KINSHIP

UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY & POLITICS

OBJECTIVES

• Based on the MELC using Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy:

• Trace kinship ties and social networks;
• Compare different types of kinship based on lineage;
• Discuss the functions of family and marriage; and
• Identify the different types of families based on the number
of spouses and residential patterns.
KINSHIP

• Family is described as “a social and economic unit that consists

of one or more parents and their children.”
• There are several points that you can learn from this definition.
• A family is a socioeconomic unit.
• A family can have one or more parents.
• A family can have parents who are not married.
• A family can have parents with same gender.
• A family should have at least one child.
• A family has two purposes:
• To orient the individual of the norms of the society; and
• To provide physical support as the individuals matures.

• These are seen in the two types of nuclear families.

• The individual is usually labelled as Ego which involves the two
types of families one has.
KINSHIP BY BLOOD

• One factor that allows an individual to identify another

individual as a family member is consanguinity, popularly called
as blood relatives.
• In anthropology, there are four main descent rules that are
recognized.
• Unilateral Descent
• Bilateral Descent
UNILATERAL DESCENT

• This allows an individual to be affiliated to the descent of one sex group only,
either the male or female.
• Matrilineal descent leads an individuals to trace kinship relations through the
female’s line.
• The surname and inheritances of a family are passed on from one female to the
other.
• Patrilineal descent, an individual traces his/her kinship through the male’s line
only.
• An expansion of unilineal descent groups creates a kinship group.
CLAN

• This type of kinship is observed among groups of

people who believe that they have unilineal
relations based on a common ancestor.
PHRATRIES & MOIETY

• Phratries is a descent group or kinship group in some

tribal societies.
• Moiety is a function of creating a sustainable
systematic balance within a society.
BILATERAL DESCENT

• Allows an individuals to trace kinship ties on both sides of the

family.
• Means that an individuals can recognize both his/her parents’
relatives as his/her own relatives.
• Everyone knows how he/she is connected to everyone.
• This kinship grouping is called kindred.