, senior sons
§
Come with an assumption of a hierarchy
§
○
Matrilineal Descent
Descent traced through the female line
§
Mode of subsistence related - horticulture
§
Importance of mother's brother
§
○
-
More options for a woman and relatedness
Can be connected to her brothers□
Also to her husband's matrilineal kin□
§
Not just the mirror image of a patrilineage*
§
Brother marries out but maintain an active interest
§
Complicated
§
Patterns of Residence After Marriage
Marital residence tends to follow the prevailing direction of descent
rules
-
Neolocality - independent residence w/o their parents
-
Patrilocality - lives w/ or very near the husband's father's family
Most common
○
Social grouping of related men
○
-
Matrilocality - live w/ or very near the wife's family
Associated with matrilineages
○
Social grouping of related women along with their husbands
○
-
Modes of Subsistence, Kinship and Household Structure
In all cultures kinship is linked with modes of subsistence and
reproduction
-
Kinship terminologies
Kinship terminology are the words people use to refer to kin
-
'Aunt' 'cousin' 'father' 'mother'
-
Look at criteria
-
Found in both bilineal and unilineal descent groups
-
Organizes people, keeping track of many relatives by assigning
categorical terms
-
8 general principles (adapted from text)
-
Criteria Used in Kinship Terminology
Generation
Most common
○
Kin terms distinguish relatives according to the generation to
which they belong
○
'cousin' (refer to someone in the same generation)
○
1)
Collaterality
Kin in the direct line of lineage vs. those off to one side
○
Father vs. uncle
○
2)
Relative age
Relatives of the same category may be distinguished in where
they are in the birth order
○
Older siblings distinguished from younger siblings
○
3)
Gender (2 in text)
To differentiate kin of different genders
○
Aunt, Uncle, in some languages male and female cousins
○
4)
Gender of linking relative
Distinguishes cross relatives (usually cousins) from parallel
relatives (also usually cousins)
○
Parallel cousins are linked through 2 sisters or 2 brothers
○
Cross cousins are otherwise linked
○
Gender of cousins doesn’t matter, just the gender of the linking
relative
○
5)
Bifurcation
Terms used to refer to mother's side differ from those
used to refer to the father's side
§
6)
Affinity
Basis of connection through marriage
○
Mother in law vs. mother
○
7)
Condition of Life
Alive or dead, married or separated
○
8)
Sharing - Based Kinship
Emphasis on kinship ties based on acts of sharing and support
-
Can be informal or ritually formalized
-
Kinship through food sharing
Womb, breast
○
-
Kinship through adoption
Formal and permanent form of child transfer
○
Infertility, desire to gain a particular gender
○
Closed and open
○
-
Kinship through ritually established kinship
God parenthood and blood brothers
○
Can involve strong emotional and financial ties
○
-
Others - friendships, fraternities, secret societies, etc.
-
Today's Complicated Kinship and Descent Groups
As modern family becomes more complex, so does kinship
-
Blended families, half siblings, step relations
-
Reproductive technologies
-
Non traditional marriages
-
Globalization is pulling people away from their kinship loyalties
-
March 16-
Kinship
Week 10, Lecture 17
Thursday, March 16, 2017
Document Summary
All culture have ways of defining kinship, a sense of being related to another person or persons, the social system that organizes people in families based on descent and marriage. Culture provides guidelines about who are kin and their expected behaviours. Kinship is as ingrained in culture as language. Ensure continuity of the group by arranging marriages. Maintains social order by setting moral rules and punishing offenders. Provides for the basic needs of members by regulating production, consumption, and distribution of food and goods. Addresses questions like "who are the people i can count on?," Groups of people who consider themselves related through kinship. Natal family - the family into which a person is born and (usually) raised. A person living alone or one or more persons who occupy a shared. A person living alone or one or more persons who occupy a shared living space and who may or may not be related by kinship.
