Nadia Tamayo

Cultural Anthropology

Kinship Extra Credit Assignment

Professor Meeker

05/02/23

Kinship Chart

My personal idea of “family” is quite standard, and even traditional. Due to

estrangements that happened between my nuclear family and extended family, my family unit of

5 is now living in a country separate from the country we were all born in, the

Philippines—which is also the country that houses almost my entire extended family from my

father and mother’s side. The nuclear unit consists of my father, my mother, my sister, my cat,

and me; Brooklyn is our home. An accompanying and important piece to this tight unit is my

mother’s sister—my aunt, who lives in Maryland. The unit is so small because I struggle with

opening up my family circle, though my parents readily consider their close friends family—and

in my head, the only people I can truly rely on are meticulously chosen and often held an arm’s

length apart due to lack of trust. My father’s uncle and aunt live nearby us, and although they are

technically my grandparents, I call them “uncle” and “aunt,” and their son, who although is my

actual uncle, I call a “brother”. They are the only extended family I have in the state of New

York, and I consider them trustworthy due to their continuous support of my parents. My

personal addition to the tree is my best friend Aubrey, who also happens to be extremely close to

my younger sister. We are meshed together very closely in friendship and in my family tree, he is

a branch as close to me as my own limbs. This is my most personal idea of family, excluding

every tie my parents and sister make on their own.

 F: Father

Key M: Mother

Ego: ★ Z: Sister

Male: △ B: Brother

Female: 〇 D: Daughter

Unnatural Female Tie: ⍜ T: Son

Unnatural Male Tie: ⍙ W: Wife

Pet: ° H: Husband

Don’t Identify as Real Family: X P: Unmarried Partner

V: Family Friend

Initials N: Personal Friend

Ties

= : Marriage Tie

— : Unmarried Tie

✝ : Adoption Tie