ANTH 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Ambilineality, Nuer People, Exogamy
Kinship, Family and Marriage:
● Kinship:
○ Kinship is a cultural system which defines family relationships and obligations to
family
○ As globalization continues, there’s a continuous push for people to move away
from their families and to instead, create strong relationships with friends.
Essentially, we’re creating and choosing our own families in today’s society in the
United States
○ Different cultures define family and treat the concept of family in very different
ways
■ Some cultures have terminology to describe kinship that is very general
(for example, father, mother, aunt, uncle)
■ Some cultures have more specific terminology to describe kinship
(paternal and maternal aunt and uncle)
■ In between cultures, the terminology used to describe kinship varies, but
also the obligations, responsibilities and living arrangements with family
also vary
○ Kinship can be difficult, and lines can be blurred sometimes. If two women have
the same sperm donor, are they sisters? They are biologically. Is the sperm
donor their dad? How can fatherhood be defined? Does kinship always require
biology?
■ For example, some people have people in their lives that they call an aunt
or an uncle and who are very close friends with their parents. However,
there is no biological relation
● How Are We Related to Each Other?
○ Descent: descent can be tracked through blood relatives. Descent tracks only
relatives that are related through blood, and not through marriage. Descent is
tracked by using a vertical line
■ Unilineal descent: when you track only one line of descent (either
patrilineal or matrilineal)
■ Ambilineal: descent is traced through both sides (paternal and maternal),
although sometimes one side is favored
○ Most western cultures (such as the United States) are ambilineal, and favor the
paternal side. Favoring the paternal side can be seen when the paternal side is
focused on inheritance and social status and the father’s last name is passed
down and/or taken by his wife
○ In patrilineal descent, children are considered to be a part of the father’s side of
the family.
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ANTH 1000 Full Course Notes
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Document Summary
Kinship is a cultural system which defines family relationships and obligations to family. As globalization continues, there"s a continuous push for people to move away from their families and to instead, create strong relationships with friends. Essentially, we"re creating and choosing our own families in today"s society in the. Different cultures define family and treat the concept of family in very different ways. Some cultures have terminology to describe kinship that is very general (for example, father, mother, aunt, uncle) Some cultures have more specific terminology to describe kinship (paternal and maternal aunt and uncle) In between cultures, the terminology used to describe kinship varies, but also the obligations, responsibilities and living arrangements with family also vary. Kinship can be difficult, and lines can be blurred sometimes. For example, some people have people in their lives that they call an aunt or an uncle and who are very close friends with their parents.
