ANT207H1 Study Guide - Final Guide: Bilateral Descent, Unilineality, Kinship
ANT207 Kinship Notes 2016
Adapted from Prof. J. Boddy's ANT 207H1F 2014 Kinship Handout: It’s all relative
Kin are always kin in relation to a specific person or persons. For this reason it is necessary to specify
an individual to serve as the focal point in kinship diagrams. That focal point is referred to as EGO and
may be represented in kin diagrams by a square rather than the typical circle (for female) or triangle
(for male).
Kin are those whom people recognize as relatives; they usually include both ‘natural’ or ‘biological’ (in
Western cultural terms, consanguineal or ‘common blood’) relations and affinal relations (relatives
by marriage). In addition, there may be classificatory kin or ‘fictive’ kin, those who interact with
EGO as if they stood in a specific kinship relation with him or her. In English speaking North America,
for instance, classificatory kin may be EGO’s parent’s friends whom EGO as a youngster addresses as
‘uncle’ or ‘aunt’.
Bear in mind that every society has its own definition of what biological/natural, affinal, or fictive
mean. In some societies, for example, EGO’s mother is considered to be his or her affine, and
therefore not as closely related to her child as its father, who is deemed a consanguineal relative. In
North America, Europe, and the Middle East, both EGO’s mother and father are considered
consanguineal kin.
Kin terms are terms used to classify different sorts of relatives and to specify their culturally
significant relationship to EGO. There are two forms of kin terms which may or may not overlap in a
given society. Terms of reference are those used when speaking about a particular relationship.
Terms of address are those used when speaking to a particular relative. E.g.: ‘Margaret is my aunt’
(reference) versus ‘Hello Aunt Margaret’ (address). In English we generally use the same terms for both
(but make a distinction in writing by capitalizing the term of address.) This may not be the case
elsewhere, and there are societies where terms of reference and terms of address vary.
Kin terminology systems provide important clues about family structure and organization in a
given society, about how relatives are categorized. For example, the fact that English distinguishes
between (a) EGO’s parents, siblings, and children [those we call father, mother, brother, sister,
daughter, son], and (b) EGO’s parent’s siblings and their spouses, plus parent’s siblings’ children [whom
we call aunts, uncles, cousins] calls attention to the nuclear family unit, an important kin category in
most English--‐speaking societies.
In other societies , EGO’s father and father’s brother may be known by the same term, while EGO’s
mother’s brother is known by a different one. Likewise, EGO’s mother and mother’s sister may be
referred to by the same term, and father’s sister by another. In such cases, the term for father’s sister
may mean something like ‘female father’; the term for mother’s brother may mean something like
‘male mother’. Distinctions such as these alert us to the possible existence of lineages (a category of
kin defined below). For instance, in the case above, father, father’s sister, and father’s brother belong
to one lineage, and mother, mother’s brother, and mother’s sister belong to another.
Genealogy: This is a pedigree, family tree, or chronicle of descent from an ancestor through
intervening generations to the present. Again, what different cultures define as an appropriate
genealogy varies. In England and English speaking North America, an appropriate genealogy is
bilateral or ‘two sided’: traced through both parents to their parents and grandparents, etc. Yet in
Arabic speaking Sudan an appropriate formal genealogy lists male ascendants (generations up) and
descendants (generations down) only. Its focus is unilateral (one--‐sided), in this example,
patrilateral (on father’s side). The Trobrianders, on the other hand, trace their genealogy on mother’s
side (matrilateral). A genealogy is a historical device: it counts relatives who are long deceased as well
as those who are living.
Kindred: This term has been variously defined in anthropology, but generally we think of a ‘personal’
kindred as EGO’s group of personally relevant kin, or EGO’s practical, interacting kin. A kindred typically
includes consanguines (‘blood’) and affines (marriage) relatives, and possibly fictive kin too. These
are the relatives who would, for instance, gather to celebrate EGO’s wedding or attend her funeral.
Kindreds are informal, ego--‐centred groupings: my kindred is unlikely to be exactly the same as my
married sister’s, since her affinal kin (‘in--‐laws’) and mine may be unknown to each other; nor is my
kindred the same as my father’s, since his cousins may be unknown to me. A kindred also shifts over
time, as some relatives die and others are born. It is a situational grouping.
A kindred is normally bilateral regardless of the society in question. That is, it includes EGO’s relatives
on both mother’s and father’s sides of the family. Kin on mother’s side are matrilateral, and those on
father’s side are patrilateral in relation to EGO. In hunting and gathering societies, the band is the
principal kin group and is typically a bilateral kindred, but not all members of one’s wider bilateral
kindred may be personally relevant. The distinction between a personal and a wider bilateral kindred
may be vague or in some cases not a distinction at all. Think of it this way: not all members of your
widest bilateral kindred may be invited to your wedding but may be told of it and possibly send you a
card.
Collateral versus lineal kin: Lineal kin are ‘consanguineal’ kin in a direct line of descent.
Collateral kin are kin ‘to the sides’. Relative to EGO, collateral kin are her brothers and sisters, her
parents’ brothers and sisters and their children (her cousins), her siblings’ children and their children,
grandparents’ brothers and sisters and their children and their children, etc. EGO’s collateral relatives
are NOT in a direct line of descent with him/her; they are not related to EGO as ancestor or
descendant.
Descent: this refers to the transmission of affiliation, privileges, property, etc. by devolution,
succession, or inheritance. But more than this, descent is a way of associating with others who share
relationship ties to a common ancestor. In contemporary English speaking North America we (legally,
at least) practice bilateral descent, meaning that an individual has equal affiliation with both her
parents, her four grandparents, and their parents, etc., with no legal emphasis on a particular
line of descent. Bilateral descent is relatively rare cross--‐culturally, however. More common are
different forms of unilineal descent, discussed below.
Lineage: A lineage is first of all a category of kin; the basis for this categorization is common
descent. In other words, a lineage is made up of kin who trace descent from a common ancestor. This
ancestor typically lived in the past, and is regarded as the founder of that line. Thus a lineage consists
of members who are alive and those no longer living. Living members of a lineage who act together or
hold property in common are usually referred to as a descent group. In distinguishing between a
lineage and a descent group it is important to distinguish between a social category and a social
group. If you are in second year university, you belong to the social category ‘Class of 2017’ – the year
you are expected to graduate. But you likely don’t interact with all people who carry this designation.
You are merely classified as such according to the criterion of normal graduation date. You do,
however, interact with a subset of this category: you attend ANT207 lectures and tutorials, which are
(temporarily) social groups. The difference is that between a classification and an actively engaged
group.
A lineage is a classificatory device, a marker of identity and belonging, whereas a descent group is a
subset of that class who regularly interact. Moreover, if members of a descent group hold property in
common they are referred to as a corporate descent group. Some members of EGO’s kindred will
also belong to his or her lineage, but not all. EGO’s maximal lineage consists of all descendants of a
common ancestor who lived many generations ago. This group may include many thousands of people,
living and dead. Those that are alive number several hundred people, some of whom EGO may
never meet. They rarely if ever get together as a group. Instead, EGO’s most intensive contact is with a
smaller, shallower, and genealogically closer group of lineal kin who trace their relationship to a
common but more recent descendant of the maximal lineage founder, someone who lived only a few
generations ago. This smaller group of descendants may reside in the same village and number fewer
than a hundred people; anthropologists refer to such a group as a minimal lineage (or minimal
descent group). In this case, we can think of EGO as belonging to minimal lineage X which is a part or
segment of maximal lineage Y.
Societies in which shallow descent groups are organized or nested into increasingly deeper and more
comprehensive segments of a maximal lineage exhibit segmentary lineage organization. Typically,
this organization has political funtions: it allows for alliances of kin to be relatively more or less
comprehensive depending on the context (or cause) for which they are mustered. In some Arab
Document Summary
Adapted from prof. j. boddy"s ant 207h1f 2014 kinship handout: it"s all relative. Kin are always kin in relation to a specific person or persons. For this reason it is necessary to specify an individual to serve as the focal point in kinship diagrams. That focal point is referred to as ego and may be represented in kin diagrams by a square rather than the typical circle (for female) or triangle (for male). Kin are those whom people recognize as relatives; they usually include both (cid:858)(cid:374)atural(cid:859) or (cid:858)(cid:271)iologi(cid:272)al(cid:859) (in. Western cultural terms, consanguineal or (cid:858)(cid:272)o(cid:373)(cid:373)o(cid:374) (cid:271)lood(cid:859)(cid:895) relations and affinal relations (relatives by marriage). In addition, there may be classificatory kin or (cid:858)fictive" kin, those who interact with. Ego as if they stood in a specific kinship relation with him or her. In english speaking north america, for instance, classificatory kin may be ego(cid:859)s pare(cid:374)t(cid:859)s friends whom ego as a youngster addresses as (cid:858)u(cid:374)(cid:272)le(cid:859) or (cid:858)au(cid:374)t(cid:859).
