Kinship refers to the relationships between family members. It provides continuity between generations and defines groups for support. Kinship is based on blood, marriage, or adoption. It determines social groups, marriage and inheritance patterns, and residential practices. Kinship varies between cultures and helps outline rights, obligations, and appropriate behaviors between relatives.

2. Kinship Dynamics

3. What is kinship?
Sense of being related to another person(s) Set
by rules (sometimes laws) Often taken for
granted as being “natural” rather than cultural
kinships a group that consists of two or more
people who consider themselves related by
blood, marriage, or adoption.

4. Kinship
Provides continuity between generations.
Defines a group on whom a person can rely for aid.
Includes relationships
through blood and through
marriage.
Functions:

5. Affiliations between children and
parents.
Functions:
Organize domestic life.
Enculturation of children.
Allow transfer of property.
Carry out religious ritual.
Settle disputes.

6. KIN TYPES
A kin type is used to designate each individual relationship e.g. Mother, father,
mother’s brother, mother’s sister.
Each relationship between kin is described by a sequence of primary components
strung together to indicate biological relationships.Mother = M
Father = F
Sister = Z
Brother = B Mother’s Sister = MZ
Daughter = D Mother’s Sister’s Daughter = MZD
Son = S Sister’s Son = ZS
Husband = H
Wife = W

8. KINDREDS: A concept different than that of “Kin”. Kindred
are those to whom one is related and who come together for
support and for special social occasions.
KIN: All those individuals who are considered to be
related to you; all members of your extended family.
KIN VS. KINDREDS

9. Kinship Characteristics
female
male
deceased female
deceased male
female “ego” of the diagram
male “ego” of the diagram

10. Kinship Relationships
is married to
is cohabiting with(shear)
is divorced from
is separated from
adopted-in female
adopted-in male
is descended from
Is the sibling of

11. Kinship Symbols

12. Kinship Classification and Culture
Outlines rights and obligations.
Specifies how people act toward each other.
Determines the types of social groups that are
formed.
Regulates the systems of marriage and
inheritance.

13. Marriage Patterns
Endogamy -- marriage between people of the same
social category
Exogamy -- marriage between people of different social
groups.
Monogamy -- marriage form that involves two partners.
Hyper gamy-- marrying into a higher class

14. Polygamy -- marriage uniting three or more peoples.
Further divided into two:
a) Polygyn --marriage uniting one male and two or more
females.
b) Polyandry -- marriage uniting one female with two or more
males.
Sweden has the most egalitarian marriage system. There is
equality between spouses

15. Arranged marriages are prevalent where:
a) newly weds become part of the extended family
b) where wealth is exchanged
c) where elders have lots of power

16. Families of affinity -- people with or without legal
or blood relation who feel they belong together
and define themselves as family.
Extended family -- includes parents, children, also
other kin. Also known as consanguine family.
Nuclear family-- one or two parents and their
children.

17. Residential Patterns
Patrilocality -- married couple live with or near their
husbands family
Matrilocal --married couple live with or near their
wife’s family
Neolocal -- married couple lives apart from both
spouses families.

18. Descent -- system of tracing kinship over generations.
Patrilineal descent -- trace kinship through males
Matrilineal descent -- trace kinship through females.
Bilateral descent -- trace kinship through both females and
males.
All families in the world are patriarchal.

19. Marriage
A relationship between one or more men (male or
female) and one or more women (female or male)
recognized by society as having a continuing claim
to the right of access to one another
All societies have marriage
• About the social control of sexuality

20. Divorce
Who are the greatest losers in
a divorce situations? Why?
Discuss the reasons
why divorce rate is high in
the Pakistan

21. Widowhood and Remarriage
In some cultures, women’s position as a
widow is often marked symbolically
• modest clothes
• asexual
• little food intake
Remarriage is dependent on economic
factors and gender expectations

22. Household Forms
Single-person
Nuclear
• dominant in foraging and industrial cultures
Polygamous and Extended
• dominant in horticultural, pastoral societies
• household may contain 50 members
• will decline with industrialization?

23. Households as Social Units
Spouse/Partner relationships
• studies suggest marital satisfaction is strongly correlated
to sexual activity
Sibling relationships
Domestic violence
• Males as perpetrators, women as victims is found in all
cultures
• More common where men control wealth

24. Households in Social Change
International immigration
• challenges for parents and siblings
Shrinking households in the Pakistan
Increasing move away
from nuclear households in developed cultures

25. AMBILOCALITY: The couple may stay with either the wife’s or husband’s domestic group
• Relatively permanent resident relations
BILOCALITY: The couple may switch between the wife’s and husband’s group
• Relatively frequent moves between wife and husband’s sides
NEOLOCALITY: The couple does not reside with either family group.
PATRILOCALITY: With husbands father
MATRILOCALITY: With wife’s mother
AVUNCULOCALITY: With husband’s mother’s brother
AMITALOCALITY: With wife’s father’s sister
Uxorilocality: with the wife’s kin
Virilocality: with the husband’s kin
POSTMARITAL LOCALITY PATTERNS ~ RESIDENCE
RULES
For the most part where a married couple or family resides parallels their general kinship
pattern