Families, Kinship, and Descent

1
Families, Kinship, and Descent

• The Basic Building Blocks of Society

2
Family, Kinship, Descent

• The way in which people behave toward one another
  is based on they perceive their role this role
  in most societies is defined by whom one is
  related to.
• As we shall see, many aspects of kinship and
  descent are socially constructed, as is race.

3
Some New Terminology

• Affinals relatives by marriage.
• Matrilineal descent kin reckoned through the
  mothers lineage.
  
• Patrilineal descent kin reckoned through the
  fathers lineage.
  
• Bilateral descent kin reckoned through both
  sides of the family.
  
• Matrilocal marriage residence at the mothers
  family house.
  
• Patrilocal marriage residence at the fathers
  family house.

4
Whats so special about family?

• A family is the basic unit of the social group.
• Anthropologists are interested in looking at
  families and how they reckon kin since kin
  behavior has specific rules in each culture.

5
Types of families

• Nuclear family (husband, wife, offspring).
• Extended family (family consisting of three or
  more generations).
  
• Other descent groups include
• Lineages (the family line/tree)
• Clans (groups assuming common ancestry).

6
Types of nuclear families

• Families of orientation (family you are born into
  and raised with).
  
• Family of procreation (formed when one marries
  and has children).
  
• Nuclear family organization is widespread but not
  universal other descent groups and extended
  families sometimes fill the role of the nuclear
  family.

7
Muslims of Western Bosnia

• Nuclear families lacked autonomy.
• Several families were embedded in an extended
  family household called a zadruga.
  
• Each zadruga is headed by a head male and his
  wife (the senior wife).
  
• Each family has its own sleeping room, but all
  material possessions are used by any member of
  the zadruga. Zadrugas are patrilocal.

8
The Nayar of Southwest India

• A large and power caste that lives in large,
  extended matrilineal families.
  
• The matrilineal compounds are called tarawads.
• Each tarawad is headed up by a senior woman.
• Marriage a formality men would return to their
  mothers tarawad a few days after marriage.
  
• Nayar women frequently have multiple sexual
  partners biological fathers are not significant
  in this particular kin system.

9
Industrial Nuclear Families The New
Hunter/Gatherers?

• Offspring, once grown, leave the family of
  orientation to begin their own family of
  procreation.
  
• The new families are highly mobile, selling their
  labor rather than their crops. Postmarital
  residence is neolocal.
  
• Their mobility and emphasis on small,
  economically self-sufficient family units make
  industrial nuclear families similar to foragers.

10
Changes in American Kinship

• Nuclear families important unit for several
  groups.
  
• Expanded households common among the lower
  classes (an adaptation to poverty?).
  
• Number of alternative household organizations are
  becoming more commonplace (single-parent
  families, singles, childless couples, etc.).

11
Descent Groups

• Descent groups are permanent social units whose
  members believe they have ancestors in common.
  
• Descent groups are frequently exogamous.
• Unilineal descent is kin reckoning through one
  side of the family (matrilineal or patrilineal).
  
• Bilateral descent reckons through both lineages.

12
Lineages and Clans

• Common to both types of descent groups is the
  belief in an apical ancestor(s) (among
  Christians, this would be Adam and Eve).
  
• Lineages differ from clans in that lineages use
  demonstrated descent (the actual genealogy can be
  cited).
  
• Clans have stipulated descent (they just say they
  are related because they want to be!).

13
Apical Ancestors

• Apical clan ancestors are commonly nonhuman, and
  may be an animal or plant (a totem).
  
• Common clans of Northwest Coast Indian groups
  include Raven and Wolf.

14
Kinship Calculation

• Ego refers to the reader.
• MBS mothers brothers son.
• MBD mothers brothers daughter.
• MZS mothers sisters son.
• MZD mothers sisters daughter.
• FBS fathers brothers son.
• FBD fathers brothers daughter.
• FZS fathers sisters son.
• FZD fathers sisters daughter.

15
Kinship Terminology
16
Lineals, Collaterals, and Affinals
17
Lineal Kinship Terminology (what we use)
18
Bifurcate Merging Kinship
19
Generational Terminology (parents and siblings
have the same terms)
20
Bifurcate Collateral Terminology (Everyone gets
their own term!)