Kinship Systems

Question 1

what is kin psychology? why is it paradoxical?

Answer 1

is the psychology of kin selection and kinship systems in cultural groups. It is paradoxical in nature because people have extended the meaning of “kin” beyond blood relations/family to strangers or non-blood relatives in the community.

Question 2

what is kin selection?

Answer 2

is the theory that explains how certain traits emerge within a population through their family’s reproductive success. These traits are referred to as “kin traits” which are traits that facilitate altruistic behaviour directed towards blood relatives (can be cognitive or psychological mechanisms).

Question 3

Kin traits paradoxically,

Answer 3

increase altruistic behaviour towards blood relatives and have been shown to extend towards genetic non-relatives by increasing cooperation.

Question 4

kinship systems are:

Answer 4

kinship systems are present in every culture and have evolved to provide norms that govern behaviour for everyone and not just blood relatives.

Question 5

kinship norms & kinship terminology

Answer 5

Within a kinship system, kinship norms make some kinship traits more accessible (i.e., salient) to non-genetic relatives and suppress (but do not completely override) activation towards genetic relatives.

Kinship systems involve systems of terminology or labels that depict peoples roles and obligations within the system. The use of kinship terminology reinforces the kinship system.

Question 6

The fact that kinship norms blur the line between kin and married into relatives and extend avenues of reciprocity and resource allocation highlights that:

Answer 6

one theory that culture explains this better than the theory of kinship selection (i.e., cultural norms of kinship blur the lines between genetic and non-genetic relatives).

Question 7

Do kinship norms bridge the gap between genetic relatives and cultural conventions:

Answer 7

meaning that kinship systems do not teach us how to identify people based on their genetic relatedness.

Question 8

fictive kinship terminology:

Answer 8

refers to the application of kinship terminology that indicates blood relatedness onto non-genetic relatives.
(i.e., brothers or sisters to non-related strangers).

Question 9

kinship systems in small-scale societies:
Includes both…
Kinship terms do not…
Stil…

Answer 9

A) included both related and non-related individuals.
B) often do not use kinship terms that express genetic relatedness.
C) however, people in small scale society kinship systems still show favouritism to closely related genetic relatives.

Question 10

Yasawa Kinship systems are ___ structured?

Positions are maintained by… why?

Answer 10

A) system is highly structured around clan-based groups with a hereditary chief.
B) you maintain your position within the social hierarchal system by fulfilling your roles and obligations.
C) Cheifs can be stripped of their power if they do not fulfil their duty.
D) fulfilling roles and obligations also are believed to be protecting the community from spirits or sorcery.

Question 11

(3) Principles that mark resource exchange in Yasawan kinship systems?

Answer 11

1. communal ownership of resources among members of a kin group or clan.
2. top-down decision making from the highest member of the clan. For example, the hereditary chief decides how resources are allocated and labour is distributed.
3. Kerekere (please system) is used to make formal requests for food, services or money. Is directed towards family members and is a reciprocal system to redistribute resources from the rich to the impoverished. If accepted, comes with the expectation that you will return the favour later on (does not have to be an equal amount). It is shameful to kerekere outside of the family or rejects a kerekere request from someone in genuine need.

Question 12

order of hierarchy in the kinship system for Yasawa?

Answer 12

hereditary chief, elders, the oldest male in the household.

Question 13

How is the kerekere system different from western culture?

Answer 13

it opposes the individualistic motivation for self-maximization, independence, unique in that they do not have a third-party monitoring system (i.e., police or government who monitor and punish).

Question 14

What differentiates power in their hierarchal system?

Answer 14

Age (elders > youth)

Gender (male > female)

Question 15

three main units that track genetic relatedness in their kinship system?

Answer 15

1. itokatoka (immediate extended family)
2. mataqoli (clan of extended family which are tied by lad ownership and a common male ancestor).
3. Yavusa (mataqoli clans tied to ether by a common male ancestor) and can span across multiple villages or be multiple in a single village.

Question 16

kinship systems way of tracking mother and father lineage:

Answer 16

koi “village” is my father’s village.
vasu “village” is my mother’s village.
tauki “village” is my village.

*place and family ties are fundamental to their culture and express even if they have not physically visited their parent’s villages.

Question 17

kinship terms within the immediate family:

Answer 17

(A) determined by sex and
seniority.
(C) Includes parralell (same-
sex) or cross designations.

Paralell Designiations:
Are determined by ones related to their own parents.: includes parents, parents same-sex siblings (mother’s-sister i.e., aunty and father’s-brother i.e., uncle) and parents same-sex sibling spouses (mothers-sisters partner, fathers-brothers partner).
use the term “nau” for mother relations and the term “tata” for father relations.

Cross-Designations:
Are used for parents (father-daughter, mother-son), parents of opposite sex-sibling (Mother-brother, Father-sister), parents opposite-sex spouses (Mother’s-brother’s spouse, Father’s-sister’s spouse).
Use the term “Gwadi” for both aunts and uncles with cross-sex relations to our parents.

Cousins:

Full cousins (parallel):
"tamaya" for brother and "tiniya" sister are used to refer to our parallel aunt/uncles children (i.e., fathers-brothers children and mothers-sisters children).

Full Siblings:
“tamaya” for brother and “tiniya” sister are used to refer to our siblings.

Cross-Cousins:
“tavale” refers to cross-cousins or children of our parents cross-sex relatives (i.e., mothers-brothers children and our fathers-sisters children).

*full and mixed-gender family are genetically equally related to us but their social standing is very different. Cross cousins are more informal, fun and flirty which make them the ideal marriage partners. In contrast parallel, relations are more strict on respect and must be chaperoned if speaking to them (this classificatory siblingship can extend beyond family relations) and is more strict for classifatory cousins than full siblings.

Question 18

Method and results of study 1:

Answer 18

Q: Examining Yasawan Kinship Norms using the card sort method to identify how the proposed kinship terms (items within the domain) are related to one another in terms of what comes to mind first and saliency.

Participants asked to rank 26 kinship items on (6) dimensions from most to least relevant:
> interpersonal closeness
> respect
> giving help
> receiving help
> giving orders
> joking

Had lists to compare similarity between lists, what was listed first.

Used latent analysis to identify the factor structure of these items in the domain (cultural model).

Found 2 factors/dimensions:
> Joking/giving orders
> interpersonal closeness/warmth/giving and receiving help.

Grandparents (tai) and aunts/uncles (gwadi) raked high on respect but low on joking/authroity (higher ranks can joke with lower ranks but lower ranks must remain obedient and quite).

Cross-Cousins or tavale were ranked highest on joking/authority.

Joking around is most common in people who score high on dimension one and are of equal status are their partner. Most common in spouses and cross cousins.

Non-genetically related:

Spouses same-sex siblings (tabu) are treated as foreigners and as outsiders.

Friends are treated similar to in-laws, more nonchalant than tabu or foreigners but less warmth than cross-cousins or spouses.
*still show a preference for blood relations when asking for help.

Question 19

Method & Results of study 2:

Answer 19

Q: Kin Coordination Game

How Yasawa’s balance genetic relatedness and kinship norms when making social decisions.

three choice system:
A) highest self-maximising
B) equal/neutral
C) generous

Coordination = match
failed coordination = mismatch

NOTE: 81% of the sample is NOT genetically related to one another which is common in small scale societies.

Individual-level stratergies:

If kin altruism drives behaviour than people should be more generous to closely related blood relatives.

If kinship norms govern behaviour than people who score higher on dimension 1 (emotional closeness/respect) will receive more generous choices.

In contrast, people who score higher on dimension 2 (joking/giving commands) will receive less generous offers.

Results:

More genetically related were more likely to give generous offers, especially to younger people (i.e., kinship altruism).
62% more likely to be generous to the full sibling than the first cousin.

For non-relatives, their behaviour is governed by kinship norms. Where more generous offers were given to people of higher ranks.

Low rates of successful coordination (35%) in asymmetric and symmetric offers.

Most of the successful coordinations were on neutral (B/B) pairings. with cross-cousins (high closeness/high joking) or in-laws (high joking/ low closeness) = equal rank with social distance.

parents, grandparents, parents of opposite-sex siblings (high closeness/low joking) were more likely to be asymmetric (C/A).

Asymmetric pairing A/C more common in (high closeness/low joking) with the higher rank receiving the higher payout.