Understanding Kinship & Descent: Social Organization and Cultural Phenomena

1. Chapter 10 Kinship & Descent 1

2. What Will You Learn? • Explain how kinship is the basis of social organization in every culture. • Apply kinship terminology as a cross-cultural code for analyzing social networks. • Contrast cultures in which ancestry is traced, through foremothers, forefathers, or both. • Distinguish the characteristics of lineages and clans from those of kindreds. • Identify three kinship systems. • Interpret totemism as a cultural phenomenon. • Significance of kinship in the contexts of adoption and NRT’s. 2

3. What are Kinship & Descent Groups? • Descent groups are a way each society can organize its members along kinship lines. • Is any kin-ordered social group with a membership in the direct line of descent from a real (historical) or fictional common ancestor. • Members share descent from a common ancestor through a series of parent-child links. • Provides members with a wider social network to better conquer daily needs like food, water, and shelter. 3

4. Kinship • Kinship is a network of relatives wherein individuals possess certain mutual rights and obligations. • To better organize kinship lines is through the usage of descent groups. 4

5. Varying Types of Descent Groups • There are a variety of ways that descent can be traced according to the particular culture in which it is found. • Unilineal descent • Descent that establishes group membership through either the mother’s or the father’s line. • Matrilineal descent Descent traced exclusively through the female line to establish group membership. • Patrilineal descent Descent traced exclusively through the male line to establish group membership. 5

6. Descent Groups • Ambilineal descent • A person has the option to affiliate themselves with either their mother or father’s descent group. • Double descent • Rare system when both patrilineal and matrilineal descent is recognized at the same time. • Bilateral descent • When descent derives from both the mother and fathers families equally. Which is most likely a North American descent pattern? 6

7. Unilineal Descent Groups • Two major forms of unilineal descent groups are the lineage and the clan. • Lineage • A unilineal kinship group descended from a common ancestor or founder who lived four to six generations ago, also where relationships among members can be stated genealogically. • Clan • An extended unilineal kinship group, often consisting of several lineages, whose members claim common descent from a remote ancestor, usually legendary or mythological. Identification might be reinforced by Totems. 7

8. Patrilineal Descent Groups • Male members trace their descent from a common male ancestor. • A female belongs to the same descent group as her father and his brother. • Authority over the children lies with the father or his elder brother. 8

9. Patrilineal Descent Diagram 9

10. Matrilineal Descent Groups • Descent is traced through the female line. • Women do not hold public authority, rather they share it with men. Although they do hold considerably more power in decision making than in patrilineal societies. • Common in horticultural societies where women perform much of the productive work. 10

11. Tracing Matrilineal Descent 11

12. Critical ThoughtHonor Killings and Kinship • Upon reading the section in the text on page 505-506 reflect on the following questions. • What is namus? • Who can be a victim of an honor killing? • What is the cause of most honor killings? 12

13. Lineage Exogamy • Characteristic of all lineages is exogamy. • Since marriage is between two lineages and not just two individuals: • Lineage members must find their marriage partners in other lineages. • This curbs competition for desirable spouses within the group and promotes group solidarity. 13

14. Lineage to Clan • If the kinship group’s membership becomes too large to be manageable or too much work for the lineage’s resources to support the group may split. • This is known as fission- the splitting of a descent group into two or more new descent groups. 14

15. Totemism • The belief that people are related to particular animals, plants, or natural objects by virtue of descent from common ancestral spirits. • Although the word stems from the Native American Ojibwa, totemism is found in many areas of the world. 15

16. Pacific Coast Native Americans • Among the coastal Indians (Tsimshian) individuals inherit their lineage affiliations from their mothers. • Every member belongs to a “house group,” a corporate kinship. • Each village consists of about twenty houses, ranked according to importance. • Each group forms a part of a larger exogamous clan of which there are four. • Blackfish, Wolf, Eagle, Raven. 16

17. Phratries and Moieties • Apart from lineages and clans there are two other ways to organize groups. These are known as Phratries and Moieties. • Phratry • A unilineal descent group composed of two or more clans that claim to be of common ancestry. If only two such groups exist, each is a moiety. • Moiety • Each group that results from a division of a society into two halves on the basis of descent. 17

18. This diagram shows how lineages, clans, phratries, and moieties form an organizational hierarchy. Each moiety is subdivided into phratries, each phratry is subdivided into clans, and each clan is subdivided into lineages. Organizational Hierarchies 18

19. Bilateral Kinship and the Kindred • Patrilineal and matrilineal descent groups are found in many cultures but do not exist in every society. Bilateral kinship similar to bilateral descent groups establish that everyone is equally related in their blood line. • The grouping of blood relatives based on bilateral descent. Includes all relatives with whom EGO shares at least one grandparent, great-grandparent, or even great-great grandparent, on his or her father’s and mothers side is called a kindred. 19

20. Kindred • A small circle of paternal and maternal relatives. • A kindred is never the same for any two persons except siblings. • EGO is the central person from whom the degree of each relationship is traced. 20

21. Role of Kindred • In a bilateral system kindreds play a significant role in a variety of situations. • Next of “kin” may be called upon to seek justice or revenge for someone in the group. • Raise bail, serve as a witness, or help compensate a family. • If blood money is involved, kindred members would be entitled to a share of it. • Play a role in ceremonial situations. • Regulate marriage through exogamy. 21

22. The Kindred • Ego and his or her kindred. • Kindred designates a person’s exact degree of blood relatedness to other members in the family. • Determines social obligations. 22

23. Kinship Terminologies • The Hawaiian system • The Eskimo system • The Iroquois system • Least found worldwide • Omaha system • Crow system • Sudanese system • Kariera system • Aranda system 23

24. Eskimo System • Kinship reckoning in which the nuclear family is emphasized by specifically identifying the mother, father, brother, sister, while lumping together all other relatives into broad categories such as uncle, aunt, and cousin. May also be referred too as lineal system. 24

25. Eskimo System • Notice and locate EGO’S father and mothers are distinguished from EGO’S aunts and uncles, and siblings from cousins. 25

26. Hawaiian System • Kinship reckoning in which all relatives of the same sex and generation are referred to by the same term. May also be called the generational system. • This system reflects the absence of strong unilineal descent. Both mother and father’s members are viewed equally. 26

27. Hawaiian System • Notice that men numbers 2 and 6 are called by the same term as father (3) by EGO. The women numbers 1 and 5 are called by the same term as mother (4). All cousins of EGO’S own generation 7-16 are considered brothers (B) and sisters (Z) 27

28. Iroquois System • Kinship terminology wherein a father and father’s brother are given a single term, as are a mother and mother’s sister, but a father’s sister and mother’s brother are given separate terms. • Parallel cousins are classified with brothers and sisters, while cross cousins are classified separately, but (unlike Crow and Omaha kinship) not equated with relatives of some other generation. 28

29. Iroquois System • EGO’S fathers brother (2) is called by the same term as father (3); the mothers sister (5) is called by the same term as the mother 4) but the people numbered 1 and 6 are each referred to by a distinct term. Those people numbered 9-14 are all considered siblings, but 7, 8, 15, and 16 are cousins. 29

30. Fictive Kin by Ritual Adoption • Adoption is another way to make a relative that is not through blood. • Historically during war, captives might have been adopted. • Today the selection of a “god-parent” is another way to adopt a child. 30

31. Kinship and NRT’s • As discussed in the previous chapter, NRT’s are allowing for families to grow. • Children can now be conceived through donor eggs and sperm, surrogate mothers, etc. • NRT’s force us to rethink what being biologically related to others might actually mean. 31

32. Class Activity30 min • Have students pair off into small groups of 2. • Have each record through a series of questions a kinship diagram of their partner. • Have the students swap diagrams and check to make sure they are correct. • Then have students discuss some of the challenges of recording kinship from an ethnographic standpoint. • Show a few anonymous student examples of family size to class illustrating symbols, connections, etc. • May need to supplement additional symbols for (marriage, divorce, adoption, etc.). 32