Kinship, Marriage

and the Household

By: Ms Syvel Jay T. Silvestre and Mr Ryan T. Villasis
 ACTIVITY
• Divide the class into 6 groups and choose a leader who will
facilitate the task for this group activity.
• Activity: Who makes most of the major decisions in your
family? What aspects of decision making is done by your
mother and/or your father? (e.g. what movie to watch) List
down the majority answers.
• You are given 20 minutes to accomplish the task.
Father Only Mother Only Both Parents
WHAT IS KINSHIP?
 In anthropology, KINSHIP is the web of social
relationships that form an important part of the lives of
most humans in most societies.
Kinship can refer both to the patterns of social
relationships themselves, or it can refer to the study of
the patterns of social relationships in one or more human
cultures.
Kinship can be by blood, marriage and ritual.
KINDS OF KIN
 TWO KINDS OF KIN:
•Affinal Kin- are people who are •Consanguineal Kin- are people who
related to you by virtue of marriage are biologically related to one another,
bond, such as husband and wife or such as brothers and sisters or parents
parents in law. and their children.
THREE MAIN TYPES OF
AFFILIATION WITH KIN
 These are:
• Unilinial Descent
• Ambilineal Descent
• Bilateral Descent

The Unilineal and Ambilineal descent are based on the rules of descent
which are rules that connect individuals with particular sets of kin because
of known or presumed common ancestry.
 UNILINEAL DESCENT
Societies differ from one another in terms of wether
descent is reckoned through male or female line. Unilineal
Descent describes that a person is affiliated with a group of
kin through descent links of one sex only (either males or
females). It is either patrilineal or matrilineal.

• Patrilineal descent- affiliates an individual with kin of both

sexes related to him or her through men only.
• Matrilineal descent- affiliates an individual with kin of both
sexes related to him or her through women only.
There are four groups which refer themselves as belonging to a particular
unilineal group because they believe they share common descent in either
that patrilineal line or the matrilineal line.
1. Lineages – is a set of kin
whose members trace descent
from a common ancestor
through known links. They are
often designated by the name of
the common male or female
ancestor. These may
be matrilineages or they may
be patrilineages, depending on
whether the links are traced
through women or men
2. Clans – is a set of kin
whose members believe
themselves to be descended
from a common ancestor but
not that specifies. Clans with
patrilineal descent are called
Patriclans while matrilineal
descent are called Matriclans.
3. Phratries – is a
unilineal descent
group composed of
supposedly related
clans.
Moieties – it is when a
whole society is divided
into two unilineal
descent groups. The
people in each moiety
believe themselves to
be descended from a
common ancestor.
 AMBILINEAL DESCENT
Ambilineal Descent is a system containing both unilineal
descent groups, example both patrilinial and matrilineal groups in
which one belongs to one's father's and/or mother's descent
group.
Bilateral Kinship means two sided which refers to the fact that
one's relatives on both mother's and father's sides are equal in
importance.
In the Philippines, there is bilateral descent system in which
descent is reckoned more or less equally to both male and female
lines.
KINSHIP BY MARRIAGE
 KINSHIP BY MARRIAGE
Marriage means a socially approved sexual and economic
union, usually between a man and a woman. It is a socially
approved social union in that the married couple does not
have to hide the sexual nature of their relationship.

There are a lot of rules governing types of marriages.

Monogamy, Polygamy and Group Marriage.
MONOGAMY
a form of marriage in
which one man
marries one woman. It
is the most common
and acceptable form
of marriage.
 POLIGAMY
is a form of marriage in which one is entitled to marry many
partners. Example, Muslim

There are 2 types of Poligamy marriages:

A) POLYGYNY

B) POLYANDRY
POLYGYNY
is a form of marriage in which
one man marries more than
one woman at a given time.
There are two types:
• Sororal Polygyny and
• Non-sororal Polygyny.
Sororal POLYGYNY

is a type of
marriage in which
the wives are
invariably the
sisters.
Non-sororal POLYGYNY

is a type of
marriage in which
the wives are not
related sisters.
POLYANDRY
is the marriage of one
woman with more than
one man. It is less
common than
polygyny. There are
two types: Fraternal
Polyandry and Non-
Fraternal Polyandry
Fraternal POLYANDRY
when several brothers
share the same wife the
practice can be called
alelphic or fraternal
polyandry.
Non-Fraternal POLYANDRY
in this type the husband
need not have any close
relationship prior to the
marriage. The wife goes
to spend some time with
each husband.
GROUP MARRIAGE
means that the
marriage of two or
more women with two
or more men. Here
the husbands are
common husbands
and wives are
common wives.
ENDOGAMY AND
EXOGAMY
 There are rules that the male and female must
consider. Rule of marriage is ver important. No society
gives absolute freedom to its members to select their
partners.

Endogamy and Exogamy are the two main rules that

condition marital choice.
ENDOGAMY
is a rule of marriage in which
the life-partners are to be
selected within the group. It
is a marriage within the
group and the group may be
caste, class, tribe, race,
village, religious group, etc.
EXOGAMY
is a rule of marriage in which
an individual has to marry
outside his own group. It
prohibits marrying within
the group. The so-called
blood relatives shall neither
have marital connections
nor sexual contacts among
themselves.
KINSHIP BY RITUAL
 A Ritual Kinship is a privileged social relationship
established by ritual, such as that of godparents or fraternal
orders. A very famous ritual kinship is the Compadrazgo used
to refer to the institutional relationship between compadres.
Compadres are relationship between the parents and
godparents of a child is an important bond that originates
when a child is baptized in Iberian and Latin American
families.
From the moment of a baptism ceremony, the godparents
share the parenting role of the baptized child with the natural
parents.
 By catholic doctrine, upon the child's baptism the
godparents accept the responsibility to ensure that the child is
raised according to the dictates of the Catholic faith and to
ensure the child pursues a life of improvement and success.

At the moment of baptism, the godparents and natural

parents become each other's compadres. For women, comadre
is the term being used.
FAMILY AND THE
HOUSEHOLD
Types of Family on the Basis of
MARRIAGE

1. Polygamous or
Polygynous Family
– a family with
plural spouse.
Types of Family on the Basis of
Marriage
2. Polyandrous
Family – a family
where one
woman has a
number of
husbands.
Types of Family on the Basis of
Marriage
3. Monogamous
Family – a family
with one
husband and one
wife.
 Types of Family on the Basis
of the NATURE OF RESIDENCE

1. Family of Patrilocal Residence – the son stays and

the daughter leaves, so that the married couple lives
with or near the husband's parents.
 Types of Family on the Basis
of the NATURE OF RESIDENCE

2. Family of Matrilocal Residence – the daughter stays

and the son leaves, so that the married couple lives with
or near the wife's parents.
 Types of Family on the Basis
of the NATURE OF RESIDENCE

3. Family of Bilocal Residence – either the son or

the daughter leaves, so that the married couple
lives with or near either the wife's or the husband's
parents.
Types of Family in the Basis of
SIZE OR STRUCTURE

1. Nuclear Family –
single couple
/monogamous family.
Types of Family in the Basis of
SIZE OR STRUCTURE

2. Matrifocal Family –
the parent in such
families is usually the
mother.
Types of Family in the Basis of
SIZE OR STRUCTURE
3. Extended Family –
it may consist if two
or more single parent,
monogamous,
polygynous families
linked with ties.
 Types of Family on the Basis
of the NATURE OF RELATIONS

• Conjugal Family – which consists of adult members

among there exists sex relationship.
• Consanguine Family – which consists of members
among whom there exists blood relationships brother
and sister, father and son, etc.
 POLITICS OF KINSHIP
The family could also be part of political affairs.
Political dynasty is very popular term to use if the
family is in power. A political family or political dynasty
is a family in which several members are involved in
politics, particularly electoral politics.
Members may be related by blood or marriage;
often several generations or multiple siblings may be
involved. It is very popular in UK wherein the royal
family controls the whole kingdom.