2. • Why and how do anthropologists study
kinship?
• How do families and descent groups
differ and what are their social
correlates?
• How is kinship calculated and how are
relatives classified in various societies?
3. FAMILIES
• Kinship and descemt have organized human
life during much of our history.
• To understand the social structure of a society,
a sociologist/an ethnographer/ an
anthropologist must investigate such kin ties.
• Nuclear family: mother+father+children
• Extenden family: 3 or more generations of a
family, descent groups.
• Descent groups: composed of people claiming
common ancestry.
4. FAMILIES
• Most people belong to at least 2 nuclear
families at different times in their lives.
• Family of orientation: Nuclear family in which
one is born and grows up.
• Family of procreation: Nuclear family
established when one marries and has
children.
• An example: a culture in former Yugoslavia.
‘Zadruga’
5. Industrialism and Family Organization
• Family isolation arises from geographic mobility,
which is associated with industrialism, so that a
nuclear family focus is characteristic of many
modern nations.
• Neolocality: Couple establishes new residence.
• Values systems and kinship differ from class to
class. There are significant differences between
middle class and welfare dependent families.
• Extended family household: House with 3 or
more generations.
6. Industrialism and Family Organization
• The higher proportion of extended family
households among poorer people has been
explained as an adaptation to poverty.
• Adaptation to poverty causes kinship values and
attitudes to diverge from middle class values.
• Eventhough, we see nuclear family as a cultural
ideal for industrialized communities, when we
look at America, only 23% of American
households are in nuclear family form today.
7. Industrialism and Family Organization
• Women’s companionship to business world.
• Job demands compete with romantic
attachments.
• Average age for marriage in USA.
1970 – Age 21 1970- Age 23
2008 – Age 26 2008- Age 27
• Divorce rate has risen.
• Contemporary Americans maintain social lives
through work, friendship, sports, clubs, religion
and organized social activities. So, there is a
growing isolation from kin in American society,
which also researches suggest.
8. The role of family comparison
USA and BRAZIL
• Two most populous nations of the western
hemisphere of the world.
• For Americans family is spouses and children.
• For Brazilians family is parents, siblings, aunts,
uncles, grandparents and cousins. Later they add
their children and spouses.
• Marriage assumes more importance in Americans
because they lack an extended family support
system.
9. TÜRKİYE
• 1950 – a rapid change and moving from rural to urban life.
• Today – women ratio of maternity 2.1
• Fertility age- moved from 20-24 to 25-29
• First marriage for women- 16 in 1970
24 in 2000
• Nuclear family rate in 1968 – 60%
2008- 69%
• Extended family rate declined about 161%
• Today 71% of families live in nuclear family form in cities
and 66% of families live in nuclear family form in rural ares.
• In all regions, nuclear family is the most common
household type.
10. The Family Among Foragers
• Populations with foraging economies are far
removed from industrial societies in terms of
social complexity, but they do feature
geographic mobility, which is associated with
nomadic or seminomadic hunting and
gathering.
• The 2 basic social units of traditional foraging
societies are the nuclear family and the band.
11. DESCENT
• Descent group membership is determined at
birth and is lifelong. In this case, it is an
ascribed status.
• Matrilineal Descent – mother’s blood
• Patrilineal Descent- father’s blood
• Descent groups may be lineages or clans.
• A lineage uses demonstrated descent.
• A clan uses stipulated descent.
12. KINSHIP CALCULATION
• The system by which people in a society
reckon kin relationships.
• To study kinship calculation, a sociologist must
first determine the word or words for different
types of relatives used in a particular
language.
• Like race and gender, kinship is also culturally
constructed – it is a person’s perspective
looking out his/her kin.
13. KINSHIP CALCULATION
• Kin terms are the words used for different
relatives in a particular language. They reflect
the social construction of kinship in a given
culture.
• Cross-cultural comparison between English
and Turkish languages.
