In anthropology , kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that the study of kinship is the study of what humans do with these basic facts of life – mating , gestation , parenthood , socialization , siblingship etc. Human society is unique, he argues, in that we are "working with the same raw material as exists in the animal world, but [we] can conceptualize and categorize it to serve social ends." These social ends include the socialization of children and the formation of basic economic, political and religious groups.
79-457: A people is any plurality of persons considered as a whole. Used in politics and law, the term "a people" refers to the collective or community of an ethnic group or nation . The term "the people" refers to the public or common mass of people of a polity . As such it is a concept of human rights law , international law as well as constitutional law , particularly used for claims of popular sovereignty . Chapter One, Article One of
158-779: A classificatory terminology groups many different types of relationships under one term. For example, the word brother in English-speaking societies indicates a son of one's same parent; thus, English-speaking societies use the word brother as a descriptive term referring to this relationship only. In many other classificatory kinship terminologies, in contrast, a person's male first cousin (whether mother's brother's son, mother's sister's son, father's brother's son, father's sister's son) may also be referred to as brothers. The major patterns of kinship systems that are known which Lewis Henry Morgan identified through kinship terminology in his 1871 work Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of
237-533: A culture, some descent groups may be considered to lead back to gods or animal ancestors ( totems ). This may be conceived of on a more or less literal basis. Kinship can also refer to a principle by which individuals or groups of individuals are organized into social groups , roles, categories and genealogy by means of kinship terminologies . Family relations can be represented concretely (mother, brother, grandfather) or abstractly by degrees of relationship (kinship distance). A relationship may be relative (e.g.
316-421: A father and his brothers. Kinship terminologies include the terms of address used in different languages or communities for different relatives and the terms of reference used to identify the relationship of these relatives to ego or to each other. Kin terminologies can be either descriptive or classificatory . When a descriptive terminology is used, a term refers to only one specific type of relationship, while
395-470: A father in relation to a child) or reflect an absolute (e.g. the difference between a mother and a childless woman). Degrees of relationship are not identical to heirship or legal succession. Many codes of ethics consider the bond of kinship as creating obligations between the related persons stronger than those between strangers, as in Confucian filial piety . In a more general sense, kinship may refer to
474-403: A feature of humans, but also of many other primates , was yet to emerge and society was considered to be a uniquely human affair. As a result, early kinship theorists saw an apparent need to explain not only the details of how human social groups are constructed, their patterns, meanings and obligations, but also why they are constructed at all. The why explanations thus typically presented
553-406: A kind of relation on all peoples, insisting that kinship consists in relations of consanguinity and that kinship as consanguinity is a universal condition.(Schneider 1984, 72) Schneider preferred to focus on these often ignored processes of "performance, forms of doing, various codes for conduct, different roles" (p. 72) as the most important constituents of kinship. His critique quickly prompted
632-684: A language, both in the uses of terms for kin but also in the fluidities of language, meaning, and networks. His field studies criticized the ideas of structural-functional stability of kinship groups as corporations with charters that lasted long beyond the lifetimes of individuals, which had been the orthodoxy of British Social Anthropology . This sparked debates over whether kinship could be resolved into specific organized sets of rules and components of meaning, or whether kinship meanings were more fluid, symbolic, and independent of grounding in supposedly determinate relations among individuals or groups, such as those of descent or prescriptions for marriage. From
711-421: A man and a woman such that children born to the woman are the recognized legitimate offspring of both partners." Edmund Leach argued that no one definition of marriage applied to all cultures, but offered a list of ten rights frequently associated with marriage, including sexual monopoly and rights with respect to children (with specific rights differing across cultures). There is wide cross-cultural variation in
790-420: A maternal grandfather and his sister are referred to as paanth ngan-ngethe and addressed with the vocative ngethin. In Bardi , a father and his sister are irrmoorrgooloo ; a man's wife and his children are aalamalarr. In Murrinh-patha , nonsingular pronouns are differentiated not only by the gender makeup of the group, but also by the members' interrelation. If the members are in a sibling-like relation,
869-511: A means to an end (on the basis of perceived 'need'). Primus' approach can thus be contrasted to Kant's moral-philosophical definition of a person: whereas Kant's second formulation of the categorical imperative states that rational beings must never be treated merely as a means to an end and that they must also always be treated as an end, Primus offers that the aspects that humans (and some animals) desire, and only those aspects, are ends, by definition. Kinship Kinship can refer both to
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#1732832724282948-483: A person count as a person, differ widely among cultures and contexts. In addition to the question of personhood, of what makes a being count as a person to begin with, there are further questions about personal identity and self : both about what makes any particular person that particular person instead of another, and about what makes a person at one time the same person as they were or will be at another time despite any intervening changes. The plural form "people"
1027-462: A relationship between two entities (e.g. the word 'sister' denotes the relationship between the speaker or some other entity and another feminine entity who shares the parents of the former), trirelational kin-terms—also known as triangular, triadic, ternary, and shared kin-terms—denote a relationship between three distinct entities. These occur commonly in Australian Aboriginal languages with
1106-412: A similarity or affinity between entities on the basis of some or all of their characteristics that are under focus. This may be due to a shared ontological origin, a shared historical or cultural connection, or some other perceived shared features that connect the two entities. For example, a person studying the ontological roots of human languages ( etymology ) might ask whether there is kinship between
1185-473: A singular purpose in any moment, existing and operating with relative harmony. Primus defines people exclusively as their desires, whereby desires are states which are sought for arbitrary or nil purpose(s). Primus views that desires, by definition, are each sought as ends in and of themselves and are logically the most precious (valuable) states that one can conceive. Primus distinguishes states of desire (or 'want') from states which are sought instrumentally, as
1264-445: A social relationship as created, constituted and maintained by a process of interaction, or doing (Schneider 1984, 165). Schneider used the example of the citamangen / fak relationship in Yap society, that his own early research had previously glossed over as a father / son relationship, to illustrate the problem; The crucial point is this: in the relationship between citamangen and fak
1343-457: A society who are not close genealogical relatives may nevertheless use what he called kinship terms (which he considered to be originally based on genealogical ties). This fact was already evident in his use of the term affinity within his concept of the system of kinship . The most lasting of Morgan's contributions was his discovery of the difference between descriptive and classificatory kinship terms, which situated broad kinship classes on
1422-425: A species (e.g. as in kin selection theory). It may also be used in this specific sense when applied to human relationships, in which case its meaning is closer to consanguinity or genealogy . Family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity (by recognized birth), affinity (by marriage), or co-residence/shared consumption (see Nurture kinship ). In most societies, it is the principal institution for
1501-440: A systemic cultural model that can be elicited in fieldwork, but also when allowing considerable individual variability in details, such as when they are recorded through relative products. In trying to resolve the problems of dubious inferences about kinship "systems", George P. Murdock (1949, Social Structure) compiled kinship data to test a theory about universals in human kinship in the way that terminologies were influenced by
1580-456: A third pronoun (SIB) will be chosen distinct from the Masculine (MASC) and Feminine/Neuter (FEM). In many societies where kinship connections are important, there are rules, though they may be expressed or be taken for granted. There are four main headings that anthropologists use to categorize rules of descent. They are bilateral , unilineal , ambilineal and double descent. A descent group
1659-699: A topic of international debate, and has been questioned during the abolition of slavery and the fight for women's rights , in debates about abortion , fetal rights , and in animal rights advocacy. Various debates have focused on questions about the personhood of different classes of entities. Historically, the personhood of women, and slaves has been a catalyst of social upheaval. In most societies today, postnatal humans are defined as persons. Likewise, certain legal entities such as corporations , sovereign states and other polities , or estates in probate are legally defined as persons. However, some people believe that other groups should be included; depending on
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#17328327242821738-465: A wide array of lineage-based societies with a classificatory kinship system , potential spouses are sought from a specific class of relatives as determined by a prescriptive marriage rule. Insofar as regular marriages following prescriptive rules occur, lineages are linked together in fixed relationships; these ties between lineages may form political alliances in kinship dominated societies. French structural anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss developed
1817-512: Is a social group whose members talk about common ancestry. A unilineal society is one in which the descent of an individual is reckoned either from the mother's or the father's line of descent. Matrilineal descent is based on relationship to females of the family line. A child would not be recognized with their father's family in these societies, but would be seen as a member of their mother's family's line. Simply put, individuals belong to their mother's descent group. Matrilineal descent includes
1896-600: Is a descent group composed of three or more clans each of whose apical ancestors are descended from a further common ancestor. If a society is divided into exactly two descent groups, each is called a moiety , after the French word for half . If the two halves are each obliged to marry out, and into the other, these are called matrimonial moieties . Houseman and White (1998b, bibliography) have discovered numerous societies where kinship network analysis shows that two halves marry one another, similar to matrimonial moieties, except that
1975-475: Is considered most significant differs from culture to culture. A clan is generally a descent group claiming common descent from an apical ancestor. Often, the details of parentage are not important elements of the clan tradition. Non-human apical ancestors are called totems . Examples of clans are found in Chechen , Chinese , Irish , Japanese , Polish , Scottish , Tlingit , and Somali societies. A phratry
2054-524: Is fronted, however, the term nakurrng now incorporates the male speaker as a propositus ( P i.e. point of reference for a kin-relation) and encapsulates the entire relationship as follows: Many Australian languages also have elaborate systems of referential terms for denoting groups of people based on their relationship to one another (not just their relationship to the speaker or an external propositus like 'grandparents'). For example, in Kuuk Thaayorre ,
2133-488: Is not the only function of the family; in societies with a sexual division of labor , marriage , and the resulting relationship between two people, it is necessary for the formation of an economically productive household . Different societies classify kinship relations differently and therefore use different systems of kinship terminology – for example some languages distinguish between affinal and consanguine uncles, whereas others have only one word to refer to both
2212-416: Is often used to refer to an entire nation or ethnic group (as in "a people"), and this was the original meaning of the word; it subsequently acquired its use as a plural form of person. The plural form "persons" is often used in philosophical and legal writing. The criteria for being a person... are designed to capture those attributes which are the subject of our most humane concern with ourselves and
2291-452: Is one criterion for membership of many social groups. But it may not be the only criterion; birth, or residence, or a parent's former residence, or utilization of garden land, or participation in exchange and feasting activities or in house-building or raiding, may be other relevant criteria for group membership."(Barnes 1962,6) Similarly, Langness' ethnography of the Bena Bena also emphasized
2370-491: Is principally an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged. When defined broadly, marriage is considered a cultural universal . A broad definition of marriage includes those that are monogamous , polygamous , same-sex and temporary. The act of marriage usually creates normative or legal obligations between the individuals involved, and any offspring they may produce. Marriage may result, for example, in "a union between
2449-624: Is the case in many societies practicing totemic religion where society is divided into several exogamous totemic clans, such as most Aboriginal Australian societies. Marriages between parents and children, or between full siblings, with few exceptions, have been considered incest and forbidden. However, marriages between more distant relatives have been much more common, with one estimate being that 80% of all marriages in history have been between second cousins or closer. Systemic forms of preferential marriage may have wider social implications in terms of economic and political organization. In
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2528-569: The Charter of the United Nations states that "peoples" have the right to self-determination . Though the mere status as peoples and the right to self-determination, as for example in the case of Indigenous peoples ( peoples , as in all groups of indigenous people, not merely all indigenous persons as in indigenous people ), does not automatically provide for independent sovereignty and therefore secession . Indeed, judge Ivor Jennings identified
2607-556: The alliance theory to account for the "elementary" kinship structures created by the limited number of prescriptive marriage rules possible. Claude Lévi-Strauss argued in The Elementary Structures of Kinship (1949), that the incest taboo necessitated the exchange of women between kinship groups. Levi-Strauss thus shifted the emphasis from descent groups to the stable structures or relations between groups that preferential and prescriptive marriage rules created. One of
2686-468: The " House of Windsor ". The concept of a house society was originally proposed by Claude Lévi-Strauss who called them " sociétés à maison ". The concept has been applied to understand the organization of societies from Mesoamerica and the Moluccas to North Africa and medieval Europe. Lévi-Strauss introduced the concept as an alternative to 'corporate kinship group' among the cognatic kinship groups of
2765-506: The 1950s onwards, reports on kinship patterns in the New Guinea Highlands added some momentum to what had until then been only occasional fleeting suggestions that living together (co-residence) might underlie social bonding, and eventually contributed to the general shift away from a genealogical approach (see below section). For example, on the basis of his observations, Barnes suggested: [C]learly, genealogical connexion of some sort
2844-464: The Batek people of Malaysia recognize kinship ties through both parents' family lines, and kinship terms indicate that neither parent nor their families are of more or less importance than the other. Some societies reckon descent patrilineally for some purposes, and matrilineally for others. This arrangement is sometimes called double descent. For instance, certain property and titles may be inherited through
2923-505: The English word seven and the German word sieben . It can be used in a more diffuse sense as in, for example, the news headline " Madonna feels kinship with vilified Wallis Simpson ", to imply a felt similarity or empathy between two or more entities. In biology , "kinship" typically refers to the degree of genetic relatedness or the coefficient of relationship between individual members of
3002-459: The Human Family are: There is a seventh type of system only identified as distinct later: The six types (Crow, Eskimo, Hawaiian, Iroquois, Omaha, Sudanese) that are not fully classificatory (Dravidian, Australian) are those identified by Murdock (1949) prior to Lounsbury's (1964) rediscovery of the linguistic principles of classificatory kin terms. While normal kin-terms discussed above denote
3081-549: The Iroquois proper are specifically matrilineal. In a society which reckons descent bilaterally (bilineal), descent is reckoned through both father and mother, without unilineal descent groups. Societies with the Eskimo kinship system, like the Inuit , Yupik , and most Western societies, are typically bilateral. The egocentric kindred group is also typical of bilateral societies. Additionally,
3160-644: The Pacific region. The socially significant groupings within these societies have variable membership because kinship is reckoned bilaterally (through both father's and mother's kin) and comes together for only short periods. Property, genealogy and residence are not the basis for the group's existence. Marriage is a socially or ritually recognized union or legal contract between spouses that establishes rights and obligations between them, between them and their children, and between them and their in-laws. The definition of marriage varies according to different cultures, but it
3239-728: The United States, criminal trials in Ireland and the Philippines are prosecuted in the name of the people of their respective states. The political theory underlying this format is that criminal prosecutions are brought in the name of the sovereign ; thus, in these U.S. states , the "people" are judged to be the sovereign, even as in the United Kingdom and other dependencies of the British Crown , criminal prosecutions are typically brought in
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3318-831: The Western Pacific) described patterns of events with concrete individuals as participants stressing the relative stability of institutions and communities, but without insisting on abstract systems or models of kinship. Gluckman (1955, The judicial process among the Barotse of Northern Rhodesia) balanced the emphasis on stability of institutions against processes of change and conflict, inferred through detailed analysis of instances of social interaction to infer rules and assumptions. John Barnes , Victor Turner , and others, affiliated with Gluckman's Manchester school of anthropology, described patterns of actual network relations in communities and fluid situations in urban or migratory context, as with
3397-443: The actual bonds of blood relationship had a force and vitality of their own quite apart from any social overlay which they may also have acquired, and it is this biological relationship itself which accounts for what Radcliffe-Brown called "the source of social cohesion". (Schneider 1984, 49) Schneider himself emphasised a distinction between the notion of a social relationship as intrinsically given and inalienable ( from birth ), and
3476-437: The attempts to break out of universalizing assumptions and theories about kinship, Radcliffe-Brown (1922, The Andaman Islands ; 1930, The social organization of Australian tribes) was the first to assert that kinship relations are best thought of as concrete networks of relationships among individuals. He then described these relationships, however, as typified by interlocking interpersonal roles. Malinowski (1922, Argonauts of
3555-460: The basis of imputing abstract social patterns of relationships having little or no overall relation to genetic closeness but instead cognition about kinship, social distinctions as they affect linguistic usages in kinship terminology , and strongly relate, if only by approximation, to patterns of marriage. Source: A more flexible view of kinship was formulated in British social anthropology . Among
3634-405: The behavioral similarities or social differences among pairs of kin, proceeding on the view that the psychological ordering of kinship systems radiates out from ego and the nuclear family to different forms of extended family . Lévi-Strauss (1949, Les Structures Elementaires), on the other hand, also looked for global patterns to kinship, but viewed the "elementary" forms of kinship as lying in
3713-476: The boundaries of incest . A great deal of inference was necessarily involved in such constructions as to "systems" of kinship, and attempts to construct systemic patterns and reconstruct kinship evolutionary histories on these bases were largely invalidated in later work. However, anthropologist Dwight Read later argued that the way in which kinship categories are defined by individual researchers are substantially inconsistent. This not only occurs when working within
3792-452: The context of Australian Aboriginal kinship . In Bininj Kunwok , for example, the bi-relational kin-term nakurrng is differentiated from its tri-relational counterpart by the position of the possessive pronoun ke . When nakurrng is anchored to the addressee with ke in the second position, it simply means 'brother' (which includes a broader set of relations than in English). When the ke
3871-477: The debates could be held on common basis to all theological schools. The purpose of the debate was to establish the relation, similarities and differences between the logos ( Ancient Greek : Λóγος , romanized : Lógos / Verbum ) and God. The philosophical concept of person arose, taking the word " prosopon " ( Ancient Greek : πρόσωπον , romanized : prósōpon ) from the Greek theatre . Therefore,
3950-508: The early 20th century. Kinship systems as defined in anthropological texts and ethnographies were seen as constituted by patterns of behavior and attitudes in relation to the differences in terminology, listed above, for referring to relationships as well as for addressing others. Many anthropologists went so far as to see, in these patterns of kinship, strong relations between kinship categories and patterns of marriage, including forms of marriage, restrictions on marriage, and cultural concepts of
4029-518: The fact of life in social groups ( which appeared to be unique to humans ) as being largely a result of human ideas and values. Morgan's explanation for why humans live in groups was largely based on the notion that all humans have an inherent natural valuation of genealogical ties (an unexamined assumption that would remain at the heart of kinship studies for another century, see below), and therefore also an inherent desire to construct social groups around these ties. Even so, Morgan found that members of
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#17328327242824108-457: The foundational works in the anthropological study of kinship was Morgan's Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family (1871). As is the case with other social sciences, Anthropology and kinship studies emerged at a time when the understanding of the Human species' comparative place in the world was somewhat different from today's. Evidence that life in stable social groups is not just
4187-710: The inherent problems in the right of "peoples" to self-determination, as it requires pre-defining a said "people". Both the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire used the Latin term Senatus Populusque Romanus , (the Senate and People of Rome). This term was fixed abbreviated (SPQR) to Roman legionary standards, and even after the Roman Emperors achieved a state of total personal autocracy , they continued to wield their power in
4266-559: The jurisdictions in question usually substitute the name of the state for the words "the People" in the case captions. Four states — Massachusetts , Virginia , Pennsylvania , and Kentucky — refer to themselves as the Commonwealth in case captions and legal process. Other states, such as Indiana , typically refer to themselves as the State in case captions and legal process. Outside
4345-581: The logos (the Ancient Greek : Λóγος , romanized : Lógos / Verbum ), which was identified with the Christ, was defined as a "person" of God. This concept was applied later to the Holy Ghost, the angels and to all human beings. Trinitarianism holds that God has three persons. Since then, a number of important changes to the word's meaning and use have taken place, and attempts have been made to redefine
4424-527: The male line, and others through the female line. Societies can also consider descent to be ambilineal (such as Hawaiian kinship ) where offspring determine their lineage through the matrilineal line or the patrilineal line . A lineage is a unilineal descent group that can demonstrate their common descent from a known apical ancestor . Unilineal lineages can be matrilineal or patrilineal, depending on whether they are traced through mothers or fathers, respectively. Whether matrilineal or patrilineal descent
4503-483: The mistake of assuming these particular cultural values of 'blood is thicker than water', common in their own societies, were 'natural' and universal for all human cultures (i.e. a form of ethnocentrism). He concluded that, due to these unexamined assumptions, the whole enterprise of 'kinship' in anthropology may have been built on faulty foundations. His 1984 book A Critique of The Study of Kinship gave his fullest account of this critique. Certainly for Morgan (1870:10)
4582-426: The modern philosophy of mind , this concept of personal identity is sometimes referred to as the diachronic problem of personal identity. The synchronic problem is grounded in the question of what features or traits characterize a given person at one time. Identity is an issue for both continental philosophy and analytic philosophy . A key question in continental philosophy is in what sense we can maintain
4661-502: The modern conception of identity, while realizing many of our prior assumptions about the world are incorrect. Proposed solutions to the problem of personal identity include continuity of the physical body, continuity of an immaterial mind or soul , continuity of consciousness or memory , the bundle theory of self, continuity of personality after the death of the physical body, and proposals that there are actually no persons or selves who persist over time at all. In ancient Rome,
4740-475: The mother's brother, who in some societies may pass along inheritance to the sister's children or succession to a sister's son. Conversely, with patrilineal descent , individuals belong to their father's descent group. Children are recognized as members of their father's family, and descent is based on relationship to males of the family line. Societies with the Iroquois kinship system, are typically unilineal, while
4819-637: The name of the Crown . "The people" identifies the entire body of the citizens of a jurisdiction invested with political power or gathered for political purposes. Person A person ( pl. : people or persons , depending on context) is a being who has certain capacities or attributes such as reason , morality , consciousness or self-consciousness , and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship , ownership of property , or legal responsibility . The defining features of personhood and, consequently, what makes
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#17328327242824898-424: The name of the Senate and People of Rome. The term People's Republic , used since late modernity , is a name used by states , which particularly identify constitutionally with a form of socialism . In criminal law , in certain jurisdictions, criminal prosecutions are brought in the name of the People . Several U.S. states, including California , Illinois , and New York , use this style. Citations outside
4977-440: 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 (i.e. kinship studies). Over its history, anthropology has developed a number of related concepts and terms in the study of kinship, such as descent , descent group, lineage , affinity/affine , consanguinity/cognate and fictive kinship . Further, even within these two broad usages of
5056-425: The primacy of residence patterns in 'creating' kinship ties: The sheer fact of residence in a Bena Bena group can and does determine kinship. People do not necessarily reside where they do because they are kinsmen: rather they become kinsmen because they reside there." (Langness 1964, 172 emphasis in original) In 1972 David M. Schneider raised deep problems with the notion that human social bonds and 'kinship'
5135-493: The reversal of terms so that the old, dependent man becomes fak , to the young man, tam . The European and the anthropological notion of consanguinity, of blood relationship and descent, rest on precisely the opposite kind of value. It rests more on the state of being... on the biogenetic relationship which is represented by one or another variant of the symbol of 'blood' (consanguinity), or on 'birth', on qualities rather than on performance. We have tried to impose this definition of
5214-439: The social rules governing the selection of a partner for marriage. In many societies, the choice of partner is limited to suitable persons from specific social groups. In some societies the rule is that a partner is selected from an individual's own social group – endogamy , this is the case in many class and caste based societies. But in other societies a partner must be chosen from a different group than one's own – exogamy , this
5293-440: The socialization of children. As the basic unit for raising children, Anthropologists most generally classify family organization as matrifocal (a mother and her children); conjugal (a husband, his wife, and children; also called nuclear family ); avuncular (a brother, his sister, and her children); or extended family in which parents and children co-reside with other members of one parent's family. However, producing children
5372-509: The source of what we regard as most important and most problematical in our lives. Personhood is the status of being a person. Defining personhood is a controversial topic in philosophy and law , and is closely tied to legal and political concepts of citizenship , equality , and liberty . According to common worldwide general legal practice, only a natural person or legal personality has rights , protections, privileges , responsibilities, and legal liability . Personhood continues to be
5451-411: The stress in the definition of the relationship is more on doing than on being. That is, it is more what the citamangen does for fak and what fak does for citamangen that makes or constitutes the relationship. This is demonstrated, first, in the ability to terminate absolutely the relationship where there is a failure in the doing, when the fak fails to do what he is supposed to do; and second, in
5530-537: The symbolic meanings surrounding ideas of kinship in American Culture found that Americans ascribe a special significance to 'blood ties' as well as related symbols like the naturalness of marriage and raising children within this culture. In later work (1972 and 1984) Schneider argued that unexamined genealogical notions of kinship had been embedded in anthropology since Morgan's early work because American anthropologists (and anthropologists in western Europe) had made
5609-589: The term, there are different theoretical approaches. Broadly, kinship patterns may be considered to include people related by both descent – i.e. social relations during development – and by marriage . Human kinship relations through marriage are commonly called "affinity" in contrast to the relationships that arise in one's group of origin, which may be called one's descent group. In some cultures, kinship relationships may be considered to extend out to people an individual has economic or political relationships with, or other forms of social connections. Within
5688-436: The theory, the category of "person" may be taken to include or not pre-natal humans or such non-human entities as animals , artificial intelligences , or extraterrestrial life . Personal identity is the unique identity of persons through time. That is to say, the necessary and sufficient conditions under which a person at one time and a person at another time can be said to be the same person, persisting through time. In
5767-597: The two halves—which they call matrimonial sides —are neither named nor descent groups, although the egocentric kinship terms may be consistent with the pattern of sidedness, whereas the sidedness is culturally evident but imperfect. The word deme refers to an endogamous local population that does not have unilineal descent. Thus, a deme is a local endogamous community without internal segmentation into clans. In some societies kinship and political relations are organized around membership in corporately organized dwellings rather than around descent groups or lineages , as in
5846-489: The value that is intuitively bestowed upon humans, their possessions, animals, and aspects of the natural environment is due to a value monism known as "richness." Richness, Kelly argues, is a product of the "variety" and the "unity" within an entity or agent. According to Kelly, human beings and animals are morally valued and entitled to the status of persons because they are complex organisms whose multitude of psychological and biological components are generally unified towards
5925-406: The ways that families were connected by marriage in different fundamental forms resembling those of modes of exchange : symmetric and direct, reciprocal delay, or generalized exchange . Building on Lévi-Strauss's (1949) notions of kinship as caught up with the fluid languages of exchange, Edmund Leach (1961, Pul Eliya) argued that kinship was a flexible idiom that had something of the grammar of
6004-508: The word persona (Latin) or prosopon ( πρόσωπον ; Ancient Greek) originally referred to the masks worn by actors on stage. The various masks represented the various "personae" in the stage play. The concept of person was further developed during the Trinitarian and Christological debates of the 4th and 5th centuries in contrast to the word nature. During the theological debates, some philosophical tools (concepts) were needed so that
6083-450: The word with varying degrees of adoption and influence. According to Jörg Noller, at least six approaches can be distinguished: Other theories attribute personhood to those states that are viewed to possess intrinsic or universal value. Value theory attempts to capture those states that are universally considered valuable by their nature, allowing one to assign the concept of personhood upon those states. For example, Chris Kelly argues that
6162-634: The work of J. Clyde Mitchell (1965, Social Networks in Urban Situations). Yet, all these approaches clung to a view of stable functionalism , with kinship as one of the central stable institutions. More recently, under the influence of "new kinship studies", there has been a shift of emphasis from the being to the doing of kinship. A new generation of anthropologist study the processes of doing kinship in new contexts such as in migrant communities and in queer families. The concept of "system of kinship" tended to dominate anthropological studies of kinship in
6241-614: Was a natural category built upon genealogical ties and made a fuller argument in his 1984 book A Critique of the Study of Kinship which had a major influence on the subsequent study of kinship. Before the questions raised within anthropology about the study of 'kinship' by David M. Schneider and others from the 1960s onwards, anthropology itself had paid very little attention to the notion that kinship bonds were anything other than connected to consanguineal (or genealogical) relatedness (or its local cultural conceptions). Schneider's 1968 study of
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