Referring to Module 13 Content(see the attachment), answer the following:a. What is the significance of extending fictive kinship terms to non-kin in our culture? (One brief paragraph [3-4 sentences])b. What is the significance that the Eskimo (Inuit) system of kinship terminology only accounted for 11% of all cultures? (One brief paragraph [3-4 sentences] )
PowerPoint Presentation Introduction and Definitions A large part of cultural anthropology is the study of kinship systems by various cultures. This is because, in large part, people live in societies with their kin. Therefore, how people reckon kinship is how they relate to their societies. Every person relates to his or her own group according to the roles played in the kinship system. The kinship term itself reflects the rights and obligations of the person. Kinship is relationship by blood ( consanguinity) or by marriage ( affinity). Our kin are our consanguines and our affines. In addition, there is fictive kinship, It includes adoptees and foster children, but also others to whom kinship terms like "father", "sister" and "brother" and "uncle" or "aunt", such as priests and nuns, sorority sisters, fraternity brothers, fellow lodge members, close family friends or neighbors, et al. Some degree of rights and obligations for mutual assistance is associated with fictive kinship, as well. Because of the centrality of kinship relationships in all of our lives, it is difficult to understand that there are different systems of kinship reckoning and kinship terminologies .in different social organizations. Field anthropologists make charts with symbols (See Kinship Chart). Triangles represent males, circles represent females, equal signs symbolize marital ties, vertical lines are lines of descent from one generation to the next and siblings are bracketed together as descendants. (CIRCLE) = (TRIANGLE) ____________I______________ I I I (circle) (triangle) (square) The square is Ego, oneself, male or female. This is a chart of Ego's mother and father and sister and brother. Besides consanguinity and affinity, there are principles of lineality, collaterality, and gender. Lineality - Generations of parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents are recognized in our language, and down to lower generations. The distinct terms reflect the importance of the role of each generation, otherwise there would not be a separate term. Collaterality- is a relationship through an affinal (marital) link, such as affinal aunts and uncles, as well as cousins. This implies a distinction between an aunt versus a mother, an uncle versus a father, and cousins verus siblings. Gender - is a differentiation of the relationship by the sex of the individual, mother versus father, sister versus brother. In other languages, the importance of gender distinctions applies to cousins, but it does not do so in English. There are cultures that have other terms that distinguish other types of relationships. Relative age - While we might say "my older brother" (as opposed to younger brother), some cultures have a single term for older or younger siblings or other relations. This reveals that the social role is different for an older versus a younger sibling. Maternal versus Paternal side - While we might say "my maternal grandparents" to distinguish them from the paternal grandparents, cultures with lineages (lines of descent, see below) have separate kinship terms for persons belonging to one side of the family or the other. This means that the social roles differ significantly. Gender of the Connecting Relative - Cultures based on lineages may differentiate father's brother's children ( parallel cousins) from father's sister's children ( cross cousins), for example. This is a significant distinction which needs separate kinship terms since parallel cousins are in one's own lineage and are one can not marry them. Social Conditions Sometimes a status such as "maiden aunt" or "bachelor uncle" are important social categories and have their own terminology. Lineages and Bilateral Descent A lineage is a corporate group, a "body" which largely controls the lives of its members; it is a descent group of ancestors and descendants traced, through known links, back to a founding ancestor. When descent is recognized only through the father's line (a patrilineage) or the mother's line (a matrilineage), descent is referred to as " unilineal" Tribal societies are based on lineages, with horticultural societies having matrilineages (since women work the gardens, they have economic and political influence) and with pastoralist societies having patrilineages. One is kin only with those in one's lineage, so one can marry one's cross cousins (e.g., one's father's sister's children are members of their father's patrilineage, not their mother's patrilineage). Inheritance of land or movable property is through the lineage descent. A clan is a group of lineages. The connecting links between groups is not completely known and the founding ancestor is unknown. Clans are associated with chiefdoms. In addition to unilineal systems of descent, there are other descent systems, known as cognatic descent. Double descent is essentially double unilineal descent. Individuals belong to both their mother's and their father's lineages. The members may be patrilocal (living with the father's family) and inheriting land through the father's lineage while inheriting movable property through the mother's lineage. Ambilineal descent occurs when a family may reckon their kinship either with the father's lineage or the mother's lineage. It is likely that the lineage that receives the most loyalty from the family group will provide more support for it. Bilateral descent is when an individual is considered to be equally related to one's mother's and one's father's families. Rather than being members of lineages, individuals belong to a wider set of relatives known as a kindred. Kinship Terminology Systems In addition to different ways to reckon kinship, there are several kinship terminology systems named after, but not limited to, particular cultures. The four major systems are as follows. Hawaiian - Kinship terms are limited to "father", "mother", "sister", "brother" (and, presumably, "son" and "daughter"). All uncles are referred to as "father", all aunts as "mother", all cousins as "sister" and "brother". This means only that the term refers to the social role, so that all uncles relate to ego (the individual) as a father would, and all aunts as a mother would, with all the same rights and obligations as a parent. It does not mean that ego does not know who his/her biological parents are. Similarly, cousins referred to as "sister" or "brother" have the rights and obligations of siblings. Eskimo (Inuit) - This system accounted for 11% of all societies. This is the "nuclear family" that we are familiar with in our culture, with the terms "mother", "father", "sister", "brother", "aunt", "uncle", "cousin", as well as grandparents and grand- children. Iroquois - This lineage-based kinship terminological system has distinctions between generations and gender, as Hawaiian and Eskimo systems, but also adds the distinction of the gender of the connecting relative. This distinguishes parallel cousins (in the same lineage) from cross cousins (in a different lineage) on both the maternal and paternal sides. It also has some features of Hawaiian in that father's brother is the same term as "father" and mother's sister is the same term as "mother". Sudanese - This system is most particularistic. Every possible kin relationship has its own term. There are two other systems, Crow and Omaha, named after the Native American nations, are very complex. They are similar to Iroquois, with terms merging generations in some places and splitting them elsewhere.