Relatives and Relations…. Why study kinship? - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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– Kinship refers to the culturally defined relationships between individuals who are commonly thought of as having family ties. All societies use kinship as a basis for forming social groups and for classifying people. However, there is a great amount of variability in kinship rules and patterns around the world. In order to understand social interaction, attitudes, and motivations in most societies, it is essential to know how their kinship systems function.
• In many societies, kinship is the most important social organizing principle along with gender and age. Kinship also provides a means for transmitting status and property from generation to generation. It is not a mere coincidence that inheritance rights usually are based on the closeness of kinship links.
• Kinship connections are in turn based on two categories of bonds: those created by marriage and those that result from descent , which is socially recognized links between ancestors and descendants.
– Kin through marriage are your affinal kin
– Kin through blood relationships are your consanguineal kin.
• The nuclear family consists of a married couple and their children.
• The nuclear family is ego-centered and impermanent, while descent groups are permanent (lasting beyond the life spans of individual constituents) and reckoned according to a single ancestor.
• One’s family of orientation is the family in which one is born and grows up, while one’s family of procreation is formed when one marries and has children.
• Claims made for the universality of the nuclear family, based upon the universality of marriage, do not hold up--the nuclear family is widespread, but not universal.
6Nuclear and Extended Families (cont.)• In societies where the nuclear family is important, this structure acts as
a primary arena for sexual, reproductive, economic, and enculturative functions, but it is not the only structure used by societies for these (e.g., the Etoro, Nayar, Betsileo).
• In many societies, the extended families are the primary unit of social organization– Among the Muslims of western Bosnia, nuclear families are embedded
within large extended families called zadrugas headed by a male household head and his wife.
– The Nayars are a matrilineal society from India and are the dominant caste, originated in Kerala. Extended families live in compounds called tarawads headed by a senior woman.
7Industrialism and Family Organization• The most prevalent residence pattern in the United States is families of
procreation living neolocally.
• In the U.S., as in other large, industrialized societies, patterns of residence and family types may change from class to class, in response to the conditions of these different contexts (e.g., extended families as a response to poverty).
• In 1995, 25 percent of American households were inhabited by nuclear families.
• Increasing representation of women in the work force is associated with a rise in marriage age.
• The divorce rate rose steeply between 1970 and 1994.
• The media is reflecting and intensifying these changes.
• Comparatively, Americans (especially middle class) identify a smaller range of kindred than members of nonindustrial societies. (The term ‘kindred’ is used to represent the people that an individual believes him or herself related to.)