Kinship and marriage

Consanguineal

relatives by blood/biological connection (your parents, siblings, kids, cousins, etc.)

Affinal

relatives by marriage (your spouse, in-laws, step-relatives)

Ego

the reference point person on a kinship chart. The person from whose perspective you're mapping out all the relationships.

Nuclear Family

A two-generation family unit consisting of parent(s) and their children. ego + ego's parents + ego's siblings or If you're looking at it from ego as a parent: ego + ego's spouse + ego's children.

Extended family

Everybody in the kinship network beyond just the immediate parent-child units. AKA the whole bloodline.

Natal Family

Type of Nuclear Family: Ego + Ego’s parent + ego’s siblings, aka the family you are born in

Family of Procreation

Type of Nuclear Family: Ego + Ego’s spouse + ego’s children, aka the family you created.

Patrilineal

tracing descent through the father’s/male line.

Matrilineal

tracing descent through the mother's/female line.

Bifurcate merging kinship

A system that distinguishes between the mother's and father's sides of the family (bifurcate), but groups same-sex siblings of parents together with the parents (merging). Example: mother and mother's sister are both called "mother," but father's sister gets a different term. (Only same generation)

Generational Kinship

A system where relatives are grouped by generation only, ignoring differences in lineage or side of family. Everyone in the parents' generation gets the same term, everyone in ego's generation gets the same term, etc., regardless of whether they're from mother's or father's side.

Parents: uncle, mom, dad, auntie
siblings: brothers, sisters, cousins.
Not what america uses

Lineage and demonstrated descent

A kinship group where members can actually trace and prove their specific genealogical connections back to a known common ancestor.

Clan and stipulated descent

a kinship group based on believed/claimed shared ancestry, but the actual genealogical connections can't be proven or traced.

Exogamy

a marriage rule requiring you to marry outside your defined social group (lineage, clan, village, etc.).

Endogamy

A rule requiring you to marry within a certain group.

Bridewealth

wealth transferred from the groom's family TO the bride's family as part of establishing the marriage.

Dowry

a large sum of money or in-kind gifts given to a
daughter to ensure her wellbeing in her husband’s
family.

Sororate

a marriage practice where, if a wife dies, her sister replaces her as the wife to the same husband.

Levirate

a marriage practice where, if a husband dies, his brother marries the widow.

Polygyny

one man married to multiple women at the same time (most common form of polygamy

Polyandry

one woman married to multiple men at the same time

Serial monogamy

Marrying one person at a time, but having multiple marriages over a lifetime through divorce/death and remarriage