Kinship System, Political Organization

Consanguineal or Affinal

Scientists explore kin relations that can be through:

Consanguinity or Consanguineal Relation

- Measures BIOLOGICAL or blood ties

Affinity or Affinal Relation

- Forged through rituals (e.g: Marriage)

Kinship System

- A network of people who are related by marriage, blood, or adoption
- A system of meaning and power relations to determine relationships, rights, responsibilities, and expectations

Ego

- Point of REFERENCE(focus) to anyone part of the kin

Kinship

- In societies around the world, it provides means to bind successive generations

Vertical Function of Kinship

- To pass properties, political office, and traditions within and to subsequent generations
- Inheritance perspective of kinship

Horizontal Function of Kinship

- Refers to the ties of people across a single generation through marriage
- Can be for expansion of the political and economic wealth of kin

Descent Groups

- A permanent social unit whose members claim common ancestry; fundamental to tribal society.

Descent

- Denotes the relationship that bonds the child to the mother or father
- It constitutes the transmission of their status
- Produces a line of connection from ego to anyone part of descent historically

1. Unilineal
2. Non-unilineal

Two types of Rules of Descent

Unilineal Descent

- Refers to the tracing of ancestry through only one parent, either the mother's or father's line, NOT the combination of the two
- Foraging, small-scale farming, nomadic herding socieities

Matrilineal and Patrilineal Descent

(2) Variations of Unilineal Descent

Matrilineal Descent

- Refers to the ego's ancestry through the female line
- Ego's female ancestors are related to him or her

Patrilineal Descent

- Tracing descent through the male line
- Both males and females, belong to their father's kin
- Only males can pass on their family identity to their children

Cognatic or Non-unilineal Descent

- Allows rules construction based on social groups
- BONDS are traced either from the side of either mother or father

1. Double Descent or (Bilineal)
2. Ambilineal Descent
3. Parallel Descent
4. Bilateral Descent

(4) Variations of Non-Unilineal Descent

Double Descent or Bilineal
(Ex: Yäko of Nigeria)

- Rare
- Males and Females are traced both matrilineally and patrilineally
-Inheritance and obligations descend only to one side (i.e: males have/do that, females have/do this)

Parallel Descent

Bilineal Descent:
- The obligations on marriage and funerals are also passed matrilineally

Ambilineal Descent

- Allows parents to choose to affiliate with either the father's or mother's descent group
- Which side of the kin to affiliate their children
- Advantageous in protecting properties and economic purposes

Bilateral Descent

- An ego is EQUALLY related to both mother's and father's side of the kin
- An ego creates links to everyone part of the kin, even those are not part of the blood line
- Common in foraging societies

Marriage

- Characteristic of human relations and social groupings that exists in all cultures
- BUILDS kinship ties
- Involves emotional and physical intimacy
- Sexual reproduction, companionships, legal rights, and inheritance

1. Monogamy
2. Polygyny
3. Polyandry

Three forms of Marriage

Monogamy

- Marriage between man and woman that is a widely accepted norm worldwide

Polygyny

- Marriage that permits man to marry more than one woman

Polygandry

- It permits a woman to marry more than one man

Endogamy and Exogamy

Two primary patterns in terms of affinal ties:

Endogamy

Marriage within a group -- (social, ethnic, or in a caste system)

Exogamy

Social norm of marrying outside a social group

Child-rearing

Primary responsibility of parents when enculturation begins

1. Patrilocal
2. Matrilocal
3. Bilocal (Ambilocal)
4. Neolocal
5. Avunculocal

Types of Residence Rules

Patrilocal

- Refers to the pattern in which married couples live with or near the husbands' parents

Matrilocal

- Refers to the pattern in which married couples live with or near the wives' parents

Bilocal or (Ambilocal)

- Refers to the pattern in which the bride and groom pick which family to live near or with

Neolocal

- Refers to the pattern in which newly married couples set up their own households

Avunculocal

- Married couple goes to live with the groom's mother's brother (or their uncle)

Hemophilia

- A hereditary disease where blood does not coagulate to stop bleeding
- Slows down the blood clotting process

Childhood Familiarity Hypothesis

- Siblings raised together in the family are not erotically involved or sexually attracted to one another because of a biological tendency
- They develop sexual aversion and avoid incest

Fictive Kinship
(Ex: Compadrazgo or co-parenthood)

- Describes a form of kinship neither on consanguineal nor affinal ties
- It recognizes kinship oblications beyond biological

Political Organizations

- Defined as groups responsible for political and social cohesiveness, economic growth, and safety from internal and external threats

Power, authority and legitimacy

Key concepts that provide order and stability in political organizations

Power

- The exercise of will or force in order to achieve the desired outcome

Authority

- Manifestation of power
- The ability to bring out results through one's status, reputation, and degree of respect received from its constituents

Legitimacy

- Refers to the right and acceptance of one's power and authority without the threat or exercise of force

1. Bands
2. Tribes
3. Chiefdoms
4. States

Kinds of Political Organizations

Band

- A small group of mostly nomadic people in pursuit of a particular goal
- to ensure their survival and subsistence through foraging and at times hunting
- Membership and leadership are informal

Band leader

- They do not hold formal power over the band but mostly coordinates the movement such as the hunting and foraging activities of the group

Tribes

- A political group composed of several bands, occupying a particular territory with each having a common language and way of living
- Egalitarian in nature

Tribal leader

- May vary from one tribe to another
- Most of the time, they are selected based on their numbers and strengths of his following

Chiefdoms

- Composed of allied tribes and villages under one chief which can reach up to thousands of members
- Ranked

Chief

- Considered to be an "office" or an "institution" rather than just someone who leads the economic activities of the group
- Permanent and carries more responsibilities in maintaining constituents

State(s)

- A political organization which, through the government, exercises sovereign rule over a population within a defined territory
- Stratified

Internal duties

- Evolved from merely ensuring public order and social stability to include delivering public services to its constituents

External duties

- Involves ensuring national security and engaging with other states by means of treaties, membership in international groups with other states, and joint military exercises, among others

Head(s)

- _____ of the political organization can go by different number and names depending on the type of government

President

- Head of State
- in charge of foreign affairs and national defense

Prime Minister

- He/She are is by the parliament as Head of Government in charge of directing internal government affairs

Elman Rogers Service

- According to a cultural anthropologist (1962)
- Societies undergo various stages of social evolution. These stages are composed of specific political organizations which fit the structural and economic needs of the people