Understanding Culture, Society and Politics

Module 8 – Kinship

Key Topics:
1.) Kinship (Family)
2.) Kinship by Blood
2.1 Unilineal Descent
2.3 Bilateral Descent
3.) Kinship by Marriage
4.) Types of Families based on Marriage Systems
4.1 Patrifocal & Matrifocal
4.2 Monogamous
4.3 Polygamous
4.4 Extended
4.5 Reconstituted Family
5.) Postmarital Residency Rules
6.) Seven Major Residency Patterns
6.1 Patrilocal Residence
6.2 Matrilocal Residence
6.3 Neolocal Residence
6.4 Avunculocal Residence
6.5 Natalocal Residence
6.6 Matrifocal Residence
6.7 Ambilocal Residence
6.8 Transnational Families (Alt)
7.) Politics of Kinship

Objectives:
1.) Trace kinship ties and social networks.

Kinship (Family)

Kinship refers to the “web of social relationships” that humans form as part of a family,
which is the smallest unit of society. Ferraro and Andreatta (2010) defined family as “a social and
economic unit that consists of one or more parents and their children.” There are several points
that you can learn from this definition:

1.) A family is a socioeconomic unit. What makes a group of individuals a family is their
dependency on one another with regard to their social and economic activities. This implies that
the family acts as the primary support group for its members as they participate in the social
processes within a society. For this reason, an individual is often disposed to consult with family
members during social and economic crises.

2.) A family can have one or more parents. In the society that you grow up in, a family usually
consists of two parents—a father and a mother. However, this is not the norm for other societies
who would have one parent, a mother or a father, or multiple parents due to multiple marriages.

3.) A family can have parents who are not married. Although the marriage of parents is
important in religious countries such as the Philippines, it is not a prerequisite in other societies.
Hence, as long as individuals are socially and economically interdependent, they can be considered
a family. This puts into perspective the concept of common law marriage, which is an informal
union of at least two individuals who present themselves as a couple. In popular context, this is
also referred to as cohabitating couples or domestic partners.
4.) A family can have parents with same gender. Although same sex marriage is illegal in most
countries, including the Philippines, some societies allow for the marriage of individuals with the
same sex. The United States now allows same sex marriages, which create families with either
both female or both male parents.

5.) A family should have at least one child. One of the most crucial elements of a family is the
existence of children. Without a child, a couple remains to be a couple and not a family.

Kinship by Blood

One factor that allows an individual to identify another individual as a family member is
through consanguinity, popularly called as blood relatives. This type of kinship links individuals
based on their genetic relations (i.e., their bloodline). This is referred to as descent or the socially
accepted connection between an ancestor and its succeeding generation.
Kinship connections are perceived to be of great importance in some societies. Due to this,
descent rules are created and followed.

1.) Unilineal Descent

This allows an individual to be affiliated to the descent of one sex group only—either the
male or the female. There are two types of unilineal descents: matrilineal and patrilineal.
Matrilineal descent leads an individual to trace kinship relations through the female's line.
This implies that the surname and inheritances of a family are passed on from one female to the
other.

As you can notice, all of the offspring of the females were able to acquire the darker color,
which represents the descent. All the offspring of the males received a lighter color, which
symbolizes their separation from the descent. In Asia, the Minangkabau ethnic group of West
Sumatra, Indonesia, practices matrilineage. In this society, land and property ownership is passed
on from mother to daughter, leaving the men to deal with political and religious affairs. Matrilineal
descent is also referred to as uterine descent.
In patrilineal descent, an individual traces his or her kinship through the male's line only.
This promotes a passing down of name and inheritance to the male offspring only, while allowing
the female offspring to be part of another family through marriage. This is also referred to as
agnatic descent. A lot of societies in Asia are patrilineal. The most popular are the Chinese who
are highly patrilineal, enforcing a strict kinship relations traced through the male's line.
 Figure shows that the darker color is passed down to all offspring by the males. Hence,
although a female gets to receive the darker color, she is not able to pass it onto her children. In
traditional Chinese kinship books, the only females recorded are the mothers. Female children are
excluded from the list, as they are believed to be married off and made part of another family.

2.) Bilateral Descent

Unlike the unilineal descent that tends to focus on one line of a kinship, bilateral descent
allows an individual to trace kinship ties on both sides of the family. This means that an individual
can recognize both his or her parents' relatives as his or her own relatives. In this type of kinship,
everyone knows how he or she is connected to everyone. This provides a limit on the extent by
which kinship ties can be recognized. Hence, unlike in a unilineal descent that can trace relations
to several generations from the point person (Ego), bilateral descent can only trace Ego's
immediate family.
In some cases, ties with the nuclear family can be extended to family members of the
spouses. This kinship grouping is called kindred. As this type of group is often united by a
common relative, it risks of dissolution when connections to the common relative is lost. For
example, if a spouse dies, the connection between the living spouse and the deceased family may
be severed, which results in the dissolution of the kindred group. Most families in the Philippines
practice bilateral descent grouping.

Kinship by Marriage

Marriage is defined as the “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” (Haviland et al., 2011). It is believed that all societies have a
form of marriage that makes it a cultural universal.
Cultural variation produces differing perspectives and practices of relating to marriage. For
example, marriage in the Philippines implies being officiated into the union by either a religious
leader or a representative of the government such as a city or municipal mayor or a court judge.
The Tsimane of Bolivia practices an alternative perspective wherein “a couple is considered
married if they sleep together under the same roof in a socially recognized way for more than just
a brief period of time” (Winking, 2005).
Using a functionalist perspective, marriage serves several functions. First, it regulates
mating and reproduction. Second, it creates a system that allows for sexual division of labor. Third,
it provides for a family dynamics that ensures the provision of needs of children. Last, it
perpetuates economic institutions that are based on family systems.

There are types of families based on marriage systems: patrifocal and matrifocal, monogamous,
polygamous, and extended.

1.) Patrifocal and Matrifocal

This type of family is focused on one parent: a father (patrifocal) or a mother (matrifocal).
This type of family is often associated with the terms patriarchal, the rule of the father, and
matriarchal, the rule of the mother. It does not solely imply that there is only one parent. In some
situations, one parent is deemed more important than the other due to the economic or political
positions he or she holds in the family and in society.

2.) Monogamous
This type of family consists of a single couple and their child or children. This is also
referred to as the nuclear family. Most societies in the world have this type of family. Serial
monogamy occurs in societies where remarriage is allowed after a divorce or death of the other
spouse.

3.) Polygamous
This type of family consists of several parents and their children. There are two types of
polygamy: polyandry and polygyny.
 Polyandry is a marriage pattern wherein a woman is allowed to marry several men. In
Tibet, women are allowed to marry several husbands who are at times brothers. This practice is
called fraternal polyandry. The primary reason for allowing this practice is the need to preserve
land ownership through generations. If brothers are to marry different women, they will need to
divide the land, which would have detrimental effects on the entire family that is based on
agriculture.
Polygyny is a marriage practice that allows a man to marry several women. Most Islamic
societies allow this practice. In some cases, these women are sisters, making it a sororal polygyny.
This is sometimes preferred to facilitate a less competitive environment in the home, as sisters
would normally be more supportive as co-wives than women coming from different families.

4.) Extended Family

This type of family has several married couples and their children living in one
household. This can consist of the married parents and their married children living in one house.
Filipinos and other Asian societies are known to practice extended family arrangements as a form
of securing care for the elderly members of the family.
In some cases, rituals allow for the inclusion of individuals into a family. The compadrazgo
system that is popular in Spanish-influenced regions of the world is an example of this. In this
situation, individuals not originally part of the family are made extended family members by being
godparents of a child of one of the actual family members. In the Philippines, this is practiced in
our concept of having ninong and ninang for occasions such as baptism, confirmation, and
marriage.

5.) Reconstituted Family

Though not part of the traditional categories of families, reconstituted families are a
growing percentage of household classification in countries allowing divorce and legal
separations. Such families consist of spouses and children whom the spouses may have had prior
to their marriage or union.
In this type of family, the current spouses were previously married and had children. Upon
the dissolution of their previous marriages, these individuals remarried and created a new family
by bringing in their children from their past marriages and often birthing their own. Concepts such
as stepmothers, half brothers, and stepsisters are all part of the existence of reconstituted families.

Postmarital Residency Rules

One of the biggest questions that newlyweds have to answer is where to live and build a
family after marriage. Every society has its own rules and traditions on postmarital residency.
Anthropology has identified seven major residency patterns: patrilocal, matrilocal, avunculocal,
neolocal, natalocal, matrifocal, and andambilocal.

1.) Patrilocal Residence

Upon marriage, the woman is expected to transfer to the residence of her husband's father.
Her children will be raised by her husband's family and be integrated to their lineage, allowing for
the creation of a patrilineal descent. Virilocal residence is a subset of this practice that focuses only
on the transfer of the woman from her parents' residence to that of her husband's without
consideration for the creation of a patrilineage.

2.) Matrilocal Residence

Upon marriage, the man is expected to take residence with his wife's mother's area, where
they are expected to raise their children and integrate them to the maternal line, creating a
matrilineal descent. Uxorilocal residence is a less complex rule that merely requires the husband
to move in to his wife's mother's household without consideration for the creation of a matrilineage.

3.) Neolocal Residence

This is an arrangement that requires both spouses to leave their households and create their own
at times even in a different locality. This supports the creation of nuclear households and is
commonly experienced in developed and industrialized societies. A nuclear family essentially
consists of a parent and a child.

4.) Avunculocal Residence

This is a complex residency pattern as it requires two residence transfers. Upon marriage,
the couple practices a form of virilocality and raises their children in the household of the husband's
father. However, upon reaching adulthood, these children will have to be relocated with their
mother's brother and live with him and his household which may consist of his wife and young
children and the other adult male offspring of his sisters. This practice allows for the creation of a
patrilineage.

5.) Natalocal Residence

This arrangement allows both spouses to remain with their own households after marriage.
The couple will have to arrange for meetings as the two are not living under one household. Their
children are allowed to choose which household they would join. Should they choose to join their
father's household, they will be integrated in a patrilineal descent. However, if they decide to join
their mother's household, they will be made part of a matrilineal descent.

6.) Matrifocal Residence

This type of residency rule arises when the father is economically and physically unable to
provide support for the family, thereby ascribing the role of sole provider and caregiver to the
woman. In this situation, all of the children reside with their mother who is part of her mother's
household. This is different from the concept of uxorilocality or even matrilocality, as both patterns
allow for the cohabitation of the husband and the wife.

7.) Ambilocal Residence

This type of residence pattern allows the couple to choose to live either with the wife's
mother's area or the husband's father's area. This often creates an extended family, as several
married children and married couples may cohabit in one household.

8.) Transnational Families

Due to globalization and transnational movements of people, families tend to practice
alternative forms of residency patterns that are not based on lineage perpetuation, but more so on
economic reasons such as job offers, educational advancement, and job placements. This creates
transnational families or families whose members reside separately across territories. The overseas
Filipino worker (OFW) phenomenon experienced by a considerable number of Filipinos contribute
to the growing number of transnational families as Filipino parents reside outside the country to
work while their children remain in the home country to study.

Politics of Kinship

Kinship does not only create social ties among individuals. In some cases, politics and
kinship are interrelated, allowing for the creation of political alliances and dynasties. A political
dynasty refers to the continuous political rule of one family. This can be in the form of the
succession of rule or in the occupancy of several political positions by one family.
Due to the compadrazgo system, political alliances are also created, which is based not on
agreed political ideologies or platforms but more on a pseudo-kinship basis. Due to the
vulnerability of this type of governance to forms of corruption, laws are enacted to prevent its
occurrence. For example, the 1987 Philippine Constitution states in Article II Section 26 that “the
State shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service, and prohibit political
dynasties as may be defined by law.” Nevertheless, due to the varying interpretation of the law,
political dynasties still pervade in the Philippine political setting.