Chapter 9: Kinship and Descent
All cultures have a form of family or household organization to deal with problems
human groups face:
o Facilitation of economic cooperation between the sexes
o Providing a proper setting for childrearing
o Regulation of sexual activity
Many cultures face problems beyond the coping ability of family and household
organization
o one sovereign group needs support and protection from another
Defence against disasters
If have right of entry into local groups other than their own, can secure
protection or critical resources when own group cannot supply them
o Group needs to share rights to some means of production that cannot be divided
without its destruction
Horticulture societies (division of land)
Land ownership vested in a corporate group
o People need a means of providing cooperative work forces for tasks
Solutions:
o Develop a formal political system, personnel to make/enforce laws, keep peace,
allocate, resources
o In nonindustrial societies (horticultural and pastoral), develop kinship groups
Kinship: the people we are related to through blood (consanguineal) and marriage
(affinal)
Three groups of Kin:
o Nominal Kin: little or no contact, but aware of existence
o Effective Kin: meet fairly regularly, at family functions
o Intimate Kin: continuing, close relationships, extended family (affinal and
consanguineal)
Size of kin group determined by personal choice, proximity, gender, and class factors
Rural, preindustrial societies – kinship the focal point of social organization
Urban, industrial societies – ideologies of individualism, privacy, nuclear families and
increased mobility have altered the extended family kinship systems
o Daycare, banks, school usurped what was formerly a family obligation
Why We Study Kinship
Virtually everyone has kin, biological or adopted, and these “relatives” have a profound
effect on our lives
Kinship also involves how we organize our family, the support an assistance we count on,
whom we will marry, our residential patterns, and how we view our world and children,
what will happen when we grow old, what fair we will practice
Urban Kinship Systems in Canada
Researchers thought an isolated nuclear family structure would function better in our
urban environment, than an unwieldy extended family – recent studies dispute this Extended kinship ties in Canada are still fundamental to well-being of individuals and
nuclear families – establish mutual aid
Modified extended family does not require residential proximity or restrictive
rights/obligations, maintains close emotional ties and a network of reciprocal support,
st
common in 21 century families
Early immigrants to Canada, mainly French and British, were organized in a nuclear
family structure, but developed strong kin ties with other relatives in Canada (farmers
needed extra help with labour – extended ties provided this)
Recent immigrants (ie. Italian Canadians) maintain close ties with kin in the country of
origin due to global transportation and communication systems, also establish close ties
with relatives already in Canada
Neolocal nuclear families – basic kinship unit, other members of extended family live
nearby though
New immigrants sometimes substitute friends and neighbours in their kinship group –
fictive kinship: friends not biologically related but considered part of a kin group
In Canada, kinship is voluntary and selective, no strong obligations (as seen in tribal
horticultural kin groups); nuclear family does not operate in isolation; modified extended
family and it’s support available to each family
Degree of contact determined by closeness of individuals, not geographical proximity
Descent Groups
Descent Group: any publicly recognized social entity requiring lineal descent from a
particular real or mythical ancestor for membership
Stem from a parent-child bond, built upon for the basis for a structured social group
Clearly define membership
o Membership restricted by: tracing membership through one sex, each individual
automatically assigned from the moment of birth to his/her mother’s or father’s
group and to that group only
Unilineal Descent
Descent that establishes group membership exclusively through either the mother’s or
father’s line
Middle-level societies, horticultural, pastoral societies
At birth, assigned membership in a specific descent group:
o Matrilineal Descent: descent traced exclusively through the female line to
establish group membership
o Patrilineal Descent: descent traced exclusively through the male line to establish
group membership
Connection between descent system and a culture’s economy – patrilineal where man is
bread winner (pastoralists, intensive agriculturalists); matrilineal where woman is
breadwinner (horticulturalists)
In all cultures, the kin of both mother and father are important components of the social
structure – if one descent is excluded does not mean unimportant, means for the purpose
of group membership the one side’s relatives are excluded Patrilineal Descent and Organization
More widespread
Males of a patrilineal descent group trace their descent through other males from a
common ancestor
Responsibility for training children rests with father or his elder brother
Woman belongs to the same descent group as her father and his brothers but her children
cannot trace their descent through them
A “mans world”
Women try to actively manipulate the system to their own advantage as best they can
Matrilineal Descent and Organization
Reckoned through the female line
Descent does not automatically confer authority – matrilineal cultures are not matriarchal
(as patrilineal cultures are patriarchal)
Women share authority in the decent group with men – the brothers (not husbands) of the
women descent is reckoned through
Provided continuous female solidarity within the female labour pool
Farming communities (women provide much of work)
Males belong to same descent group as mother and sister, but their children cannot trace
their descent through them
Man’s children belong to his wife’s descent group
Weak tie between husband and wife – wife’s brother distributes goods, organizes work,
settles disputes, administers inheritance and succession rules, supervises rituals
Husband has legal authority not in his household, but his sister’s; his property and status
are inherited by his sister’s son rather than by his son
Brothers and sisters have lifelong ties; marital ties are easily severed (marriages ended
easily)
Formed the basis of Iroquoian kinship – longhouse for clans, matrilocality preferred,
“clan mothers” held in great esteem and held responsibility and selected chiefs and
advisers, men would comply
o Not a matriarchy though, it was egalitarian – neither men nor women dominated
Double Descent
A system tracing descent matrilineally for some purposes and patrilineally for others,
very rare
Each group takes action in different spheres of society (ie. Yako of Nigeria)
Ambilineal Descent
Descent in which the individual may affiliate with either the mother’s or the father’s
descent group (also called nonunilineal, or cognatic)
Flexibility, option of affiliating with either descent group
Cultures in Pacific and Southeast Asia
Allowed to belong to only one group at a time, regardless of how many groups he/she is
eligible to join Group divided into discrete and separate groups of kin as in patrilineal and matrilineal
culture
Some societies, Samoans, Bella Coola, allow overlapping membership in a number of
descent groups
Forms and Functions of Descent Groups
Nonindustrial societies – organized working units providing security and services,
support the aged, help with marriages and deaths, role in determining who one can marry,
repository of religious traditions, ancestor worship
The Lineage
A corporate (single “body”) descent group whose members trace their genealogical links
to a common ancestor
Unilineal descent is rule, but some ambilineal groups are similar
Ancestor-oriented, relationship to a common ancestor must be traced and proved
Individual have no legal or political status except as a lineage member, religious and
political power derived from it as well
Religious and magical powers – ie. cults of gods and ancestors, may be bound to the
lineage as well
Perpetual existence, survives after death of some members, enables to take corporate
actions (owning property, productive activities, goods and labour power, assigning status,
regulating relations with other groups) – a strong lineage base of social organization
Not a corporation, goal is not profitably or based on business principles
Exogamy – lineage members must find partners in other lineages, potential sexual
competition within the group is curbed, promotes group solidarity
o Marriage more than an arrangement, it is a new alliance between lineages,
supports open communication within a culture, promotes diffusion of knowledge
The Clan
When lineage becomes to large fission occurs: the splitting of a descent group into two or
more new descent groups; new lineage members still recognize their ultimate relationship
to one another – results in a clan
Clan: a noncorporate descent group whose members claim descent from a common
ancestor without actually knowing the genealogical links to that ancestor (also called sib)
Founding ancestor so far in the past, links are assumed rather than known
Clan lacks residential unity, the characteristic of a lineage’s core members; descent may
be patrilineal, matrilineal or ambilineal
Does not hold tangible property corporately, more a unit for ceremonial matters, only on
special occasions the memberships gathers for specific purposes
Clans may regulate marriage through exogamy; give individuals entry rights into local
groups other than their own as well
Depend on symbols to provide members with solidarity and a ready means of
identification (totems) – associated with the clan’s mythical origin and reinforce an
awareness of their common descent Totemism: the belief that people are related to particular animals, plants, or natural
objects by virtue of descent from common ancestral spirits
o Haida – totemic groups: Bear, Killer Whale, Cannibal Spitit, Salmon, Beaver
Moieties
Each group t
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