Kinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through either biological, cultural, or historical descent. In anthropology the kinship system includes people related both by descent and marriage, while usage in biology includes descent and mating. Anthropology (/ˌænθɹəˈpɒlədʒi/ from Greek grc ἄνθρωπος anthrōpos, "human" -λογία -logia) is the study of Kinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin through either biological cultural or historical descent NOTICE TO WOULD-BE ROMEOS ************** Foundations of modern biology There are five unifying principles In Biology, mating is the pairing of opposite- Sex or hermaphroditic Organisms for copulation and in Social animals also to raise their Human kinship relations through marriage are commonly called "affinity" in contrast to "descent" (also called "consanguinity"), although the two may overlap in marriages among those of common descent. Family relations as sociocultural genealogy lead back to gods[1] (see mythology, religion), animals that were in the area or natural phenomena (as in origin stories). The word mythology (from the Greek grc μυθολογία mythología, meaning "a story-telling a legendary lore" A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos
Kinship is one of the most basic principles for organizing individuals into social groups, roles, categories, and genealogy. In Sociology, a group can be defined as two or more Humans that interact with one another accept expectations and obligations as members of the group and share a A role (sometimes spelled rôle) or a social role is a set of connected Behaviors Rights and Obligations as conceptualized by actors Genealogy (from Greek: el γενεά el-Latn genea, "descent" and el λόγος el-Latn logos, "knowledge" is the study of Family relations can be represented concretely (mother, brother, grandfather) or abstractly after degrees of relationship. A relationship may have relative purchase (e. g. , father is one regarding a child), or reflect an absolute (e. g. , status difference between a mother and a childless woman). Degrees of relationship are not identical to heirship or legal succession. "Heir" and "Heiress" redirect here For the men and women fragrances endorsed by Paris Hilton see Heiress (fragrance. Many codes of ethics consider the bond of kinship as creating obligations between the related persons stronger than those between strangers, as in Confucian filial piety. Ethics is a major branch of Philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life In Confucian thought filial piety ( is one of the Virtues to be cultivated a love and respect for one's parents and ancestors
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One of the founders of the anthropological relationship research was Lewis Henry Morgan, in his Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family (1871). Lewis Henry Morgan ( November 21, 1818 &ndash December 17, 1881) was an American Ethnologist, Anthropologist and Members of a society may use kinship terms without all being biologically related, a fact already evident in Morgan's the use of the term affinity within his concept of the "system of kinship". The most lasting of Morgan's contributions was his discovery of the difference between descriptive and classificatory kinship, which situates broad kinship classes on the basis of imputing abstract social patterns of relationships having little or no overall relation to genetic closeness but do reflect cognition about kinship, social distinctions as they affect linguistic usages in kinship terminology, and strongly relate, if only by approximation, to patterns of marriage. Classificatory kinship systems as defined by Lewis Henry Morgan, put people into society-wide Kinship classes on the basis of abstract relationship rules Kinship terminology refers to the words used in a specific culture to describe a specific system of familial relationships [2]. The major patterns of kinship systems which Lewis Henry Morgan identified through kinship terminology in his 1871 work Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family are:
The six types (Crow, Eskimo, Hawaiian, Iroquois, Omaha, Sudanese) that are not fully classificatory (Dravidian, Australian) are those identified by Murdock (1949) prior to Lounsbury's (1964) rediscovery of the linguistic principles of classificatory kin terms.
The concept of “system of kinship” tended to dominate anthropological studies of kinship in the early 20th century. Kinship systems as defined in anthropological texts and ethnographies were seen as constituted by patterns of behavior and attitudes in relation to the differences in terminology, listed above, for referring to relationships as well as for addressing others. Many anthropologists went so far as to see, in these patterns of kinship, strong relations between kinship categories and patterns of marriage, including forms of marriage, restrictions on marriage, and cultural concepts of the boundaries of incest. Kinship terminology refers to the words used in a specific culture to describe a specific system of familial relationships Incest refers to any sexual activity between closely related persons (often within the immediate family that is illegal or socially Taboo. A great deal of inference was necessarily involved in such constructions as to “systems” of kinship, and attempts to construct systemic patterns and reconstruct kinship evolutionary histories on these bases were largely invalidated in later work. The work of Read (2001), however, does show how throughly internally consistent are the ways that kinship categories are generated by individuals, working within a systemic cultural model that can be elicited in fieldwork, but also allowing considerable individual variability in details, when they are recorded through relative products, such as the English term Uncle as Brother of Parent. [3]
In trying to resolve the problems of dubious inferences about kinship "systems", George P. Murdock (1949, Social Structure) compiled kinship data to test a theory about universals in human kinship in the way that terminologies were influenced by the behavioral similarities or social differences among pairs of kin, proceeding on the view that the psychological ordering of kinship systems radiates out from ego and the nuclear family to different forms of extended family. For the first mayor of Calgary Alberta see George Murdoch. For the American actor see George Murdock (actor. The term nuclear family developed in the Western world to distinguish the Family group consisting of parents most commonly a Father and Mother Extended family (or Joint family) is a term with several distinct meanings Lévi-Strauss (1949, Les Structures Elementaires), on the other hand, also looked for global patterns to kinship, but viewed the “elementary” forms of kinship as lying in the ways that families were connected by marriage in different fundamental forms resembling those of modes of exchange: symmetric and direct, reciprocal delay, or generalized exchange. Claude Lévi-Strauss (klod levi stʁos born 28 November 1908 is a French Anthropologist. The Alliance Theory (or General Theory of Exchanges) is the name given to the structural method of studying Kinship relations Social exchange theory is a social psychological and Sociological perspective and that explains social change and stability as a process of negotiated exchanges between
A more flexible view of kinship was formulated in British social anthropology. Social anthropology is the branch of Anthropology that studies how currently living human beings behave in social groups Among the attempts to break out of universalizing assumptions and theories about kinship, Radcliffe-Brown (1922, The Andaman Islands; 1930, The social organization of Australian tribes) was the first to assert that kinship relations are best thought of as concrete networks of relationships among individuals. Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown (born 17 January 1881 in Birmingham - died 24 October 1955 in London) was an English The Andaman Islands are a group of islands in the Bay of Bengal, and are part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Union Territory of India. He then described these relationships, however, as typified by interlocking interpersonal roles. Malinowski (1922, Argonauts of the Western Pacific) described patterns of events with concrete individuals as participants stressing the relative stability of institutions and communities, but without insisting on abstract systems or models of kinship. For the Olympic champion athlete see Bronisław Malinowski (athlete. Gluckman (1955, The judicial process among the Barotse of Northern Rhodesia) balanced the emphasis on stability of institutions against processes of change and conflict, inferred through detailed analysis of instances of social interaction to infer rules and assumptions. (Herman Max Gluckman ( 26 January 1911 &ndash 13 April 1975) was a South African born British social anthropologist John Barnes, Victor Turner, and others, affiliated with Gluckman’s Manchester school of anthropology, described patterns of actual network relations in communities and fluid situations in urban or migratory context, as with the work of J. Clyde Mitchell (1965, Social Networks in Urban Situations). John Barnes may refer to Sportsmen John Barnes (Australian rules footballer (born 1969 Australian Rules football player John Victor Witter Turner ( May 28, 1920 – December 18, 1983) was a cultural Anthropologist best known for his work on symbols rituals James Clyde Mitchell (usually known as J Clyde Mitchell) ( 21 June 1918 &ndash 15 November 1995) was a British sociologist Yet, all these approaches clung to a view of stable functionalism, with kinship as one of the central stable institutions.
Building on Lévi-Strauss’s (1949) notions of kinship as caught up with the fluid languages of exchange, Edmund Leach (1961, Pul Eliya) argued that kinship was a flexible idiom that had something of the grammar of a language, both in the uses of terms for kin but also in the fluidities of language, meaning, and networks. Sir Edmund Ronald Leach ( November 7, 1910 &ndash January 6, 1989) was a British social anthropologist. His field studies devastated the ideas of structural-functional stability of kinship groups as corporations with charters that lasted long beyond the lifetimes of individuals, which had been the orthodoxy of British Social Anthropology. Social anthropology is the branch of Anthropology that studies how currently living human beings behave in social groups This sparked debates over whether kinship could be resolved into specific organized sets of rules and components of meaning, or whether kinship meanings were more fluid, symbolic, and independent of grounding in supposedly determinate relations among individuals or groups, such as those of descent or prescriptions for marriage. Work on symbolic kinship by David M. Schneider in his (1984, A Critique of The Study of Kinship) reinforced this view. David Murray Schneider (November 11 1918 Brooklyn New York - October 30, 1995, Santa Cruz California) was an American Cultural anthropologist In response to Schneider's 1984 work on Symbolic Kinship, Janet Carsten re-developed the idea of "relatedness" from her initial ideas, looking at what was socialized and biological, from her studies with the Malays (1995, The substance of kinship and the heat of the hearth; feeding, personhood and relatedness among the Malays in Pulau Langkawi, American Ethnologist). The American Ethnological Society is the oldest professional anthropological association in the United States. She uses the idea of relatedness to move away from a pre-constructed analytic opposition which exists in anthropological thought between the biological and the social. Carsten argued that relatedness should be described in terms of indigenous statements and practices, some of which fall outside what anthropologists have conventionally understood as kinship (Cultures of Relatedness, 2000). This kind of approach – recognizing relatedness in its concrete and variable cultural forms – exemplifies the ways that anthropologists have grappled with the fundamental importance of kinship in human society without imprisioning the fluidity in behavior, beliefs, and meanings in assumptions about fixed patterns and systems.
Ideas about kinship do not necessarily assume any biological relationship between individuals, rather just close associations. Malinowski, in his ethnographic study of sexual behaviour on the Trobriand Islands noted that the Trobrianders did not believe pregnancy to be the result of sexual intercourse between the man and the woman, and they denied that there was any physiological relationship between father and child. For the Olympic champion athlete see Bronisław Malinowski (athlete. Ethnography ( Greek ethnos = people and graphein = writing is a genre of writing that uses Fieldwork to provide a descriptive Human sexual behavior or different human sexual practices encompass a wide range of activities such as strategies to find or attract partners ( Mating and display Sexual intercourse, in its biological sense is the act in which the male reproductive organ (in humans and other higher animals enters the female reproductive tract [7] Nevertheless, while paternity was unknown in the "full biological sense", for a woman to have a child without having a husband was considered socially undesirable. Fatherhood was therefore recognised as a social role; the woman's husband is the "man whose role and duty it is to take the child in his arms and to help her in nursing and bringing it up";[8] "Thus, though the natives are ignorant of any physiological need for a male in the constitution of the family, they regard him as indispensible socially". [9]
As social and biological concepts of parenthood are not necessarily coterminous, the terms "pater" and "genitor" have been used in anthropology to distinguish between the man who is socially recognised as father (pater) and the man who is believed to be the physiological parent (genitor); similarly the terms "mater" and "genitrix" have been used to distinguish between the woman socially recognised as mother (mater) and the woman believed to be the physiological parent (genitrix). [10] Such a distinction is useful when the individual who is considered the legal parent of the child is not the individual who is believed to be the child's biological parent. For example, in his ethnography of the Nuer, Evans-Pritchard notes that if a widow, following the death of her husband, chooses to live with a lover outside of her deceased husband's kin group, that lover is only considered genitor of any subsequent children the widow has, and her deceased husband continues to be considered the pater. The Nuer are a confederation of tribes located in Southern Sudan and western Ethiopia. Sir Edward Evan (E E Evans-Pritchard ( September 21, 1902 – September 11, 1973) was a British anthropologist instrumental WIDOW is a full-length Album recorded by British rock band Ritual released in 1983 As a result, the lover has no legal control over the children, who may be taken away from him by the kin of the pater when they choose. [11] The terms "pater" and "genitor" have also been used to help describe the relationship between children and their parents in the context of divorce in Britain. Following the divorce and remarriage of their parents, children find themselves using the term "mother" or "father" in relation to more than one individual, and the pater or mater who is legally responsible for the child's care, and whose family name the child uses, may not be the genitor or genitrix of the child, with whom a separate parent-child relationship may be maintained through arrangements such as visitation rights or joint custody. A family name or last name is a type of Surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs In Family law, contact (or in the United States, visitation) is one of the general terms which denotes the level of contact a parent or other significant See also Child custody Joint custody is a Court order whereby custody of a child is awarded to both parties [12]
It is important to note that the terms "genitor" or "genetrix" do not necessarily imply actual biological relationships based on consanguinity, but rather refer to the socially held belief that the individual is physically related to the child, derived from culturally held ideas about how biology works. Consanguinity (" con- (with sanguine (blood -ity" refers to the property of being from the same Lineage as another person So, for example, the Ifaugao may believe that an illegitimate child might have more than one physical father, and so nominate more than one genitor. Igorot ( pronounced) name for the people of the Cordillera region in the Philippines island of Luzon. [13] J. A. Barnes therefore argued that it was necessary to make a further distinction between genitor and genitrix (the supposed biological mother and father of the child), and the actual genetic father and mother of the child. Genetics (from Ancient Greek grc-Latn genetikos, “genitive” and that from grc-Latn genesis, “origin” a discipline of Biology, is
Descent, like family systems, is one of the major concepts of anthropology. Anthropology (/ˌænθɹəˈpɒlədʒi/ from Greek grc ἄνθρωπος anthrōpos, "human" -λογία -logia) is the study of Cultures worldwide possess a wide range of systems of tracing kinship and descent. Anthropologists break these down into simple concepts about what is thought to be common among many different cultures.
A descent group is a social group whose members claim common ancestry. In Sociology, a group can be defined as two or more Humans that interact with one another accept expectations and obligations as members of the group and share a A unilineal society (such as is one in which the descent of an individual is reckoned either from the mother's or the father's line of descent. Unilineality is a system of determining Descent groups in which one belongs to one's father's or mother's lineage. With matrilineal descent individuals belong to their mother's descent group. Matrilineality is a system in which lineage is traced through the mother and maternal ancestors Matrilineal descent includes the mother's brother, who in some societies may pass along inheritance to the sister's children or succession to a sister's son. With patrilineal descent, individuals belong to their father's descent group. Patrilineality (aka agnatic kinship) is a system in which one belongs to one's father's lineage it generally involves the Inheritance of property names or titles Societies with the Iroquois kinship system, are typically uniliineal, while the Iroquois proper are specifically matrilineal. Iroquois kinship (also known as bifurcate merging) is a kinship system used to define Family.
In a society which reckons descent bilaterally (bilineal), descent is reckoned through both father and mother, without unilineal descent groups. Societies with the Eskimo kinship system, like the Eskimo proper, are typically bilateral. Eskimo kinship (also referred to as Lineal kinship) is a concept of kinship used to define Family in Anthropology. The egocentrid kindred group is also typical of bilateral societies.
Some societies reckon descent patrilineally for some purposes, and matrilineally for others. This arrangement is sometimes called double descent. For instance, certain property and titles may be inherited through the male line, and others through the female line.
Societies can also consider descent to be ambilineal (such as Hawaiian kinship) where offspring determine their lineage through the matrilineal line or the patrilineal line. Ambilineality is a system of determining Descent groups in which one belongs to one's father's or mother's Lineage. Hawaiian kinship (also referred to as the Generational system) is a kinship system used to define Family. Matrilineality is a system in which lineage is traced through the mother and maternal ancestors Patrilineality (aka agnatic kinship) is a system in which one belongs to one's father's lineage it generally involves the Inheritance of property names or titles
A lineage is a descent group that can demonstrate their common descent from a known apical ancestor. In Genetics, the most recent common ancestor ( MRCA) of any set of Organisms is the most recent individual from which all organisms in the group are directly Unilineal lineages can be matrilineal or patrilineal, depending on whether they are traced through mothers or fathers, respectively. Whether matrilineal or patrilineal descent is considered most significant differs from culture to culture.
A clan is a descent group that claims common descent from an apical ancestor (but often cannot demonstrate it, or "stipulated descent"). A clan is a group of People united by Kinship and descent, which is defined by perceived descent from a common ancestor If a clan's apical ancestor is nonhuman, it is called a totem. A totem is any supposed entity that watches over or assists a group of people such as a family Clan or tribe ( Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary and Webster's Examples of clans are Chechen, Chinese, Irish, Japanese, Polish, Scottish, Tlingit, and Somali. Teip (also taip) is a Chechen tribal organization or Clan, self-identified through descent from a common Ancestor and geographic The consort clan ( is the Family, Clan of or group related to an Empress dowager or a spouse of a Chinese dynastic ruler or a Warlord Irish clans are officially recognized groups of people who either share a Surname or are descended from people who bore the surname This is a list of Japanese Clans The ancient clans ( Gōzoku) mentioned in the Nihon Shoki and Kojiki lost their political Polish clans (Rody differ from most clan systems in that while they are mostly composed of families sharing male-line origin there can also be some genealogically unrelated Families Scottish clans (from Scottish Gaelic clann, "children" give a sense of identity and shared descent to people in Scotland and to their relations Not to be confused with the Turkic Telengit people The Tlingit (ˈklɪŋkɪt in English also /-gɪt/ or Tlinkit /ˈtlɪŋkɪt/ which In the case of the Polish clan, any notion of common ancestry was lost long ago.
A phratry is a descent group containing at least two clans which have a supposed common ancestor. A phratry ( Greek: φ(ρατρία English translation: "brotherhood" "kinfolk" derived from φρατήρ meaning "brother"
If a society is divided into exactly two descent groups, each is called a moiety, after the French word for half. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people If the two halves are each obliged to marry out, and into the other, these are called matrimonial moieties. Houseman and White (1998b, bibliography) have discovered numerous societies where kinship network analysis shows that two halves marry one another, similar to a matrimonial moieties, except that the two halves -- which they call matrimonial sides[14] -- are neither named nor descent groups, although the egocentric kinship terms may be consistent with the pattern of sidedness, while the sidedness is culturally evident but imperfect[15].
The Western model of a nuclear family consists of a couple and its children. The term nuclear family developed in the Western world to distinguish the Family group consisting of parents most commonly a Father and Mother The nuclear family is ego-centered and impermanent, while descent groups are permanent (lasting beyond the lifespans of individual constituents) and reckoned according to a single ancestor.
Kinship calculation is any systemic method for reckoning kin relations. Kinship terminologies are native taxonomies, not developed by anthropologists.
Beanpole family is a term used to describe expansions of the number of living generations within a family unit, but each generation has relatively few members in it. Generation (from the Greek γενεά) also known as procreation, is the act of producing Offspring.
Kinship and descent have a number of legal ramifications, which vary widely between legal and social structures. Law is a system of rules enforced through a set of Institutions used as an instrument to underpin civil obedience politics economics and society
Most human groups share a taboo against incest; relatives are forbidden from marriage but the rules tend to vary widely once one moves beyond the nuclear family. The incest taboo refers to the cultural prohibition of Sexual activity or Marriage between persons defined as "close" relatives - commonly called Incest Incest refers to any sexual activity between closely related persons (often within the immediate family that is illegal or socially Taboo. NOTICE TO WOULD-BE ROMEOS ************** The term nuclear family developed in the Western world to distinguish the Family group consisting of parents most commonly a Father and Mother At common law, the prohibitions are typically phrased in terms of "degrees of consanguinity. Common law refers to law and the corresponding legal system developed through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive Consanguinity (" con- (with sanguine (blood -ity" refers to the property of being from the same Lineage as another person "
More importantly, kinship and descent enters the legal system by virtue of intestacy, the laws that at common law determine who inherits the estates of the dead in the absence of a will. Intestacy is the condition of the estate of a person who dies owning property greater than the sum of his or her enforceable debts and funeral expenses without having made a In Common law, a will or testament is a document by which a person (the Testator) regulates the rights of others over his or her Property In civil law countries, the doctrine of legitime plays a similar role, and makes the lineal descendants of the dead person forced heirs. Civil law or Romano-Germanic law or Continental law is the predominant system of law in the world. In civil law and Roman law, the legitime, or forced share, of a decedent's estate is that portion of the estate from which he cannot "Heir" and "Heiress" redirect here For the men and women fragrances endorsed by Paris Hilton see Heiress (fragrance. Rules of kinship and descent have important public aspects, especially under monarchies, where they determine the order of succession, the Heir Apparent and the Heir Presumptive. A monarchy is a Form of government in which supreme power is actually or nominally lodged in an individual who is the Head of state, often for life or An order of succession is a formula or algorithm that determines who inherits an office upon the death resignation or removal of its current occupant An heir apparent is an Heir who (short of a fundamental change in the situation cannot be displaced from inheriting the term is used in contrast to Heir presumptive An heir presumptive is the person provisionally scheduled to inherit a throne peerage or other hereditary honor but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an Heir apparent