Chapter 10
Kinship and Descent
What We Will Learn
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Why have cultural anthropologists spent so
much time studying kinship?
What are the various functions of descent
groups?
What are the different ways in which cultures
categorize kin?
Why is it important to know something about the
kinship systems in other cultures?
Kinship Defined
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Kinship refers to the relationships—found
in all societies—that are based on blood
or marriage.
Relationships based on blood and
marriage are culturally recognized by all
societies.
Kinship Defined
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Those to whom we are related through birth or
blood, are our consanguineal relatives.
Those to whom we are related through
marriage are our affinal relatives.
Fictive kinship refers to relationships among
individuals who recognize kinship obligations
although the relationships are not based on
either consanguineal or affinal ties.
Kinship
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Cultural
anthropologists
generally have
studied societies in
which kinship
activities play an
important role.
This Tibetan family
includes three
generations.
Parenthood
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Parenthood as
defined by this
Western family is
very different from
the Zumbaguan
definition of
parenthood.
Question
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________ refers to relationships found
in all societies.
a) Relatedness
b) Matrilineality
c) Patrilineality
d) Kinship
Answer: d
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Kinship refers to relationships found in
all societies.
Question
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Those who are related to us by blood
are referred to as:
a) affinal kin.
b) descendants.
c) ancestors.
d) consanguineal kin.
Answer: d
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Those who are related to us by blood are
referred to as consanguineal kin.
Partible Paternity
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The Bari of
Venezuela believe in
partible paternity, the
idea that a child can
have more than one
biological father.
Functions of Kinship Systems
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Vertical function - provides social
continuity by binding together a number of
successive generations.
Horizontal function - solidify or tie
together a society across a single
generation through marriage.
Kinship Diagrams
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All kinship diagrams are viewed from the
reference of EGO, the person from whose
point of view we are tracing the
relationship.
Kinship Diagrams - References
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Father’s sister (FZ)
Father’s sister’s husband
(FZH)
Father’s brother’s wife
(FBW)
Father’s brother (FB)
Father (F)
Mother (M)
Mother’s sister’s
husband (MZH)
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Mother’s sister (MZ)
Mother’s brother (MB)
Mother’s brother’s wife
(MBW)
Father’s sister’s son
(FZS)
Father’s sister’s daughter
(FZD)
Father’s brother’s son
(FBS)
Kinship Diagram Symbols
Generic Kinship Diagram
Principles of Kinship
Classification
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Generation
Gender
Lineality Versus Collaterality
Consanguineal Versus Affinal Kin
Relative Age
Sex of the Connecting Relative
Social Condition
Side of the Family
Lineality Versus Collaterality
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Lineality
• Kin related in a single line such as son,
father, and grandfather.
Collaterality
• Kin relations traced through a linking
relative.
Descent Groups
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Relatives who live their lives in close proximity
to one another.
Characteristics:
• Have a strong sense of identity.
• Often share communally held property.
• Provide economic assistance to one another.
• Engage in mutual civic and religious
ceremonies.
Functions of Descent Groups
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Mechanism for inheriting property and
political office.
Control behavior.
Regulate marriages.
Structure primary political units.
Rules of Descent: Two Types
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Unilateral
• Trace their ancestry through mother’s
line or father’s line, but not both (60%).
Cognatic descent
• Includes double descent, ambilineal
descent, and bilateral descent.
Patrilineal Descent
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In a patrilineal descent system, a person is
connected to relatives of both sexes related
through males only.
Patrilineal Descent
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Most common unilineal descent group.
• A man, his children, his brother’s
children, and his son’s children are all
members of the same descent group.
• Females must marry outside their
patrilineages.
• A woman’s children belong to the
husband’s lineage rather than her own.
Patrilineal Descent
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This Kikuyu family of Kenya has a patrilineal
descent system.
Matrilineal Descent Groups
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A woman, her siblings, her children, her sisters’
children, and her daughters’ children.
15% of the unilineal descent groups found
among contemporary societies including:
• Native Americans (such as Navajo,
Cherokee, and Iroquois)
• Truk and Trobrianders of the Pacific
• Bemba, Ashanti, and Yao of Africa
Matrilineal Descent
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In a matrilineal descent system, a person is connected
to kin of both sexes related through females only.
Matrilineal Descent
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These Zuni of New Mexico practice matrilineal
descent.
Matriarchy
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The rule of domination of women over
men.
Differences Between Patrilineal
and Matrilineal Descent Groups
Role of
Women
Authority of
Husband/
father
Patrilineal
Matrilineal
Give birth to
husband’s
descendants; play
minimal role in
their own group
Play a central role in
their own group by
bearing their own
descendants
Strong authority
Weak in marital
household; strong in
household of his sister
Differences Between Patrilineal
and Matrilineal Descent Groups
Patrilineal
Matrilineal
Status of
husband/
father
High status
Relatively low status
Father/child
relationship
Characterized by
deference,
strong authority
and formality
Relatively weak
authority and general
informality
Differences Between Patrilineal
and Matrilineal Descent Groups
Strength of
marital bonds
Residence
pattern
Patrilineal
Matrilineal
Strong
Relatively weak
Typically
patrilocal
Typically matrilocal
Question
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While matrilineal descent systems occur,
it is important not to confuse them with
_________________ , a situation
whereby women have greater authority
and decision-making prerogatives than
men.
Answer: matriarchy
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While matrilineal descent systems occur,
it is important not to confuse them with
matriarchy, a situation whereby women
have greater authority and decisionmaking prerogatives than men.
Types of Unilineal Descent
Groups
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Lineages
Clans
Phratries
Moieties
Lineage
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Unilineal descent group whose members can
trace their line of descent to a common
ancestor.
Segmentation
• The process that takes place within a lineage
whereby small subdivisions of a lineage will
oppose one another in some social situations
but will coalesce and become allies in other
social situations.
Lineage Segmentation
Clans
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Unilineal descent groups, usually comprising
more than ten generations, consisting of
members who claim a common ancestry even
though they cannot trace step-by-step their
exact connection to a common ancestor.
• Phratries
• Unilineal descent groups composed of a
number of related clans.
Moieties
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Complementary descent groups that
result from the division of a society into
two halves.
Corporate Nature of
Unilineal Descent Groups
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Lineage members see themselves as
members of the group rather than
individuals.
Large numbers of family must approve of
marriages.
Corporate Nature of
Unilineal Descent Groups
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Property is regulated by the group, rather
than by the individual.
If a member of a lineage assaults a
member of another lineage, the assaulter
and the group are held accountable.
The kinship group provides security and
protection for individual members.
Cognatic Descent Groups
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A form of descent traced through both
females and males.
Approximately 40% of the world’s
societies.
Types of Cognatic Descent
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Double descent
• Individuals receive some rights and
obligations from the father’s side of the family
and others from the mother’s side.
Ambilineal descent
• Affiliates a person to a kin group through
either the male or the female line.
Bilateral descent
• Individuals equally emphasize their mother’s
kin and their father’s kin.
World Distribution of Kinship Systems
Kinship Classification Systems
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Eskimo
Hawaiian
Iroquois
Omaha
Crow
Sudanese
Eskimo System
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1/10th of the world’s societies
Associated with bilateral descent.
Emphasizes the nuclear family by using
separate terms (mother, father, sister,
brother) that are not used outside the
nuclear family.
Eskimo Kinship System
Hawaiian System
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Found in 1/3 of the societies in the world.
Uses a single term for all relatives of the same
sex and generation:
• A person’s father, father’s brother, and
mother’s brother are all referred to as father.
• In EGO’s generation, the only distinction is
based on sex - male cousins are as brothers,
female cousins as sisters.
Nuclear family members are roughly equivalent
to more distant kin.
Hawaiian System
Iroquois System
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EGO’s father and father’s brother are
called by the same term, mother’s brother
is called by a different term.
EGO’s mother and mother’s sister are
called by one term, a different term is
used for EGO’s father’s sister.
EGO’s siblings are given the same term
as parallel cousins.
Iroquois System
Omaha System
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Emphasizes patrilineal descent.
EGO’s father and father’s brother are called by
the same term, and EGO’s mother and
mother’s sister are called by the same term.
On the mother’s side of the family, there is a
merging of generations.
That merging of generations does not occur on
EGO’s father’s side of the family.
Omaha System
Crow System
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Concentrates on matrilineal rather than
patrilineal descent.
Mirror image of the Omaha system.
The father’s side of the family merges
generations.
On EGO’s mother’s side of the family,
which is the important descent group,
generational distinctions are recognized.
Crow System
Family History and Immigration
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Immigrants are
processed at Ellis Island
in New York, the initial
point of entry into the
United States in the first
half of the 20th century.
Information technology
allows us to search
immigration records to
learn more about our
family histories.
Reproductive Technologies
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New reproductive
technologies are
changing the way we
think about kinship.