KINSHIP

the socially recognized relationship between people in a culture who are or are held to be biologically related or who are given the status of relatives by marriage, adoption, or other ritual. Kinship is the broad-ranging term for all the relationships that people are born into or create later in life and that are considered binding in the eyes of their society. Although customs vary as to which bonds are accorded greater weight, their very acknowledgment defines individuals and the roles that society expects them to play. All cultures recognize the significance of the nuclear family unit: the man and woman whose sexual relationship has been legitimized (a married couple) and their unmarried offspring. New families are formed or established families are augmented depending upon whether the newly married couple sets up a new household or remains with close kin of the bride or groom. Different arrangements along these lines form different kinds of families. A stem family is one in which only one child stays at home after marriage to care for the elderly parents and to work the land. This type was especially common in Japan, where farms were too small to be divided among numerous offspring. An extended family is formed when married sons and daughters remain at home or when others are brought into the family unit and made kin through adoption. A married couple may also adopt children, who then assume the societal position of their adoptive parents. Every person belongs to a family of orientation: mother, father, and full brothers and sisters. Most persons in addition belong to a family of procreation, or reorientation, consisting of the person and his or her spouse (or spouses) and their children, if any. Although the nuclear family unit is no doubt the oldest form of societal organization, a domestic family can be any group of kinsmen and spouses who share food and usually a common roof. Familial bonds may be traced through a genealogy, which is a written or oral statement of the names of individuals and their kin relations to one another. Genealogical knowledge may be disclosed in several ways, depending upon the emphasis that a given society places on one branch of a family over another. Patrifiliation identifies an individual with the father's side of the family, and matrifiliation is identification with one's mother. The terms connoting descentpatrilineal and matrilinealderive from the same concept, with either the father or the mother acting as the primary ancestor. In a cognatic society, people acknowledge an equal responsibility to both sides of the family. All the persons connected to an individual through parentchild progressions are considered lineal ancestors (e.g., grandparents and great-grandparents). Those linked less directly through blood (e.g., a parent's sibling or a sibling's child) are consanguineal kin. Cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews fall into this category. The nature of kinship is not limited to blood ties, however, so a genealogy will not recognize all important kin relationships. Some notable omissions are fictive, or ritual, kin relationships, which include ritual coparenthood (the Christian tradition of godparents); blood brotherhood, which is a forged bond of mutual trust and cooperation; and a Japanese custom known as oyako-kankei, or oyabun-kobun, which sets up an interdependency between those in need of economic aid and wealthy patrons. While motherhood can never be disputed, certain primitive societies recognize three kinds of fatherhood: the genetic father; the pater, who is usually the mother's husband and also the genetic father, who gives the child its position in society; and the genitor, who is a person believed to have contributed to the growth of the fetus in the womb. The common thread that links all these relationships together under the umbrella term of kinship is societal recognition, so they are all subject in some degree to societal scrutiny, expectations, and controlparticularly in sexual relationships. Some marriages are arranged, others are entered into after a culturally shaped courtship. Monogamy, an exclusive sexual relationship between a man and a woman, is practiced in most areas. Polygyny, in which one man is married to several women at once, is practiced in some areas. Polyandry, seldom practiced, is the marriage of one woman and several men. The nearest approach to a universal rule found in all cultures is the incest taboo: the prohibition of sexual intercourse between a man and his mother, sister, daughter, or other specified kin. So, although most cultures require that immediate kin approve a proposed marriage, men and women must look outside the immediate family for a spouse. Marriage, therefore, not only unites two individuals, it unites their two families as well, making it the perfect vehicle for political alliances and guarantees of inheritance and succession. By tending to promote marriage between the members of different lineages, the incest taboo also minimizes the possibility of inbreeding, with all of its deleterious genetic consequences. Inheritance refers to a transfer of tangible assets: money, land, and possessions. Heirs may be treated alike, or some may be favoured, as in parts of Europe and Asia, where property is inherited strictly across sex lines. In the event that an individual dies childless, some other relative will become heir. Succession is a transmission of power and position in society, which can only sometimes be legitimately passed on to kin. Royal families have specified lines of succession that follow genealogy; most types of employment do not. Still, one of the most common problems in many societies is nepotism, the favouring of kin to succeed to a position that should have been filled on the basis of merit alone. The frequency of the problem only underscores the powerful role that kinship plays. the socially recognized relationship between people in a culture who are or are held to be biologically related or who are given the status of relatives by marriage, adoption, or other ritual. Kinship systems are universal throughout human society, differing among cultures in their importance in the broader social structure, the number of relatives they include, and the demands they place upon the members. The study of kinship began in the 19th century with what have been called conjectural historiesattempts by such people as the German Socialist philosopher Friedrich Engels to speculate on the origin and development of kinship systems. In the early 20th century Sigmund Freud expanded his psychoanalytic studies to speculate on the historical roots of the family, and later in the century sociobiologists used genetics and evolutionary theory to the same end. Engels, Freud, and the sociobiologists are the best-known and among the most dramatic of those who have touched upon the question of kinship in human society. All three attempt to explain the origins and evolution of kinship and to account for aspects of kinship found universally in human societies. None of these theories, however, belongs to the mainstream of social or cultural anthropology as it is practiced today. Most modern anthropologists deal with more specific theoretical aspects of kinship. Their interests lie mainly in explaining particular systems or particular aspects of kinship, rather than the origins, evolutionary schemes, and universal aspects of kinship. Their inquiries are both specific, to explain particular systems, and comparative, to explain the range of variation among systems. Murdock's approach to the definition of the familyalthough it does involve universalsis nevertheless an example of an approach based on a limited but important comparative question (see family: Universality of the family). Broadly speaking, current kinship studies consist of three main areas of interest: kinship terminology, descent theory, and alliance theory. Whereas some scholars treat these as distinct and competing approaches, many regard them as complementary. Additional reading Essay collections on kinship, with both comparative and descriptive studies, include Paul Bohannan and John Middleton (eds.), Kinship and Social Organization (1968); Jack Goody (ed.), Kinship (1971); Nelson Graburn (ed.), Readings in Kinship and Social Structure (1971); David M. Schneider and Kathleen Gough (eds.), Matrilineal Kinship (1961, reprinted 1974); and A.R. Radcliffe-Brown and Daryll Forde (eds.), African Systems of Kinship and Marriage (1950). Rodney Needham (ed.), Rethinking Kinship and Marriage (1971), contains a number of important papers, particularly from the perspective of alliance theory. Among introductory texts are Robin Fox, Kinship and Marriage (1967, reprinted 1983), especially good on alliance theory, though feminist critics have raised objections to its treatment of society as male-dominated; Roger M. Keesing, Kin Groups and Social Structure (1975), valuable for analysis of descent and residential arrangements, though many scholars disagree with specific aspects of its portrayal of alliance structures and kinship terminologies; and Louis Dumont, Introduction deux thories d'anthropologie sociale (1971), an excellent treatment of both descent and alliance and of the main differences between British and French approaches to the study of kinship. Theoretical and methodological issues in the study of kinship are more fully discussed in Alan Barnard and Anthony Good, Research Practices in the Study of Kinship (1984). Another important theoretical account of the subject is David M. Schneider, A Critique of the Study of Kinship (1984).Most anthropological studies of kinship in particular societies are published in specialist journals or as chapters in anthropological monographs. Among book-length studies dealing mainly with kinship are Jonathan P. Parry, Caste and Kinship in Kangra (1979), on North India; Bronislaw Malinowski, The Sexual Life of Savages in North-Western Melanesia, 2 vol. (1929, reprinted in 1 vol., 1987), a classic study of the Trobriand Islanders; Hildred Geertz and Clifford Geertz, Kinship in Bali (1975); E.E. Evans-Pritchard, Kinship and Marriage Among the Nuer (1951, reprinted 1973), on the Nuer of the southern Sudan in Africa; I. Schapera, Married Life in an African Tribe (1940, reissued 1966), on the Tswana of Botswana; Adam Kuper, Wives for Cattle: Bridewealth and Marriage in Southern Africa (1982); Fred Eggan, Social Organization of the Western Pueblos (1950, reprinted 1973), on the Indians of the American Southwest; Raymond Firth, Jane Hubert, and Anthony Forge, Families and Their Relatives: Kinship in a Middle-Class Sector of London (1969); and Kenneth Maddock, The Australian Aborigines: Portrait of Their Society, 2nd ed. (1982). Essays illustrating the flexibility of the concept of kinship over time and place are collected in Linda S. Cordell and Stephen Beckerman (eds.), The Versatility of Kinship (1980).Friedrich Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State (1902, reissued 1985; originally published in German, 1884); and Sigmund Freud, Totem and Taboo (1918, reissued 1983; originally published in German, 1913), contain their respective theories. The sociobiological view, with important statements on the relation between animal and human family behaviour, is presented in Pierre L. Van den Berghe, Human Family Systems: An Evolutionary View (1979, reprinted 1983); and Robin Fox (ed.), Biosocial Anthropology (1975). Edward Westermarck, The History of Human Marriage, 5th ed., 3 vol. (1921, reprinted 1971), includes his theory of incest. A later discussion of the subject is found in James B. Twitchell, Forbidden Partners: The Incest Taboo in Modern Culture (1987). On alliance theory and elementary structures, see Claude Lvi-Strauss, The Elementary Structures of Kinship, rev. ed. (1969, originally published in French, 1949), and his Future of Kinship Studies, Proceedings of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (1965), pp. 1322; as well as Rodney Needham, Prescription and Alliance, Oceania, respectively, in 43:166181 (March 1973) and 56:165180 (March 1986). For an analysis of the South Indian symmetrical system from this perspective, see Anthony Good, Prescription, Preference and Practice: Marriage Patterns Among the Kondaiyankottai Maravar of South India, Man, 16(1):108129 (March 1981). Alan John Barnard Alliance theory Alliance theory emphasizes the marital bond and relations between groups. It is derived from French structuralism, in particular from the work in the field of kinship by Claude Lvi-Strauss and Louis Dumont. Structuralism is more concerned with the collective thought of a people than with their social institutions. The English term alliance, in its technical sense, carries the specific meaning of alliance through marriage, a connotation derived directly from the French word alliance (meaning marriage). Alliance theorists pay close attention to those kinship systems in which rules of marriage between groups appear to dominate a large area of social endeavour. In particular, they analyze the rules that determine which people a person may marry and which people he may not. These rules, in turn, are based on rules of incest avoidance. The incest taboo All societies have a concept of incest, and all societies have a prohibition, or taboo, against it. Definitions of incest vary according to definitions of who is close kin. Reactions to violations of the taboo also vary from society to society. In some cases incest is thought of with abhorrence; in other cases, with mild amusement. The vehemence of its condemnation may also depend on which specific incestuous relationship is involved, whether the parties are children or adults, and the circumstances of the violation. No one knows how the incest taboo originated. Theories of its origin are diverse. As discussed previously (see above Freud's theory), Sigmund Freud believed that people have an innate desire to commit incest and that the incest taboo prevents them from carrying out such deep-seated desires. In contrast, the Finnish anthropologist Edward Westermarck, writing some two decades before Freud, argued that human beings find naturally abhorrent the idea of sex with close family members. His theory was that familiarity breeds contempt; in other words, the innate desire is to avoid incest, not to commit it. Closely tied with the incest taboo is the practice of exogamy, or marriage outside the group. However, while these matters are clearly related, there are crucial differences. First, by definition, incest involves sex and exogamy involves marriage. Second, incest taboos and rules of exogamy do not always coincide. In other words, in some societies it is not considered incestuous to have sexual intercourse with persons who are forbidden as spouses. Third, incest taboos are purely proscriptive, whereas rules of exogamy may be prescriptive as well. That is, the former rules define what is not permitted, while the latter may determine whom one ought to marry. Indeed, in many societies the rules of exogamy are stated in a strongly positive way, notably in those societies in which the social structure is closely bound up with rules of marriage to particular cousins. Descent theory Descent theorists are more concerned with groups than with terminology, a theoretical interest that derives from the British tradition of functionalism, which dominated anthropological thinking in Britain and most of the Commonwealth from the 1920s to the 1950s. Functionalists such as A.R. Radcliffe-Brown saw societies as being made up of component partsinstitutions (like marriage, chieftainship, or the stock market) and systems (like kinship, politics, or economics). Descent theorists take a functionalist view in their appraisal of the significance of group structure. In descent theory the mechanisms of recruitment to groups, and the social functions such groups perform, are the primary foci of study. Patrilineal descent Systems of patrilineal descent are widely distributed. The ancient Greeks and Romans traced descent patrilineally, as do contemporary societies in many parts of Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. The defining feature of a patrilineal descent system is that membership in a social group is determined by descent through the father. A patrilineal descent group, such as the Greek phratry or the Roman gens, thus includes a person's father, father's father, father's father's father, and so on. In addition, the child of any male member of the group, regardless of the child's own sex, is a member. Thus, a person's father's brothers and sisters (all children of the father's father) are also members of the patrilineal group. Similarly, a man's children are members of his patrilineal group, but a woman's children are not members of hers (the one she was born into); they belong to her husband's group. A woman's own status as a member of her natal group or of her husband's group depends on which such membership the society recognizes.