Kinship Terms

1. Introduction:
Kinship is the most basic principle of organizing individuals into social
groups, roles, and categories. Some form of organization based on parentage and
marriage is present in every human society. However, the nuclear family household is
still the fundamental institution responsible for rearing children and organizing
consumption. In nonindustrial contexts, kinship units normally have a much wider array
of functions.
kinship (kin: henceforth) may be described as the bond of relationship created by
procreation and defined by society, and the conception of what constitutes kin, will,
therefore, be found to vary according to the social organization of the community in
which the term is applied. It is significant of the general conception of kin that a
distinction has to be drawn, almost at the outset, between biological and sociological
parenthood; for in many societies the actual begetter of a child is not necessarily the
individual treated by him as his father.
2. Kinship Terminology
Kin terminology represents a more interesting example of linguistic differences
that are associated with culture. Kin terminology refers to the terms used for referring
to people to whom one is related. Such terms are important not only as indicating the
state of the person addressed or mentioned with reference to the speaker, but also
because there often is no other mode of address (Hudson, 1984: 89;
Levinson,1983:70-1).
Thus, in pre-state societies, prior to the Urban Revolution of five thousand years
ago, access to the social product was largely obtained through kin. For this reason, the
study of kin is vital to an understanding of the classless societies that flourished for
the millions of years before the emergence of class rule. Even after the rise of the
state, however, kin continued to play a vital role, and continues to be important today
( Wardhaugh,١٩٨٦:٢٢٧).
A kin terminology describes a specific system of familial relationship. The
anthropologist Morgan (١٨٨١-١٨١٨) argued that kin terminologies reflect different
sets of distinctions. For example, most kin terminologies distinguish between sexes
(i.e., the difference between a brother and a sister) and between generations (i.e., the
difference between a child and a parent). Moreover, he argued, kin terminologies
distinguish between relatives by blood and marriage (although recently some
 anthropologists have argued that many societies define kin in terms other than
'blood'). Morgan tries to classify kin terms and terminologies as either descriptive or
classificatory. He (Ibid) defines descriptive terms as referring to only one type of
relationship, while classification ones as referring to many types of relationships. For
example in Western societies there is only one way to express relationship with one's
brother (brother- parent's son); thus, in Western society the word "brother" functions
as a descriptive term. On the other side, there is more than one way to express
relationship with one's cousin, i.e., the word cousin may refer to mother's brother's
son, mother's sister's son, father's brother's son, father's sister's son, and the like).
Consequently, the word "cousin" is regarded as a classificatory term. Thus, the Arab
system is completely descriptive and assigns a different kin term to each distinct
relative. Hence, in contrast with the western society, the word cousin is regarded as a
descriptive term in Arab society since Arabic language has distinct terms for male or
female and patrilineal or matrilineal cousin (Chambers's Encyclopedia, ١٩٦٢:٢٣١;
Hatch and Brown,١٩٩٥:٣٤).
According to stone (٥ :١٩٩٧), kin is the recognition of a relationship between
persons based on descent or marriage. If the relationship between one person and
another is considered by them to involve descent, the two are "consanguine" (blood)
relatives. If the relationship has been established through marriage, it is affinal.
3. Pseudo kinship
Also called fictitious kinship, is an anthropological term designating social
relations and takes place when the social relationships simulate the ones arising
through real kinship (consanguinity or affinity) but without any biological
relationship.
 For example, in many societies, children who are breast-fed by the same mother are
considered siblings.
 We can view ritual kinship as a special form of fictitious kinship, which necessitates a ritual
for its creation, rituals such as godparenthood, adoption, or fraternization
 Fictive kinship is a term used by anthropologists and ethnographers to describe forms of
kinship or social ties that are based on neither consanguineal (blood ties) nor affinal (“by
marriage”) ties, in contrast to true kinship ties. Sociologists define the concept as a form of
extended family members who are not related by either blood or marriage.

It can be based on:  

1. Shared residence
2. Shared economic ties
 3. Nurture kinship: Those fed by same maternal milk
4. familiarity via other forms of interaction
5. Chosen kinship– which include relationship established during religious rituals or close
friendship ties, or other essential reciprocal social or economic relationships. Examples of
chosen kin include godparents, informally adopted children, and close family friends.

4. The function of kinship terminology

It is used "as a means of ordering relationships for social purposes" For ego, the categories
provided for him by his kinship system serve not only to direct his conduct and specify his rights
and duties in the normative sense but also to establish a particular arrangement of persons in his
field of kinship in which these are actualised. (RadcliffeBrown, 1950).

(1)Kinship assigns guidelines for interactions between persons. It defines proper,

acceptable role relationship between father- daughter, brother-sister etc.
(2)Kinship determines family line relationships, gotra and kula.
(3)Kinship helps us to determine the rights and obligations of the members in all the
religious practices starting from birth to death.
(4)Kinship system maintains solidarity of relationships.
(5)In rural and tribal societies kinship or kinship relations determine the rights and
obligations of the family and marriage, system of production and political power.
(6)Kinship through its different usages regulates the behaviour of different kin.
(7)Kinship helps in (through kinship terms) designating kin of various types such as
classificatory and descriptive.
5. Classification of kinship terminology
Kinship terms are technically classified by Morgan in three different ways: (1) by their range of
application, (2) by their linguistic structure and (3) by their mode of use. Regarding linguistic
structure, kinship terms are distinguished as elementary, derivative and descriptive.

Classificatory systems of kinship:

Ganowanian (American Indian)
Turanian (Dravidian, Gaura or North Indian, Chinese, Japanese)
Unclassified Asiatic (Burmese, Karen, etc)
Malayan( Hawaiian, Maori, various Micronesian and , oddy enough , Zulu)
 Eskimo.
Descriptive systems of kinship:
Aryan
Semitic
Uralian (Ugrain, Turkish, Esthonian, Magyar)
As studied by Morgan, the descriptive and classificatory terminologies bring forth three
distinct meanings. First, the difference was purely lexical. Classificatory terminologies
consist of simple phrases only, under which many genealogical kin, near and far
are classified whereas descriptive terminologies consist of a set of primary terms
for close kin and these primary terms generate compound or phrasal terms to
denote more distant kin. Second, they bear a semantic sense. In classificatory systems
genealogical nodes are accumulated into a small number of large classes while in the
descriptive systems, the nodes of the genealogical trees are distinguished in the
terminology. Third, the contrast bears a sense of dispersion of blood line. In
classificatory systems several collateral lines, near and remote, are merged into the
lineal line, thus theoretically, if not practically, preventing a dispersion of the
blood. On the contrary, the descriptive system has the collateral lines distinct and
perpetual divergent from the lineal, which results, theoretically as well as practically,
in a dispersion of the blood., Thus, the three contrasting senses define the two
systems as follows.

6. Kinship Terminology in English

English kin terms could have the following principles:

1. The system is bilateral (no distinctions between father's and mother's relatives).
2. Distinctions mark differences in sex, generation, and collateral kinship distance.
3. Each family relationship receives a distinct term; more distant relatives are grouped into general
categories (Sills,1968).

7. Symbols used to represent kinship relations

Anthropologist and other specialists of genealogies usually use a simple set of symbols to represent
persons and connections. These symbols were largely inherited from the International federation of
Egeni Organization in (1932) by the Sociological Research Committee of the Royal Anthropological
Society of Great Britain.
In the following lines, there are specific symbols used to represent kin connections. A male,
whether a boy or man, is usually represented by a triangle. A female, whether girl or woman, as a
circle. Additionally, there is a third symbol, the square, which means that gender difference is not of
any importance, that the person can in a specific context be a male or a female. For example the
English word "cousin" can be applied to a female, as well as to a male cousin. If it is wanted to
represent what type of persons the word "cousin" designates, a square, instead of a triangle and a circle,
is sufficient (Stone, 1997).
This draws us to the first important rule to remember in kinship studies and genealogical
representations. It is the rule of economy: graphic representations and verbal descriptions should
always use the shortest and most efficient way and symbols to describe a relationship, unless other
ways and symbols and information that changes substantially the understanding of the relationship.
Connection symbols could be drawn as in the following:
 ○ Female; a circle represents a woman or a girl.
 ▲ Male; a triangle represents a man or a boy.
 □ Male or female; a square represents a person or position for which gender is not
relevant.

The aforementioned symbols lack many other manifestations that show the kind of the connection
or the relationship that exist between the persons. Thus, there is a need to add symbols that allow
showing how these persons are connected to each other. There are three types of connections: two
persons are connected because they are "married", two persons are connected because they are
"siblings" (brothers and sisters), and two persons are connected because one is the parent (father or
mother) of the other. The latter type is called "filiation"(Dousset, 2002).
A marriage connection, also called alliance, is represented as a line that goes from below a person to
below another person. A sibling connection is represented as a line that goes from top of a person to the
top of another person. A filiation (parent- children) connection is represented as a line that goes from
below a person to the top of another person.
 These connections are combined in genealogies, and every person is linked to one other
person through at least one of these connection types.

8. Componential Analysis and Kinship terminology

Some languages make it easy to express certain concepts or words such as kin terms which in other
languages are at best very difficult to express. Thus translating kin terms from one language to another is
regarded as an illusion to be believed (Bolinger, 1975 ;Hudson,1984 ; Prasithrathsint1990-1996).
An explicit analysis of kin terms in a particular language yields a clear picture of the kin system in the culture
with which the language is associated. Hence the use of kin terms varies from culture to culture, so that what is
viewed as an uncle/nephew relationship in English may be regarded as father/son or something else in another
language (Nida,1975; Elgin,1979; Wardhaugh,2002) To understand and show the denotative meanings of a
system of kin terms ethnosemanticists turn to an approach to lexical study known as componential analysis,
which was introduced into ethnosemantic studies by Goodenough (1956)and Lounsbury (1956). The approach
has been used with other lexical fields but seems to suit best an analysis of kin terms. This may be due to the
fact that kin terms are of an appropriately limited, number and clear-cut denotations.
In Arabic like many other languages (German, Thai) have male/female distinctions for cousin, nephew,
aunt, uncle. Also, Arabic language distinguishes between relatives on the father's side and on the mother's side a
distinction which English lacks (Hatch and Brown, 1995; Krifka, 2001).This can be attributed to the fact that
English language has no lexical or syntactic markers to distinguish between the two sexes while in Arabic
language there are certain syntactic markers to distinguish between the two sexes. Thus Arabs use the prefixes
‫( ابن‬son of) for male relative and ‫( بنت‬daughter of) for female kin; and they use the suffix (‫ )ﻩ‬for female human
kin as ‫ﺍ ـﺒـﻥ‬-‫( ﺍﺒ ـﻨـﺔ‬son-daughter) or ‫( ﺤﻔـﻴـﺩ ﺤﻔـﻴـﺩ ﺓ‬grandson-granddaughter) etc. (palmer, 1981).
Words as lexical entities have some contrasting features that could be of value in distinguishing between
one word and another take for example the contrast between generations in kin can be observed, like the
contrast between older and younger, male and female. The lexical items are in the boxes of the chart and the
labels show the contrast in meaning of these lexical items. It is an easy task to correlate each lexical item with
people in the non-linguistic world and what they call one another or how they refer to one another (Larson,
1984).