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Kinship
Genetic kin:
• Biological kinship relationship on the basis of genetics
however, this bond is not always recognized: e.g.
bastards, children born out of wedlock
Kin without a genetic basis:
• Fictive kinship relationship on the basis of cultural norms
e.g. stepparents/children, adoptive parents/children
• Spiritual kinship relationship on the basis of a spiritual or religious
bond
e.g. godfather, godmother, godchild
• Milk kinship relationship on the basis of breastfeeding, between
mother and child, but also amongst siblings
• Kinship by marriage relationship on the basis of marriage
e.g. spouses (also same sex) and in-laws
• Kinship by polygamy relationship on the basis of polygamous marriage
e.g. co-spouses and co-spouses versus respective children

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Biological kinship
In anthropology, kinship is calculated referring to one central person, that is referred to
as ‘Ego’. Paul Bohannan (1963) distinguished eight possible (biological) relations to
Ego with which all other relationships within families can be reconstructed :
H(usband), W(ife), F(ather), M(other), S(on), D(aughter), B(rother), Z(sister).
In principle all genetic relationships can be mapped with this set of relationships. How
this works shall be shown in the following slides:
Anthropological kinship terminology crash course:

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Ego might as well be a man… in this example it is a woman. Anthropologists
usually use a circle to depict a woman and a triangle to depict a man (Δ). Here we
have chosen to use pictograms. Marriage is indicated by ‘=’.

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Although in Western societies we recognize relatives indicated with red as grandparents,
and relatives indicated with green as parents. This, however, is not in all cultures similar, as
we will demonstrate. Therefore, in anthropology, ‘grandparents’ are referred to as either FF,
FM, MF or MM. In the case the sex of a parent or grandparent is unknown, we can also use
P or PP (MP, PM, FP, PF) indicating ‘parent’.

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Anthropologists use B and Z indicating biological brothers and sisters. Remark that
Z is used for ‘sister’, since S is claimed for ‘son’.

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Those indicated in English as Uncles and Aunts, are referred to by FB, FZ, MB
and MZ.

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Here we see all relationships that would in English classify as ‘cousins’ of Ego. Again, this
might not held true outside Europe. Nevertheless, anthropologist do use the term cousins.
They split them up in two categories, the parallel cousins (related via FB or MZ) and the cross
cousins (related via MB or FZ). Parallel cousins are thus offspring of similar sex siblings,
cross cousins are offspring of opposite sex siblings.

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Similarly, not all cultures identify ‘grandchildren’. Here DD, DS, SD or SS suffices to indicate
the relationship. In the case the sex of offspring is not known, it can be referred to as CC,
CD, CS, SC, DC, in which the ‘C’ stands for ‘child’.

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The English ‘nieces and nephews’ can be labeled ZD, ZS, BD, BS, HZD, HZS, HBD, HBS.
Note that nieces and nephews of a spouse are in fact not biologically related to Ego.

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So we have seen that in English, nieces and nephews, as well as uncles and aunts
related only through a spouse cannot be distinguished from genetic nieces, nephews,
uncles and aunts. However, those relationships are not genetic, but ‘fictive’. Relationships
with in-laws are also ‘fictive’. Both categories are included in kinship systems, since their
relationship can be traced through marriage (=).

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Different kinship systems?
The way in which genetic relationships are classified might differ from culture to
culture. Therefore, Lewis Henry Morgan (1887) distinguished different kinship
systems:
• Hawaiian
• Sudanese
• Eskimo
• Iroquois
• Crow
• Omaha
Here we will demonstrate the consequences of having different kinship systems. We start
with a simple case, comparing the British and the Dutch kinship system. Although
both are classified ‘Eskimo’, we will see that they are slightly different.

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British Kinship / Dutch Kinship, both ‘Eskimo’ kinship systems
In the Dutch kinship system, there is no difference between cousins, nieces and nephews.
Male cousins and nephews are called ‘neven’ and female cousins and nieces are called
‘nichten’.

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The Eskimo versus the Iroquois kinship system
When we compare the ‘Eskimo’ kinship system of the English and the Dutch with
the ‘Iroquois’ kinship system of the West African Kel Tamacheq or Tuareg (here we use
the kinship terms used in Burkina Faso (cf. Bouman 2003), we see that their classifications
have huge implications for the categories most westerners believe to be universal:
• What westerners see as ‘grandparents’, Tuareg see as parents
• What westerners see as ‘grandchildren’, Tuareg see as children
• Parallel cousins are seen as siblings
• Only cross-cousins are seen as cousins
• FB and MZ are seen as parents
• MB and FZ are seen as uncles and aunts
The Iroquois system of the Tuareg thus produces a system with lesser ‘generations’, but
with much more parents, siblings and children:

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Tuareg kinship
Preferred marriage Ego with either MB, MBS or FZS (see red lines). This marriage really ties
the knots; children of such marriages are related to their relatives in multiple ways.

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In Tuareg society Ego has:
• four fathers and five mothers
• one uncle - preferential spouse
• four daughters and four sons
• three brothers and three sisters
• four cousins (two male and two female) – male cousins preferential spouse
• one niece and one nephew
• several in-laws
This example demonstrates that the eight relationships (H, W, S, D, B, Z, M, F) are
helpful to avoid problems with multicultural interpretations.

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The lines upward and downwards from ego are often important for affiliation and
inheritance. In anthropology they are described as:
• agnatic/patrilineal kinship - belonging only to one’s fathers’ line (red)
• uterine/matrilineal kinship - belonging only to one’s mothers’ line (bleu)
• cognatic/bilateral kinship - all related to ego in fathers’ and mothers’ line (red+blue+purple)

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Genealogists use some further distinctions:
Upwards related Downwards related
Dutch: kwartierstaat Dutch: parenteel
English: ancestor tree English: descendant tree