Kinship Flashcards
Kinship systems
Those relationships found in all societies that are based on blood or marriage
Consaguineal kin
Related through birth or blood
Affinal kin
Those to whome we are related through blood
Fictive Kin
Relationship between individuals who recognize kinship obligations although the relationship is not based on affinal or consaguineal ties
Functions of Kinship
- Maintain integrity of indivisible resources
- provides a larger labor pool than can a household
- means of claming support and protection from kin
Vertical function
provides social continuity by binding together a number of successive generations
Horizontal Function
Solidification or trying together a society horizontall (Single generatio)
Principles of kinship Classification
- Family side
- Lineality vs. collaterality
- age (relative)
- Generations
- Social Conditions
- Sex of connecting relative
- Sex or gender
- Consanguineal vs. Affinal
Descent
The rules a culture uses to establish affiliations with one’s parents and can be traced back over several generations
Descent group
A publicly recognized social entity such that being a lineal descendant of a particular real or mythical ancestor is a criterion of membership
Reles of descent groups
- Stong sense of identity
- Share communially held property
- provide mutual economic assistance
- Engage in mutual civic and relious ceremonies
- Serve as mechanism for inheriting property and politcal office
- Important in controlling behavior
- can regulate marriage
- important for structuring politcal units
Rules of Descent
- Unilineal descent
- Cognatic descent
Unilineal Descent
Descent that establishes group membership exclusively through either the mother’s or the father’s line
Matilineal descent groups
Patrilineal Descent groups
Kinship structure
Legend for kinship nomenclature
Types of unlineal descent groups
- Lineage
- Clan
- Phratry
Lineage
- A lineal descent group whose members can trace their line of descent to a known ancesters
- Lineages are corporate entities
Clan
A noncorporate descent groups whose members claim descent from a common ancestor without actually knowing the genealogical links to that ancestor
Phratry
A unlineal descent group composed of two or more clans that claim to be of common ancestry
Lay out of Clan, Phratry
Cognatic Descent
- Forms of nonlineal descent
Three types of Cognatic Descent
- Double descent
- Ambilineal Descent
- Bilateral descent
