Kinship Anthropology - introduction to Anthropology

1. THE IDEA OF FAMILY

2. Kinship Anthropology questions
who can we
marry?
Who can’t we
marry?
01
What is this given
person relation to
another one?
02
What are the
emic terms used
to designate
relations?
03

3. kinship: organization
of family relations in
a given society
Families fulfill similar functions in most societies:
• comfort and belonging for members
• a sense of identity, shared values and ideals
• economic cooperation
• nurturance of children

4. Kinship terminology
A set of vocabulary designating
relations between Ego (a person) and
individuals who are his/her parents
by alliance or consanguinity

5. The kinship atom
Ego + parents + siblings

6. Various criteria to define
kinship
■ Generation: ascending/descending
■ Gender and sex: male/female
■ Marrying from
■ the father’s family side: patrilineal
■ The mother’s family side: matrilineal
■ Residence rule: patrilocal/matrilocal

7. gender
generation
marriage
side
residence
rule
categories of
parents with whom
differential social
relationships are
associated
Kinship terminology reflects the structure of a society’s social relations

8. Morgan, Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human
Family, 1871
Two kinds of kinship
Descriptive: the word used is according the degree of proximity or
distance towards a person
Classificatory: in some societies, such as that of using father for both
father and brother, is related to a common category, that of males.

9. Freud,Totem and taboo (1913)
Study ofTotemist Australian Aborigines
Incest prohibition is universal
Incest prohibition is ruled either by law, either by instinct

10. Westermarck
(1926)
familiarity in young age tends to
inhibit sexual attraction
Sexual indifference is associated
to an aversion induced by incest
There is no biologic aversion for
consanguineous reproduction

11. Claude Lévi-Strauss
(1960’s)
The elementary rules of Alliance theory:
■ Giving/countergiving defines culture
■ Women are the “supreme gift”
■ The exchange of women allows incest prohibition
■ The exchange of women is political, economic
■ Incest taboo is universal and culturally variable

12. ■ Families fulfill similar functions in most societies:
– comfort and belonging for members
– a sense of identity, shared values and ideals
– economic cooperation
– nurturance of children
■ Kinship is based on descent and marriage
■ These depend on cultural contexts
■ Kinship is dynamic: Families are not permanent
entities
■ Individuals may be members of multiple families in the
course of a lifetime
Remember…