SOCIOLOGY OF KINSHIP ASSIGNMENT

Roll no: 2021/728

Name: Vatsalya Saxena
Course: BA Sociology Hons

Question- How does the cultural approach question the presupposed

distinctions between the facts of biology and sociality? Illustrate with
examples.

Introduction:

Kinship was about a people's grouping and classification in comparison to the

actual biological facts of consanguinity and affinity. In ‘what is kinship all
about?’ D. Schneiden has discussed about the cultural approach question the
presupposed distinctions between the facts of biology and sociality which can
briefly understood by several examples all across the globe.

Current realities of relationships mean those people who are connected by a

natural plunge from the same progenitor.

Marriage is defined as the sexual and reproductive union between a man and a
woman, and the facts of affinity are the facts of marriage. Marriage meant a
sexual union between a man and a woman for both Morgan and McLennan;
association implied drop from a similar progenitor.

“My own position is that an accurate account of the kin classification in a

cultural sense... cannot be given without taking into account the whole ‘kinship’
system,” which are the only two components required for the construction of the
analytic apparatus required to describe any particular mode of classification or
kinship system and to compare it with any other system.

Asking what the definition of the domain of "kinship" might be for each and
every culture that I study is the second component of my strategy. I don't make
unnecessary assumptions that this space is characterized deduced by the bio-
hereditary premises of the genealogically characterized framework"
At the end of the day, where the devotees of Morgan accept it as an issue of
definition that the invariant perspectives given by current realities of sex,
origination, pregnancy, what's more, parturition comprise the area of 'family
relationship,' I treat this as an open, observational inquiry.

Of what crude components, I ask in every single case, is the social framework
formed? If, on the one hand, the broad categories of the order of nature and the
order of law contain as special instances the two major components that are
distinctive features out of which the categories of kin are formed, and if, on the
other hand, at the level of pure system, the "kinship" system, the nationality
system, and the religious system cannot be distinguished from one another in
terms of their defining features, what justification is there for calling this system
either "kinship" or "religious" or "nationality

Domestic arrangements can be an analytical category that can correspond to

anything as long as it is defined as a cultural category in a particular culture; the
relationship between a woman and the child she bears can be an analytical
category that we erect for various reasons, but it may or may not correspond to
any particular culture; and so on. They are all exactly the same, culturally
speaking or in terms of their distinct characteristics. Theories of procreation
could be a new analytic or functional category that we come up with, but it
could have one or more cultural counterparts in a specific culture or be
incorporated into one or more cultural schemes in a particular culture
indistinguishably. Although what appear to be biological elements appear to be
present in both Morgan's analysis and mine, we treat those elements in very
different ways, it may indeed be true that some cultures do have "domestic
units" as a cultural category, but that needs to be shown empirically, not
assumed so simply on one theoretical ground or another. I insist that the
meaning of these so-called biological elements is primarily symbolic and has
nothing to do with biology.

"Kinship" is like totemism, matriarchy, and the "matrilineal complex," as

Morgan and his followers insist that "kinship" is directly reflected in the
biological elements of human reproduction as they are scientifically
demonstrable in nature. People have slowly, over time, learned to recognize
these facts more or less accurately and then give further social value." It is not a
topic. “There was no such thing as ‘kinship,’ except as it existed as a set of a
priori theoretical assumptions in the mind of the anthropologist.” However, it
does not exist in the cultures that anthropologists study.

Example 1. About Punjabi kinship-

In Punjabi hypothesis of Family relationship, the organic truth of reproduction

and fornication are said to make specific early stage ties between people which
are solid and unchanging and which have a place with the domain of human
instinct.

Biology must deal with these natural facts because of kinship. However, these
natural facts are not considered to be restated by kinship as a social fact. All
things being equal, the pith of appropriate family relationship conduct is to rise
above these realities of nature.

One of the most highly prized values among Punjabis is honor, which is gained
and enhanced by overcoming natural forces rather than giving in to them.
Insofar as it offends human nature, transcendence is frequently portrayed as a
sacrifice that elevates an individual from their “lower self” to their "higher self,"
or as a mask that conceals the pre-social or antisocial currents operating in the
physical substratum. Shame or a loss of face are signs of honorlessness.

The information addressed in the work were gathered from fifty families of
metropolitan Punjabis, framing a solitary, unassuming Connection network in
the year 1974-75. The majority of these families are in Delhi however some are
dispersed in other metropolitan regions like Bombay, Calcutta, Amritsar,
Ferozepur and Kanpur. The Arora caste, a traditional trader's caste, is
represented by all of the informants.

Before India was partitioned, the people who were studied lived in the cities of
Lahore, Amritsar, Ferozepur, and Bhatinda in the Punjab. According to their
genealogies, their ancestors either moved to or lived in urban areas before 1900.
These informants hold a wide range of current employment positions, including
small-town shopkeepers, members of various professions, and large
industrialists. As a result, the household's income levels vary greatly. The
informants belong to the Arya samaj, Sanatan Dharma, and Sikh religions,
among other sects.

Each general public should characterize a specific connection between nature

and culture. As a result, the kinship system must devise a plan for assigning the
biological processes of reproduction and reproduction. One kind of relationship
might be one in which the moral order is thought to be based on the natural
order, so that violations of the moral code become violations of human nature.
Sexual offenses not only violate the moral code, but they also violate human
nature.

Example 2. About Iban of Borneo-

What are the standards of family legacy among the Iban? Children join either
their father's or mother's bilek when they are born or adopted. In matters of
inheritance, residence is of the utmost importance, and there is no distinction
made between the sexes, children's ages, or natural and adopted children. After
marriage, as indicated by legacy, privileges are surrendered by both of the life
partners, whosoever decides to leave the natal bilek, and at the same time
participation of the affinal bilek is procured. The family overall assumes
liability and cases responsibility for the property, and in this sense can be known
as an enterprise total. No part can exclude another. As a result, a death in the
family has no effect on the bile's property tenure.

There is no disjunction starting with one age then onto the next. Even though
the property is owned and maintained by everyone, one person can always be
identified as the senior by rights of descent. It is from this person that the
proprietorship and legacy privileges of any remaining individuals from the bilek
stem. This individual is referred to as the pun bilek, or the bilek's foundation. As
a result, when a sibling marries outside of the bilek, the remaining sibling
becomes the pun bilek, which serves as the family's center and a connection to
the past. There is no distinction made between the sexes even in this situation.
The bilek is divided if two siblings choose to remain in their birth bilek. The
pun bilek is of the utmost importance because it makes it easier to trace
genealogical ties and succession lines, which are essential for comprehending
the structure of the Iban family.
Example 3. About reproductive technologies in Israel

In Israel, the identity of a mother, as well as her religious and national identity,
can be attributed to her eggs and womb. The social construction of motherhood
and the nation's social reproduction are directly linked. Eggs and wombs are not
only the variables that determine maternal and religious identity, but they are
also the variables that determine citizenship, as Israel is a nation state where the
positive determination of Jewish Identity automatically confers citizenship.
When the dominant religious culture provides the conceptual groundwork for
Kinship, as it does in Israel, and when the same religious culture determines
identity as matrilineal, as Judaism does, then eggs and wombs are not only the
variables that determine maternal and religious identity, but they are

The development of ovum-related technologies complicates the origins of

maternality. Unprecedented reproductive possibilities are created when eggs can
be surgically transferred from one woman's ovaries to another's womb.

The essay is an ethnographic account of the medical and laboratory procedures

that analyze eggs and wombs as operable variables. The construction of
maternity in a setting where orthodox rabbis' conceptual categories and fertility
doctors' technological expertise are seen as dynamically juxtaposed. The
guidelines for the conception of new Jewish citizens are determined by the
debates.

The reasonable discontinuity of ladies' bodies into eggs and belly is hazardous.
Since women's bodies are routinely anesthetized, surgically invaded, and
otherwise invaded during these procedures in the name of conceiving children,
the egg-related procedures have been the subject of extensive feminist analysis
and critique.

-The setting: A Jerusalem Fertility Clinic

The fieldwork was carried out in a small religious hospital in Jerusalem, where
the majority of patients were either religious Muslims or secular Jews, Christian
Palestinians, or ultraorthodox Jews.

There were two fruitfulness research centers in the medical clinic. In the first,
people who are undergoing fertility treatments give the lab workers sperm
samples; They process sperm for inseminations (swim-up, Percol wash, etc.)
and check sperm for motility and mobility (spermogram).

In the second, which was situated close to the working room in ladies' ward,
they act in-vitro preparation and micromanipulations.

They additionally get ready gametes, zygotes and incipient organisms for
careful and intra vaginal addition into the belly. Until they are moved into a
woman's womb, embryos are kept in incubators. Due to the fact that treatments
and procedures were carried out with careful consideration of Halakha,
frequently under the guidance of particular rabbis, only married women or
couples were eligible for treatment.

Maschgichot, or Halakhic inspectors, watched over each fertility procedure to

make sure that sperm and eggs didn't mix up in a bad way. The maschgichot are
ultra-orthodox women who work in the lab and are paid a small hourly wage to
watch the workers process the incoming sperm and eggs. During laboratory
procedures like the use of syringe, pipette, or catheter (in the event that they are
not washed properly) as the sperms are transferred to petridish, the purpose of
such supervision is to prevent the mixing of sperms from various ethnic groups,
such as Silberstein and Litchenberg.

Susan Martha Kahn, has contended that the network of relationship that exists in
these richness labs can be envisioned as an imaginary family organization, for it
is inside these relationship that origination happens. The maschgichot and the
lab workers form an intimate relationship because the participants' ideological
and religious differences are overcome by the social pressure to reach a valid
conception.

The ways in which medicine and religion are structurally entwined in the
hospital were demonstrated by the positive working relationships and easy
coexistence between the secular lab workers and religious maschgichot. The
patient flowcharts show the intersection of religion and science, with a space for
recording the date of immersion in a mikveh (ritual bath) next to the spaces for
recording hormonal treatments, blood tests, temperature readings, and
ultrasound results.

The woman's status as niddah is over when she is immersed, making her ritually
pure and allowing her to have sex with her husband. This state of ritual purity is
also a necessary Halakhic condition for conception, making it crucial for when
insemination and embryo transfer procedures are performed. Recording the date
of drenching in this manner turns into a basic piece of clinical contemplation in
richness treatment.

The prescriptive use of perforated condoms, which allowed patients to collect

sperm for analysis while symbolically fulfilling the commandment to be fruitful
and multiply, demonstrated the influence of Halakhic concerns on the medical
protocol.

References

Das, Veena. 1994, ‘Mask and Faces: An Essay on Punjabi Kinship’, in Patricia
Uberoi (ed.)
Family, Kinship and Marriage in India, Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Schneiden, D., 2004, ‘what is kinship all about?’ in R. Parkin and L. Stone (eds)
kinship and family; an anthropological reader. USA: Blackwell, Pp. 257-274
J. D. Freeman., 1958, ‘the family systems of the Iban of Borneo’, in J. Goody
(ed). The developmental cycle in domestic groups, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. Pp. 15-52