Anthropology 2nd Half

Kinship Principles

The rules and cultural norms that dictate family relationships, inheritance, and social roles within a community, defining how individuals relate to one another through blood or marriage.

Affinal Relationships

Kinship connections through marriage

Consangineal Relationships

Kinship connections through blood. Based on descent.

Fictive Relationships

Kinship relationships based on nurturance (not parent related). Achieved status through adoption, family friends (Uncle Tom), chosen family

Descent

The principle based on culturally recognized parent-child connections that define social categories to where people belong.

Bilateral Descent

A descent group formed by people who believe they are related to each other by connections made equally through their mothers and fathers.

Lineages

European. consist of all the people who they can trance blood/consanguineal ties to a common ancestor

Unilineal Descent

A lineage system where individuals trace their ancestry through either one parent only, typically either the mother or the father.

Patrilineage

A system of lineage in which individuals trace their ancestry exclusively through their father's side of the family.

Matrilineage

A system of lineage in which individuals trace their ancestry exclusively through their mother's side of the family. Central figure is the mother’s brother

Patrician

A unilineal descent group formed by members who believe in a they have a common (sometimes mythical) ancestor. Gebusi

Sister Exchange

A cultural practice where sisters from one family are given as brides to men of another family, fostering alliances and kinship ties.

Marriage by Levirate

A custom in which a widowed woman marries her deceased husband’s brother to preserve family ties and inheritance rights.

Marriage

Complicated definition. Unites economic and sexual

Endogamy

Marriage within a particular group (lineage, clan, class, ethnic group, religion)

Exogamy

Marriage outside of a particular group or locality

Sororate

A woman marries her dead sister’s husband

Incest Taboo

Universal prohibition against sex and marriage with particular kin

Parallel Cousins

The children of a person’s parent’s same-gender sibling. A father’s brother’s children (vice versa)

Cross Cousins

The children of a person’s parent’s opposite gender children. A mother’s brother’s children (vice-versa)

Bride Service

Labor given by the groom to the bride’s family

Bride Price

Goods and money given by the groom’s family to the bride’s family. To reimburse them for raising her and losing her labor in the family

Dowry

Goods and money given by the bride’s family to the married couple. Considered to be the wife’s contribution to the establishment of a new household. Illegal

Hypergamy

marrying someone of a higher social status. Seen as upward mobility for the wife’s birth family, especially her brothers

Monogamy

one spouse

Polygamy

More than 1 spouse

Polygyny

One husband; more than 1 wife. Linked to power, a wealthy man can afford several wives

Polyandry

One wife, more than 1 husband. Rare. Women typically marry brothers in order to limit the amount of heirs in the lineage

Extended-family households

Newlyweds are assimilated into an existing family unit. Important social and economic unit

Nuclear Family

compromised of a monogamous pair of adults (usually one husband and one wife) and their kids

Unilocal Post-Marital Residence

When new couple lives with one spouse’s family

Patrilocal

The new couple moves to the husband’s community. Most common

Matrilocal

The new couple moves to the wife’s community, keeps related women together

Avuncolocal

A residence occurs a newly established married couple establishes their home in or near the groom’s maternal uncle’s house