KINSHIP

RELATIONSHIP THROUGH BIRTH AND MARRIAGE

 TYPES OF KINSHIP

 Related by consanguinity and affinity

 Consanguineal kin group
 Affinal kin group
CONSANGUINEAL KIN GROUP
 Blood relationship
 Born or adopted in family
 Father, mother, son, daughter
AFFINAL KINSHIP
 Linked by marital bond – affinal kins
 Husband, wife, wife’s mother, daughter’s husband
FAMILY OR ORIENTATION
 A person is born
FAMILY OF PROCREATION
 By marriage – procreating in it
 DEGREE OF KINSHIP

 Degree of distance between kins classified

PRIMARY KINSHIP
 Belong to the same nuclear family
 Father, mother, brother, sister
 Family of orientation
 Husband, wife, son, daughter
 Family of procreation
SECONDARY KINSHIP
 Mother’s brother, father’s sister, wife’s father, son’s wife-
secondary relatives
TERTIARY KINSHIP

 Father is a primary kin

 Grandfather – secondary kin
 Great grandfather – tertiary kin
DISTANT RELATIVES
 All other relatives who are more remote than tertiary
relatives are “ distant relatives”
CHARACTERISTICS

 All types of kin relatives

 Provide mutual aid and security to its members
 Blood relatives closer to the person
FUNCTIONS OF KINSHIP
 To transmit status and property
 Kins invited for marriage ceremonies
KINSHIP TERMS AND TERMINOLOGY

 Kinship terms used to address a kin

 Kinship terminology classified in to :
Classificatory system
 The term uncle – classificatory term
 Father’s brother, mother’s brother
Descriptive system
 Father, mother – descriptive terms
 One term refers to only one relation
 KINSHIP USAFES

 Some usages regulate behaviour of kins

AVOIDANCE
 To maintain distance
 Son’s wife is avoidance
JOKING RELATIONSHIP
 Between a man and his wife’s sister
TEKNONYMY
 Addressing a person by relationship
 Mother of child
DEFERENCE
 Showing respect by using respectful terminology
 Husband highly respected by the wife
AVUNCLATE
 When maternal uncle has pre-eminent place in the life of
AMILATE
 Father’s sister gets more respect than mother
COUVADE
 Whenever the wife gives birth to child, husband observes
some taboos
 Taking strict diet
KINSHIP AND DESCENT

 There are three ways of tracing descents

Unilinear descent or one line descent
 Through one sex or line
 It is of three types
Patrilineal or agnatic descent – descent traced through male
line
Matrilineal or uterine descent – descent traced through females
i.e. mother only
Bilineal descent ( double or duo lineal descent)
- In India partrilineal, matrilineal systems
- Nayars of Kerala – Matrilineal descent