Kinship Flashcards
What is Kinship?
It is a system of rights and obligations based on categories of relatedness through blood and marriage.
What is Fictive kin?
It is giving a kin category to someone who is not related by blood or marriage.
What is Descent?
It is kinship relationships based on parent-child tier.
It determines properties and marriage.
What is Descent group?
It is a kinship grouping based on descent that have a corporate function.
What is Lineage?
It is a descent group where the members can trace the links of descent to a known common ancestor.
About 100 people in size.
It is a reaction to warfare.
What is Clan?
It is a descent group where the members believe thay are descended from a common ancestor but cannot trace the link of descent.
About 2000 people in size.
Organized warfare.
What is Totem?
It is an animal, plant or natural feature specially associated with a group of people, ususally the ancestor of a clan.
To dampen warfare.
How many types of descent are there?
5
What is Patrilineality?
It is a descent through the father’s line only.
The primary relationship is between father and son.
What is Matrilineality?
It is a descent through the mother’s line only.
The primary relationship is between brother and sister.
What is Double Descent?
It is a descent through the mother’s line and the father’s line but for different reasons.
What is Ambilineality?
A person chooses to affiliate with either the mother’s or the father’s line.
To equalize resources and population.
What is Bilateral Descent?
It is a descent through both sides of the family.
To maximize flexibility.
How many Kinship System are there?
6
Describe Eskimo kinship system
Divide the basic kin on the bases of sex, generation and nuclear family.
Eg: English speaking countries.
