CHAPTER 9 KINSHIP TERMINOLOGY AND HOUSEHOLDS ANTH205 KINSHIP Some societies recognize relatively few relatives others recognize a far greater number Some societies remember only a few generations of ancestors Others maintain lists of ancestors that cover hundreds of years Some societies are content to acknowledge a large number of relatives under such a general category as uncles and aunts or cousins Others demand that the exact relationship be specified Even the basic notions of Motherhood and Fatherhood vary o For some societies the blood relationships through the father determine who the most important Kin are For other societies the crucial blood connection is through the mother FOUR QUESTIONS 1 How do people reckon who their kin are o Your brothers and sisters for example are biologically closer than your cousins and your parents are closer than your uncles and aunts o Kinship terminology identifies the specific term 2 With which particular Kin do people actually live with o Some people may live in large three generational family groups others in smaller nuclear families of only father mother and children o When children are born they will usually live with their parents until adulthood o However there is one crucial decision point in almost all societies that is getting the parents together in the first place After all the mother to be and father to be usually although not always grow up in separate households if they live together somebody had to have moved out this is the question of POSTMARITAL RESIDENCE 3 How are large Kin groups constructed o In many societies kin groups can extend far beyond the immediate household These kin groups can include hundreds even thousands of people The variations are extensive but the largest groups and the most versatile kin structures usually involve a clear rule about whether people belong to the mother s group or to their father s group Those are respectively the matrilineal and patrilineal options 4 How do Men and Women come together in marriage and what implications does that marriage have for their relatives o In some societies people may marry only one person at a time in other societies they have multiple spouses having multiple wives is rather common but having multiple husbands also occurs o The exact choice of spouse is crucial for the couple for the families in which they grew up in and for the children they will have For Example if a society has two large kin groups and those kin groups always marry people from the other group Lees marry Smiths and Smiths marry Lees those groups will be strongly allied to each other they will share grandchildren which is a strong bond in itself 10 09 2013 10 09 2013