KINSHIP
Meaning of Kinship
Kinship refers solely to relationships based upon descent and marriage. The primitive social groups in such societies are all linked by kinship and in most cases, their membership is fixed by descent. In common usage, people having ‘common blood relation’ and having a ‘common ancestor’ are the kins. According to Lévi- Strauss, all kinship systems have a set of relationships, and, like a language, each part of the system only has meaning when related to other elements. Thus, For example, the position of wife can only exist if related to the position of husband and son or daughter’s position.
Kinship is the universally accepted basic bond that binds people together. An individual plays many roles in his social life such as – son, father, brother etc. this bond originates from the fundamental human urge of reproduction. Kinship is a construct, a cultural artefact created by almost all kinds of human society. For example, if a man and woman live in their progeny and for this, the primary condition is man and woman’s togetherness. Both the relationships i.e., spouse relation and parents-children relation gives birth to kinship.
Definition of Kinship
According to W. H. R. Rivers defined ‘kinship is the social recognition of biological ties’.
According to Robin Fox, “Kinship is simply the relations between ‘kin’ that is persons related by real, putative or fictive consanguinity.”
According to John Lewis, defined kinship is “kinship is a social recognition and expression of genealogical relationships. It is not only actual but may be based on supposed ties of blood.”
According to A.R. Radcliffe Brown, Kinship is “a system of dynamic relations between person and person in a community, the behaviour of any two persons in any of these relations being regulated in some way, and to a greater or less extent by social usage.”
TYPES OF KINSHIP
From this observation, we may find two types of kinship –
Affinal Kinship:
The bond of marriage is called affinal kinship. When a person marries, he establishes a relationship with the girl he marries and a number of other people in the girl’s family. Moreover, it is not only the person marrying who gets bound to the girl’s family members but his family members also get bound to the family members of the girl. Thus, a host of relations are created as soon as a marriage takes place.
For example, after marriage, a person becomes not only a husband but also becomes brother-in-law and a son-in-law.
Consanguineous Kinship:
The bond of blood is called consanguineous kinship. The consanguineous kin is related through blood whereas the affinal kin is related through marriage. The bond between parents and their children and that between siblings is consanguineous kinship. In this connection, it may be actual as well as supposed. Among polyandrous tribes the actual father of a child is unknown. An adopted child is treated as if it was one’s own biologically produced child.
In the above figure, two kinds of relationships can be seen - A and B show the relationships between parents and children, and C is the relationship between siblings (in this case, between brother and sister). These relationships are the most basic consanguineal kin relationship found in any society.
Thus, blood relationships may be established not only on a biological basis but also based on social recognition. Son, daughter, sister, etc. are examples of consanguineous kinship.
The following diagram will show you how the nature of the relationship prevailing among Kins –
Importance of Kinship System
Kinship is a universal system organized around the universal processes of mating and reproduction. In most societies, kinship plays a significant role in individuals’ socialization and the maintenance of group solidarity. In pre-industrial, simple societies kinship relations may be so extensive and significant that they constitute the social system. In more complex societies kinship normally forms a fairly small part of the totality of social relations which make up the social system.
Simple societies do not have, like modern complex societies, highly organized and relatively autonomous institutions such as the state, industrial enterprises, the army, schools and religious organizations like churches, sporting and recreational associations, trade unions, and political parties. Consequently, many activities that we in a complex society would call political, economic, educational or religious are in those societies subsumed under and carried out in the performance of kinship roles. In other words, kinship in such societies constitutes the framework within which the individual is assigned economic and political functions, acquires rights and obligations, receives community aid, etc. In his study of The Nuer of the Southern Sudan, Evans-Pritchard describes how the lineage system performs the function of maintenance of law and order. This is not to imply that people’s behaviour is determined or narrowly prescribed by their kinship roles. Most individuals occupy more than one kinship role, so that there may be dilemmas and choices in the performance of a role in a particular situation, and there are often conflicts between roles; clans and lineage may fight over land. Faced with choice and conflicts, people may use their kinship roles; in small-scale societies, it is their kinship they use to gain their ends since in the absence of other well-articulated institutions it is all they have.
The kinship of today is being influenced very much by the occupational system. A villager running his business in a city will try to establish himself in the city and like to develop kins in the cities, which can help him promote his business. We may conclude by saying that “such an occupational system virtually requires the pattern of establishing or changing household according to the occupational opportunities of the husband.”
KINSHIP USAGES
Every relationship involves a particular type of behaviour. A son’s behaviour towards his father is one of respect while the behaviour of the husband towards the wife is one of love. The behaviour of a brother towards his sister is one of affection. There are some usages that regulate the behaviour of different kin. These usages are called kinship usages. Some of these usages are the following:
Avoidance:
In all societies, the usage of avoidance is observed in one form or another. It means that the two kin should remain away from each other. In other words, they should avoid each other. They should not only avoid sexual relationships but in some cases avoid seeing the face of each other. Thus, a father-in-law (sasur) should avoid daughter-in-law. The son-in-law should avoid the mother-in-law. The purdah system of the Hindu family illustrates the usage of avoidance. Different explanations have been given for the usage of avoidance. Two of them are functionalist explanations given by Fred Eggan and G. P. Murdock. According to them, avoidance serves to foster further and more serious trouble between relatives. The third is the Freudian explanation according to which avoidance represents a sort of institutionalized neurotic symptom.
Joking Relationship:
It is the reverse of the avoidance relationship. Under it, a relation is permitted to tease or make fun of the other. The relationship between devar-bhabhi, jija, sali, is a joking relationship. The joking may amount to the exchange of abuse and vulgar reference to sex.
Teknonymy:
The word ‘teknonymy’ has been taken from the Greek word and was used in anthropology for the first time by Tylor. According to this usage, kin is not referred to directly but is referred to through another kin. A kin becomes the medium of reference between two kin. Thus in a traditional Hindu family, a wife does utter the name of her husband. She calls him through her son or daughter. He is referred to by her as the father of Guddu or Tannu.
Avunculate:
This kinship usage is a peculiar feature of the matriarchal system. It gives the maternal uncle (mama) a prominent place in the life of his nephews and nieces. He has special obligations towards them which exceed those of his father. He has a prior right over their loyalties. He comes first among all male relatives.
Amitate:
When a special role is given to the father’s sister, it is known as amitate. The father’s sister gets more respect than the mother.
Couvade:
This is a queer usage found among many primitive tribes like the Khasi and the Toda. Under this usage, the husband is made to lead the life of an invalid and his wife whenever she gives birth to a child. He refrains from active work and takes a sick diet. He observes the same taboos which are observed by his wife. This kinship usage thus involves both the husband and wife.
Kinship usages accomplish two major tasks. First, they create groups; special groups; special groupings of kin. This marriage assigns each mother a husband, and makes her children his children, thereby creating a special group of father, mother and children, which we call “family”.
The second major function of kinship usages is to govern the role relationships between kin; that is how one kinsman should behave in a particular kinsman’s presence, or what one kinsman owes to another. Kinship assigns guidelines for interactions between persons. It defines proper, acceptable role relationship between father and daughter between brother and sister, between son-in-law and mother-in-law and between fellow lineage members and clansmen.
Kinship thus acts as a regularizer of social life. It may, however, be noted that rules governing the relationship between a pair of kinsmen may be highly “patterned” in some societies to allow little leeway for spontaneity or individual differences, while in other societies, such rules may be less “patterned” to leave much room for individualized behaviour.
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