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Table of Contents
Parents
Do we need families?
Ryan Schram
ANTH 2654: Forms of Families
August 7, 2014
Available at http://anthro.rschram.org/2654/2
"Bastard algebra"
Malinowski
Two ideas, two perspectives
Malinowski: Kinship systems are different ways of satisfying the same need for family connection and nurture of children. If different relatives are called by the same term, this is because the prinary term has been extended to apply to a more distant relative, e.g. Kiriwina sina: mother and mother's sister.
We have to examine kinship from the bottom-up, in terms of the real, practical (and emotional) circumstances of its experience. Discover “the native's point of view” (Malinowski 1922: 25)!
Morgan: Kinship systems are derived from the kinds of property that people can own. More generally, kinship is a way for a group to organize its members into different groups.
We should approach kinship systems as total systems. Societies with classificatory systems of terminology tend to based on the gens. Kinship is society!
Two more perspectives
There is a common core to all kinship systems, based on universal traits. These can be innate, inherited qualities, or they could be universal requirements of group membership.
There are no necessary elements in a kinship system. Each one is unique and specific to the culture in which one finds it.
Some more terms
Filiation: The relationship of a parent to a child and the social roles and obligations attached to these social statuses.
Descent: A principle of kin reckoning, especially for purposes of determining group membership. People who are related by common descent have lineal ancestors in common.