Kinship terms and concepts

Lineal Family: One nuclear family in the senior generation and two or more nuclear families in the junior generation.

Fully Extended Family: the families of at least two siblings or cousins in each of at least two adjacent generations.

Joint Family: two or more nuclear families who form a corporate economic unit.

Fictive Kinship: "A relationship, such as godparenthood, modeled on relations of kinship, but created by customary convention rather than the circumstances of birth." RK:149 Examples include "blood brothers", "godparents". ES:5. Some would make a distinction between "fictive" kin and "putative" kin, the latter including adopted children.

Filial Widow Inheritance: "The norm that allows a man to inherit his father's widows, except his own mother. It can occur only in polygynous tribes but even then is rare." ES:76.

Filiation: "Relationship to or through one's father and one's mother, or the basing of rights on this relationship." RK:149.

Fraternal Joint Family: "Consists of two or more brothers and their wives (and children); the bond of union is consanguineal." ES:76.

Fraternal Polyandry: "A family consisting of several brothers with one wife in common." ES:76. See "Adelphic Polyandry"

Generalized Exchange: A system of marriage exchange in which women are viewed as circulating within groups. Wife-givers cannot be wife-takers. RF:219.

Genitor: Biological father (genitrix = biological mother). Contra. "pater."

Genitrix: Biological mother (genitor = biological father). Contra. "mater".

Gens: An antiquated term for a patrilineal descent group now more commonly known as a clan. See "clan".

Group Marriage: A marital union involving several women and several men at once (GPM: 24). It does not appear to ever have existed as the cultural norm or the prevailing type of union in any known society.

Hawaiian Kinship Terminology: "A mode of kinship reckoning, usually associated with bilateral kinship or cognatic descent, in which relatives are distinguished only according to sex and generation." RK:149.

Hypergamy: Denotes a marriage rule prescribing union of a female with a male of higher status. Contra. "Hypogamy"

Hypogamy: Denotes a marriage rule prescribing union of a female to a male to a male of lower status. Contra. "Hypergamy"

Incest: "Sexual intercourse between two persons who are related by a real, assumed, or artificial bond of kinship that is regarded as a bar to sex relations. Where sex relations are forbidden, but not because of kinship, they may be called mismating. Where either party occupies a status forbidding sex relations, e.g., a nun, sexual intercourse may be termed status unchastity. (Murdock 1949:261)." ES:76.

Incest Taboo: "A rule prohibiting sexual relations between immediate kin (father and daughter, mother and son, brother and sister) and others culturally defined as in an equivalent relationship. Differs from "exogamy", which prohibits marriage but not necessarily sexual relations." RK:149.

Indirect Exchange (échange géneralisé): "A system of alliance (prescriptive marriage) whereby kin groups exchange wives indirectly, so that a man must marry his actual or classifactory MBD (matrilineal alliance) or FZD (patrilineal alliance, said not to exist) but so that wife-givers cannot be wife takers." RK:149.

Iroquois Terminology: "A mode of kinship reckoning, usually but not always associated with unilineal descent, in which cross and parallel relatives are distinguished according to relative sex of connecting relatives in the middle three generations only." RK:149.

Joint Family: two or more nuclear families who form a corporate economic unit. LM:86

Joking Relationship: "Patterned behavior between kin that calls for mild to taunting or ribald joking." ES:76.

Kin Class: A class or set of kin types labeled by a single kin term. E.g., "cousin", "uncle", "grandfather". See "kin term" and "kin type".

Kin Group: "A social group whose members define their relationship (or their eligibility for membership) by kinship or common descent." RK:150. ES:76.

Kin Term: A lexeme whose primary referent is genealogical. "Uncle" "aunt", etc.. See "kin type" and "kin class".

Kin Type: Any specific genealogical relationship. E.g., Mother's brother, Father's brother, Father's sister's husband.

Kindred: "A social group or category consisting of an individual's circle of relatives, or that range of a person's relatives accorded special cultural recognition." RK:150. "A group of persons, all of whom have a single relative (Ego) in common who is not an ancestor of theirs. It follows that the only persons having identical kindreds would be full siblings. (RF-164; NG-205)." DT

Kinship: "Relationship based on or modeled on the culturally recognized connection between parents and children (and extended to siblings and through parents to more distant relatives.)" RK:150.

Kinship Terminology: "A system of linguistic categories for denoting kinds of relatives." RK:150.

Levirate: "A system where a dead man's brother (or equivalent close male relative) succeeds to his status as husband, by marrying his widow." RK:150. "Rule whereby a man is entitled to inherit the widow of his deceased brother. Also, Leviratic polyandry: simultaneous marriage of a woman to two or more men who are brothers (to one another)." DT Contra. "Sororate"

Lineage: "A unilineal descent group based on patrilineal descent (patrilineage) or matrilineal descent (matrilineage) whose members trace descent from an apical ancestor/ancestress by known genealogical links." RK:150. "A descent group in which the links connecting living members with a common ancestor (or ancestress) may be actually demonstrated. Variations: patrilineage, where links are traced exclusively through the male lines; matrilineage, where links are traced exclusively through the female lines; cognatic lineage, where links are traced through both sex lines" (RF-49). DT.

Lineal Kinsmen: Direct descendants and ancestors to whom Ego has an unbroken chain of parent-child linkages. For example, Ego's father, mother's father, father's father's mother's father, son, son's daughter's son, etc. Contra. "Collateral Kinsmen"

Lineal Terminology: "Recognizes collaterality but not bifurcation. FB and MB are grouped; FZ and MZ are grouped; there are separate terms for M and F. American kinship is lineal." ES:77.

Main Sequence Kinship Theory: Murdock first stated this theory in its entirety as follows: "When any social system which has attained equilibrium begins to change, such change regularly begins with modification of the rule of residence. Alteration in residence rules is followed by development or change in form of descent consistent with residence rules. Finally adaptive changes in kinship terminology follow (Murdock 1949:221-222)." LM: 105.

Mater: Sociological mother (pater = sociological father), not necessarily biological mother. Contra. "genitrix". See genitor.

Matriarchy: "Rule of the family (and society) by the mother; no strictly matriarchal societies are known. "Maripotestal" is a synonym for matriarchal." ES: 77.

Matrideme: "An exogamous, nonunilinear group with matrilocal residence. See "Deme"." ES:77.

Matrilateral Relations: Those kinship relationships one acquires through mother. One's kinsmen and kinswomen on "mother's side".

Matrilineage: A unilineal descent group based on matrilineal descent.

Matrilineal Descent: "A principle of descent from an ancestress through her daughter, her daughter's daughter, and so on (in the female line)" RK:150.

Matrilocal Residence: A post-nuptial residence pattern in which the newly wed couple establishes residence with wife's group. Some would restrict this usage to those societies which have unilineal descent groups. See uxorilocal residence. Contra. "patrilocal".

Matri-patrilocal Residence: "A pattern of initial matrilocal residence followed by permanent patrilocal residence." ES:77.

Merging: "The grouping of lineal and collateral kinsmen under one classificatory term. Classifying the FB with F or MZ with M is a common merging practice." ES:77.

Migration Theory of Matrilocality: Divale countered the warfare theory of matrilocality as follows: "...matrilocal residence is an adaptive response to the disequilibrium that occurs when a virilocal or patrilocal society migrates into an already inhabited region. The sudden immigration will result in external warfare between the migrating and indigenous societies. Most of the world's societies (approximately seventy per cent) practice patrilocal residence and are characterized by the presence of fraternal interest groups, which have been shown to be conducive to the frequent feuding and internal warfare that also characterizes these societies. In face of severe external warfare, the changes of successful adaptation would be increased if these societies cease their feuding and internal war and instead concentrate all their resources against the other society. Matrilocal residence accomplishes this, because the dispersal of males from their natal villages upon marriage results in the breakup of fraternal interest groups (Divale 1974b: 75)" LM:111. See "Warfare Theory of Matrilocality"

Mixed Descent: "Gillin (1948:433) notes that mixed descent is relatively rare but two varieties do occur. Sex-linked mixed descent affiliates males with their father's male line; females with the mother's female line. Cross-sex mixed descent affiliates males with the mother's father, females with the father's mother." ES:75.

Moieties: "A division of a society into two social categories or groups, characteristically by a rule of patrilineal descent (patri-moiety) or matrilineal descent (matri-moiety)." RK:150. "The formally recognized "halves" of a society which regularly interact in prescribed manners. Most authors consider moiety intermarriage to be criterial to the definition, but many societies possess non-exogamous moieties which interact in ritual and ceremonial contexts unconnected with marriage (NG-155); RF 182)." DT.

Monogamy: "A form of marriage which limits a person to only one spouse at a time. Lowie (1948:114) estimates that few people in history practiced monogamy on principle but that the majority, in fact, led monogamous lives." ES:77.

Neolocal Residence: "Residence of a couple after marriage in a new household not linked spatially to that of the groom's or the bride's kin (cf. virilocal, uxorilocal)" RK:150.

Nepotic Inheritance: "The norm that a man inherits his uncle's wife or wives. It has been found in patrilineal groups but fits more logically a matrilineal framework, where it is usually found. It is far from universal with matrilineal descent, however." ES:78.

Nonunilineal Descent: "An alternative term to "cognatic descent." Since cognatic descendants include patrilineal descendants and matrilineal descendants this usage is unfortunate. I have suggested that the term be used in societies that recognize a unilineal core within a cognatic descent category to denote descent status through at least one alternate-sex link (i.e., non-agnatic where descent includes at least one female link, nonuterine where it includes at least one male link)." RK:150.

Nuclear Family: "A family unit consisting of parents and their dependent children." RK:150. "The social unit, based on real or putative or fictive blood ties, and consisting of a male, his wife, and their dependent offspring. Also called "elementary family" or "conjugal family" (RF-36; NG-358)." DT

Omaha Terminology: "A mode of kinship classification usually but not always associated with patrilineal descent in which a line of mother's patrilineal kin are terminologically equated across generations (mirror image of Crow terminology)." RK:150.

Parallel-Cousins: "The children of same-sexed siblings; similarly, the offspring of one's parents' same-sexed siblings. E.g., MZC (RF-185)." DT "Ego's father's brother's child or mother's sister's child, or more distant cousin classed terminologically with these first cousins." RK:150. Contra "Cross-cousins".

Pater: Sociological father (mater = sociological mother), not necessarily biological father. Contra. "genitor". See "genitrix".

Patrilateral Relations: Those kinship relations one acquires through father. One's kinsmen and kinswomen on "father's side."

Patrilineage: A unilineal descent group based on patrilineal descent.

Patrilineal Descent: "Descent traced through a line of ancestors in the male line. Syn. "Agnatic Descent"" RK:150.

Patrilocal Residence: Residence of a married couple with the husband's group. Some would restrict this usage to those societies with unilineal descent groups. See virilocal residence.

Phratry: "A grouping of clans related by traditions of common descent or historical alliance based on kinship." RK 150 "Recognized, often named social group consisting of two or more clans recognizing relationship to one another, the implication being that there are two or more such clan-sets ("phratries") in a given society (NG-35; RF-92)." DT. (NOTE: If there are only two phratries then they are called moieties. Therefore, there must be at least THREE such groupings of clans before we can speak of phratries.)

Polygamy: "Plural marriage, of which there are two major types: polygyny and polyandry (RF-58,87)" DT.

Polygyny: Marriage of a male to two or more females.

Sororal Polygyny: where the plural  wives are sisters (to one another)

Serial Polygyny: where the marriages occur seriatum (NOTE: this is a misnomer, if the marriages are not simultaneous, they cannot be consider as polygamous)

Polyandry: Marriage of a female to two or more males.

Fraternal Polyandry: where the husbands are brothers (to one another) (NG-365ff.)

Positive Marriage Rules: Rules which stipulate "not only whom one may not marry , they specify also whom one should marry. RF:199.

Negative Marriage Rules: Rules which stipulate only "whom one should not marry but have no rule about the actual choice of partner. RF:199.

Preferential Marriage: "A marriage pattern (e.g., marriage with a cross-cousin, a brother's widow, etc.) that is socially valued and desirable, but not enjoined." RK:151.

Prescriptive Marriage: "In alliance theory, a requirement that marriage be with a partner in a particular kinship category. Even where "incorrect" marriages occur, they are likely to be classed as if they were correct, and kinship relations readjusted accordingly." RK:151.

Primary Relatives: Ego's parents and siblings in his family of orientation and his spouse and children in his family of procreation. GPM:14

Primogeniture: An inheritance rule which favors the first born child in a family. Contra. "ultimogeniture"

Ramage: "A group constituted by using both or either parents as links in group membership (NG-198)." DT. "A term used by Firth to denote a cognatic descent group; and by Sahlins, to denote a descent system where local descent groups are ranked according to seniority of descent, as in Tonga." RK:151.

Reference, Terms of: Kin terms used in speaking about a kinsman or kinswoman to a third part. See "Address, Terms of".

Relationship Systems: "Term used by Needham and other proponents of the "category" approach to kinship terms to denote "kinship" terminologies (this avoids the genealogical implication)." RK:151.

Residence: "Referring to conventional rules or patterns of behavior concerning the place a couple lives after marriage. Usually expressed with the suffix"-local", thus, "virilocal"-residence with the husband's group (NG-240ff.; RF-84)." DT. There is some confusion in the use of residence terms, but Divale (1974a) provides a useful restatement of Murdock's classic definitions. His scheme with some modification is presented below:

Divale's Typology of Residence Patterns