CROSS-COUSIN

first cousin who is the child of a mother's brother or of a father's sister. For purposes of technical discussion, anthropologists distinguish the different types of first cousin as follows: in relation to any person, cousins on the father's side are patrilateral, those on the mother's side matrilateral; the children of a mother's sister or of a father's brother are ortho-cousins (parallel cousins); the children of a father's sister or of a mother's brother are cross-cousins. Whereas the English word cousin covers all four of these relationships, many languages place the ortho-cousins and the cross-cousins in separate categories; in such cases, the terms used to denote the ortho-cousins are frequently the same as those denoting brothers and sisters. A smaller group of languages places the ortho-cousins in one category but distinguishes the patrilateral cross-cousins from the matrilateral cross-cousins. Still another group of languages uses separate words for each of the four possible kinds of cousins: patrilateral cross-cousins, patrilateral ortho-cousins, matrilateral cross-cousins, matrilateral ortho-cousins. Some societies consider first-cousin marriages to be ideal, but usually marriage between ortho-cousins falls under incest taboos; cross-cousin marriage is preferred or sometimes even obligatory. In exceptional cases, however, the opposite is true. Even when a cross-cousin is the preferential mate, actual instances of such marriages in a given society may be small, for such decisions are also influenced by local customs governing succession, inheritance, and residence. Cross-cousin marriage often acts as a device to hold together the clans of the parents of the cross-cousins.