Chapter 6 KINSHIP, MARRIAGE and THE HOUSEHOLD

In Anthropology, Kinship is the web of social relationship that form an important part of the lives of most
humans in most societies, although its exact meanings, even within this discipline area often debated.
Kinship can refer both to the patterns of social relationships themselves, or it can refer to the study of the
patterns of social relationships in one or more human cultures. Kinship can be by blood, marriage, and
ritual.

KINSHIP BY BLOOD
There are two kinds of kin:
 Consanguineal Kin are people who are biologically related to one another, such as brothers and
sisters or parents and their children.
 Affinal Kin are people who are related to you by virtue of marriage bond, such as husband and
wife or parents in law.

There are three main types of affiliation with kin: the unilineal descent, ambilinial descent, and the
bilateral descent. The Unilinial and Ambilinial descent are based on the rules of descent which are rules
that connect individuals with particular sets of kin because of known or presumed common ancestry.

Societies differ from one another in terms of whether descent is reckoned through make or female line.
Unilineal Descent describes that a person is affiliated with a group of kin through descent links of one sex
only (either males or females). It is either patrilineal or matrilineal.
 Patrilineal descent – Affiliates an individual with kin of both sexes related to him or her through
men only.
 Matrilineal descent – Affiliates an individual with kin of both sexes related to him or her through
women only.

There are four groups which refer themselves as belonging to a particular unilineal group because they
believe they share common descent in either the patrilineal or the matrilineal line.
1. Lineages – It is a set of kin whose members trace descent from a common ancestor through
known links. They are often designated by the name of the common male or female ancestor.
2. Clans – It is a set of kin whose members believe themselves to be descended from a common
ancestor but not that specified. Clans with patrilineal descent are called patriclans while
matrilineal descent are called matriclans.
3. Phratries – It is a unilineal descent group composed of supposedly related clans.
4. Moieties – It is when a whole society is divided into two unilineal descent groups. The people in
each moiety believe themselves to be descended from a common ancestor.

Ambilineal Descent is a system containing both unilineal descent groups example both patrilineal and
matrilineal groups in which one belongs to one’s father’s and/or mother’s descent group.
Bilateral kinship means two sided which refers to the fact that one’s relatives on both mother’s and
father’s sides are equal in importance.

KINSHIP BY MARRIAGE
Marriage means a socially approved sexual and economic union, usually between a man and a woman. It
is a socially approved sexual union in that a married couple does not have to hide the sexual nature of
their relationship. There are a lot of rules governing types of marriage:

Monogamy, Polygamy, Group Marriage

Societies regulate the number of spouses that a person may have:
1. Monogamy – It is a form of marriage in which one man marries one woman. It is the most
common and acceptable form of marriage.
 2. Polygamy – It is a form of marriage in which one is entitled to marry many partners.
2.1 Polygyny – It is a form of marriage in which one man marries more than one woman at a
given time. There are two types:
 Sororal Polygyny – It is a type of marriage in which the wives are invariably the sisters.
 Non-Sororal Polygyny – It is a type of marriage in which the wives are not related as
sisters.
2.2 Polyandry – It is a marriage of one woman with more than one man. It is less common than
polygyny. There are two types:
 Fraternal Polyandry – when several brothers share the same wife the practice can be
called alelphic or fraternal polyandry.
 Non-fraternal Polyandry – in this type the husband need not have any close
relationship prior to the marriage. The wife goes to spend some time with each
husband.
 Group Marriage – it means the marriage of two or more women with two or more
men. Here the husbands are common husbands and wives are common wives.

Endogamy and Exogamy

There are rules that the male and female must consider. Rule of marriage is very important. No society
gives absolute freedom to its members to select their partners. Endogamy and exogamy are two main
rules that condition marital choice.
 Endogamy – It is a rule of marriage in which the life-partners are to be selected within the group.
It is marriage within a group and the group within the group and the group may be caste, classm
tribe, race, village, religious group etc.
 Exogamy – It is a rule of marriage in which an individual has to marry outside his own group. It
prohibits marrying within the group. The so – called blood relatives shall neither have marital
connections nor sexual contracts among themselves.

KINSHIP BY RITUAL
A ritual kinship is a privileged social relationship established by ritual, such as that if god parents or
fraternal orders. A very famous ritual kinship is the Compadrazgo. Used to refer to the institutional
relationship between compadres. Compadres are relationship between the parents and godparents of a
child is an important bond that originates when a child is baptized in Iberian and Latin American families.

Family and the Household

Types of families and their forms are based on various parameters. You can find the list of types of family
and family forms, below. The types of family in sociology, have been classified as per world norms and
not only India.

Types of Family on the Basis of Marriage

1. Polygamous or Polygynous Family
- It is a family with plural spouse marriage.
2. Polyandrous Family
- It is a family where one woman has number of husbands.
3. Monogamous Family
- It is a family with one husband and one wife.

Types of Family on the Basis of the Nature of Residence

1. Family of Patrilocal Residence – the son stays and the daughter leaves, so that the married
couple lives with or near the husband’s parents.
2. Family of Matrilocal Residence – the daughter stays and the son leaves, so that the married
couple lives with or near the wife’s parents.
3. Family of Bilocal Residence – either the son or the daughter leaves, so that the married couple
lives with or near either the wife’s or the husband’s parents.

Types of Family in the nn the Basis of Size or Structure

1. Nuclear Family – single couple/monogamous family.

2. Matrifocal Family – the parent in such families is usually the mother.
3. Extended Family – it may consist of two or more single parent, monogamous, polygynous families
linked with ties.

Types of Family on the Basis of the Nature of Relations

1. The conjugal family which consists of adult members among there exists sex relationship.
2. Consanguine family which consists of members among whom there exists blood relationship
brother and sister, father, and son, etc.

POLITICS OF KINSHIP
The family could also be part of political affairs. Political dynasty is a very popular term to use if the
family is in power. A political family or political dynasty is a family in which several members are involved
in politics, particularly electoral politics. Members may be related by blood marriage; often several
generations or multiple siblings may be involved. It is very popular in UK wherein the royal family
controls the whole kingdom.