Kinship

Defining Family and Kinship

• Who is considered family,
and who isn’t?
• How are we “related” to
each other?
• What relationships create
kinship? What relationships
does kinship produce?
• What rules govern
relationships between kin?
 Analyzing Kinship and Lineage

• Anthropologists tend to use kinship “charts” like

this one to keep track of and analyze kinship
relations.
 Kinship
• Despite its boring appearance, studying
kinship can tell us a great deal about
many aspects of a culture.

• WHY IS KINSHIP IMPORTANT?

 Kinship
• In all cultures, kinship links modes of
production, reproduction, and ideology.
What does this really mean?

• Type of economy a society has

determines your marriage options, status,
treatment of elderly people, inheritance
patterns etc.
• EX: Class, occupation, & marriage

• In small scale societies (SSS), kinship is

primary (often only) principle that
organizes people into coherent and
meaningful groups

• Concept difficult for Americans

(Westerners) because we have
deemphasized kinship in our daily lives.  
 Kinship & Cultural Order
• In SSS, kinship : Ensures
continuity of group (arranged
marriages); Maintains social
order through setting moral
rules, punishing offenders;
Provides for basic needs of
members by regulating
production, consumption,
distribution.

• In industrial societies, kinship

ties exist, but other forms of
social affiliation draw people
together into groups with no
relationship to kinship.
 Studying Kinship
• Early anthropologists interested in kinship
systems.
• EX: “What do you call your brother’s
daughter? Can you marry your cousins on
your mother side? Interesting questions,
generate a lot data.

• Kinship Diagram: schematic way of

presenting data on the kinship relationships
of an individual called ego

• By asking ego about kinship, we can learn a

great deal of things. Is kinship in that
particular society important?EX: How many
generations of grandparents can you name?
 Household
• Household= domestic group
comprising people who may or
may not be related by kinship,
share a living space, often
budgetary responsibilities

• Households vary cross-culturally

• Archaeological evidence

• Households, depending on
context, are involved to varying
degrees in production,
consumption, and exchange.

• In non-industrial societies,
households often fulfill all these
functions.
 Households
• In industrial societies, HH
more concerned with
consumption & exchange,
most production occurs
outside the household.
Dorm life

• Household structure is
influenced by economics,
ecology, modernization,
and a host of other factors.
 
Families:
http://youtu.be/Jv7lmnm17l0
 Nuclear family
• Nuclear Family: consist of parents &
children, normally living together in
the same household.

• Nuclear family lasts only as long as the

parents & children remain together

• You belong to two different nuclear

families:

• Family of Orientation: the family you

are born into and with whom you
grow up
 
• Family of Procreation: formed when
one marries and has children
 Nuclear family is:
• Widespread around the
world but not universal

• Relationship usually
takes precedence over
extended kin

• Other social units such

as extended families
and descent groups
 Industrialization & Nuclear Family
• North Americans & Westernized tend to
emphasize nuclear family

• Our only well-defined kin group

• Familial isolation arises from geographic

mobility which is linked to industrialism
(hence modern nations emphasize nuclear
families)

• You are expected to move out of the house,

get a job, and start a new family. Few of us
are tied to the land and jobs are widely
dispersed

• Most married couples live far from their

parents. Work determines where we live.
This postmarital pattern is called neolocality.
 Nuclear Family & Economic
• Significant differences between middle-
class & low-income North Americans.

• Low-income families have higher

incidences of expanded family
households (those that include non-
nuclear relatives).

• Ethnic/racial disparities & stereotypes

• When three or more generations are

included in a household= extended
family household.

• Higher proportions of expanded

households has been explained as an
adaptation to poverty.
 American changes in family structure
• Changes in household
structure are linked to

• Increase of women in the

workforce (this can delay
marriage)

• Divorce rate has risen

dramatically

• Single parent homes very

common
• Anthropology tries to cash in:
http://youtu.be/OPVlXIe3Vxo
 Extended Family (Zadruga)
• Muslims (Balkans)

• Nuclear families lacked

autonomy
• Emphasis on zadruga
• extended family
household headed by
male head & wife

• Married sons & wives,

children & unmarried
son’s live in husband’s
father’s household
 Zadruga
• Each nuclear family has
private sleeping room but
possessions are shared

• Fathers feel closer to own

sons, but are obliged to treat
children of his brothers
equally.

• Children were considered

part of the household to
which they were born, even
if their mother left

• Zadruga is a type of
patrilocal extended family 
 Nayar (Southern India)
• Alternative to nuclear family

• Traditional kinship system was

matrilineal (descent traced through
females only)

• Lived in matrilineal extended family

compounds called tarawads

• Residential complex with several

buildings, own temple, granary,
water well, orchards, gardens, and
land holdings

• Headed by senior woman, assisted

by her brother, the tarawad housed
her siblings, sister’s children, and
other matrilineal kin
•
Nayar
Marriage for Nayar was a small
formality
• after marriage, couple spend short time
together. Husband then returns to his
tarawad & bride to hers.

• Children became members of mother’s

tarawad.

• Women could have multiple sex

partners and the children themselves
were not considered relatives of their
biological father or his family.

• Many children did not know their father

• Society reproduced itself without a
nuclear family 
Next time: Descent & Marriage