Unit-3

Kinship System
3.1 Meaning, Definition & Types
3.2 Kinship Terminologies & usages
3.3 Kinship system in North India & South India
3.4 Clan, Lineage

Kinship
Kinship is one of the main organizing principles of society. It is one of the basic
social institutions found in every society. This institution establishes relationships
between individuals and groups. People in all societies are bound together by
various kinds of bonds.
The most basic bonds are those based on marriage and reproduction. Kinship refers
to these bonds, and all other relationships resulting from them. Thus, the institution
of kinship refers to a set of relationships and relatives formed thereof, based on
blood relationships (consanguineal), or marriage (affinal).
There are different definitions of kinship. A few definitions are examined
here.

Abercrombie et al.

are either held to be biologically related or given the status of relatives by

marriage, adoption, or other rituals. Kinship is a broad-ranging term for all the
relationships that people are born into or create later in life that are considered
binding in the eyes of their society. Although customs vary as to which bonds are
accorded more weight, their very acknowledgement defines individuals and roles
that
Encyclopedia Britannica

marriage. If the relationship between one person and another is considered by them
to involve descent, the two are co

L. Stone

visualized as a mass of
networks of related- ness, not two of which are identical, that radiate from each
individual. Kinship is the basic organizing principle in small-scale societies like
those of the Aborigines and provides a model for interpersonal be
R. Tonkinson
-
ring to all the social relationships that people are born into, or create later in life,
and that are expressed through, but not limited to a biologi
Laurent Dousset
Types of Kinship:
In any society, kin relationships are based either on birth (blood relations), or
marriage. These two aspects of human life are the basis for the two main types of
kinship in society.
1. Consanguineal Kinship:
It refers to the relationships based on blood, i.e., the relationship between parents
and children, and between siblings are the most basic and universal kin relations.
2. Affinal Kinship:
It refers to the relationships formed on the basis of marriage. The most basic
relationship that results from marriage is that between husband and wife.
Degree of Kinship:
Any relationship between two individuals is based on the degree of closeness or
distance of that relationship. This closeness or distance of any relationship depends
upon how individuals are related to each other.
Primary Kinship:
Primary kinship refers to direct relations. People who are directly related to each
other are known as primary kin. There are basically eight primary kins wife
father son, father daughter mother son, wife; father son, father daughter, mother
son, mother daughter; brother sister; and younger brother/sister older brother/sister.
Primary kinship is of two kinds:
1. Primary Consanguineal Kinship:
Primary consanguineal kin are those kin, who are directly related to each other by
birth. The relationships between parents and children and between siblings form
primary kinship. These are the only primary consanguineal kin found in societies
all over the world.
2. Primary Affinal Kinship:
Primary affinal kinship refers, to the direct relationship formed as a result of
marriage. The only direct affinal kinship is the relationship between husband and
wife.
Secondary Kinship:
Secondary kinship refers to the primary

secondary kin. There are 33 secondary kin.

Secondary kinship is also of two kinds:
Secondary Consanguineal kinship:
This type of kinship refers to the primary con
consanguineal kin. The most basic type of secondary consanguineal kinship is the
relationship between grandparents and grandchildren. In the Figure 3, there is a
direct consanguineal relationship between Ego and his parents. For Ego, his
ents, their
parents are their primary consanguineal kin. Therefore, for Ego, his grandparents
ary kin. For him, they
become secondary consanguineal kin.
Secondary Affinal Kinship:

kinship includes the relationships between an individual and all his/her sisters-in-
law, brothers-in-law, and parents-in-law. For an individual, his/her spouse is
his/her primary affinal kin, and for the spouse, his/her parents and siblings are
his/her primary kin. Therefore, for the individual, the parents of brother/sister-in-
law will become
-in-law will become secondary affinal kin for an individual.
Tertiary Kinship:

secondary kin of primary kin primary kin of secondary kin. Roughly 151 tertiary
kin have been identified.
Like other two degrees of kinship, tertiary kinship also has two categories:
Tertiary Consanguineal Kinship:
primary consanguineal kin

children and great

grandparents, and great grand aunts and uncles, and consequently the relationship
between great grand uncles and aunts and great grand nieces and nephews.
Tertiary Affinal Kinship:

secondary affinal
relationships are many, and some examples will suffice at this stage of tertiary

brother or sister-in- s spouses or their children. Let us try and understand these
relationships with the help of an illustration.
Descent:
Descent refers to the existence of socially recognized biological relationship
between individuals in society. In general, every society recognizes the fact that all
offspring or children descend from parents and that a biological relationship exists

Lineage:
Lineage refers to the line through which descent is traced. This is done through the

and lineage go together as one cannot trace descent without lineage.

Importance of Kinship in Rural Society:
It is important to study kinship, as it helps in sociological and anthropological
theory building. Pierre Bourdieu, Levi Strauss and Evans Pritchard are some of the
theorists, who have constructed various theories on the basis of kinship relations.
However, except a few, no substantial work has been done on villages.
Kinship relations have been studied by the Indian sociologists or anthropologists.
Most of them have concentrated on village, caste, family and other social
institutions in rural areas. Few sociologists and anthropologists, such as, Irawati
Karve, Rivers, and T. N. Madan have made certain notable contributions to the
institution of kinship.
The importance of kinship in tribal/rural societies can be understood from the
following discussion:
a. Kinship and its Relation to Rural Family, Property and Land:
The prime property of any rural family is land. So, land is related to all the kin
members of the family. The sons, grandsons and other kins, who are related by
blood and marriage, have their economic interests in land. Now-a-days, women are
becoming aware that they are also entitled to get an equal share from the ancestral
property.
The emancipation movement of women demands that women should not be
deprived of the inheritance rights and should get all equal share of the property. In
most of the village studies, property and kinship are discussed in relation to each
other.
The family members also gain status by the ownership of land. Even political
status is determined by kinship relations in some cases. In the case of kin relations,
related by blood and marriage, many economic and political concessions are given
to the members of the kin. However, it does not mean that kinship relations are
important only in rural society as they are also there in urban society too. As the
urban community is widespread, there is hardly any chance for kin members to
participate and meet in the social gatherings of the family.
b. Kinship and Marriage:
In every society, marriage has certain rules, such as endogamy, exogamy, incest
taboos and other restrictions. These rules are applicable to all the kins of the
family. Usually, the rural people are more serious and strict in observing the rules
related to marriage. Exogamy is commonly followed in most of the villages of
India. The members of the villages do not prefer to marry within their own village.
However, this rule can vary on the basis of the severity of rules of marriage.
Irawati Karve and A. C. Mayer in their studies on kinship have reported on the
village exogamy. Mayer, in his study of Kinship in Central India, informs that
village exogamy is violated in some of the cases, but it brings disrepute to the
parties involved. It must be observed here that the study conducted by Mayer is an
important document on village ethnography. Mayer further informs that inter-caste
marriages, in all cases, are looked down by the village people. (Doshi S. L., and
Lain P. C., Rural Sociology, p. 192)
c. Kinship and Rituals:
The role and importance of the kin members lies in the degree of close
relationships among them. Their importance can be seen during the occasions, such
as cradle ceremony, marriage and death. During a naming ceremony, it is the
born. There are certain rites and
rituals, which have to be performed by moth
daughters.
-in-
who occupies an important place during a Hindu wedding, especially in South
India. It is obligatory on part of the close kin relatives to offer gifts to the newly
wed couples and in the same manner, these close relatives are equally rewarded
from both sides (parents of the couple). During the occasions of death also, it is
obligatory for the kinsmen to observe mourning for about 11 to 14 days (this
period varies from region to region).
Changes in the Kinship Relations in Rural Society:
Many changes are taking place in all the institutions of the rural society, including
kinship relations. These changes can be noted as demand for ownership titles by
women, rules of marriage are being challenged and the traditional rules regarding
divorce are also getting weakened.
Though some of the aspects of kinship are losing their importance, few others are
gaining prominence. Kinship is playing an important role in the field of politics,
especially in rural elections to Panchayati Raj Institutions. Favoritisms, while
distributing jobs, is being observed among the kinsmen. Due to the emergence of
such new forces, kinship may acquire new structure and form.
Difference between Kinship and Family
While the family denotes a relationship between the spouses and their children,
within the bound a large number
of persons; and what creates a kinship will necessarily depend upon the social
organization in the context of which the term is applied.
A distinction has to be made for this purpose between the biological parent and the
sociological one; and in some communities the person who is called father may not
be the biological parent. For example, in Malagasy, among the Tanala tribe there is
a practice that the husband may claim as his own the first three children that may
be born to his wife after he divorces her on the ground of adultery.
We have seen earlier that some tribes have a classificatory system of relationship

and women of particular age gro

many of them may be very distantly related by blood.
Among Australian tribes there is a system of dividing society into certain classes,
he would be
permitted to marry into a class that is not the one to which his parents belong.
Certain tribes have a four-class or an eight-class classification, and marriage
between uncle and niece is prohibited, although the one between cross-cousins is
allowed and even encouraged.
The rules relating to formation of kin relations may vary but, once the relationship
is established, it standardizes the different duties, responsibilities and the privileges
of the members who fall within its range. The terms and conditions of such
relationship may also be distinctive. Among the Thado Kuki of Assam, there is a

Any -price and, when she

-

Australian tribes, there is a system of having classificatory relationships and

kinship systems generally fall into four categories.
The Yeruba tribe in Nigeria have a system under which the actual father, the

generation that stands immediately above that of the child concerned. In Polynesia,
the H
brothers and sisters.

pes of
relationship. In the lineal type, a difference is made between the ascending and the

generation, the collaterals are grouped together, as uncles, cousins, brothers in law
etc.
The descriptive type however distinguishes the collaterals also from each other and
from the lineals, such as we have in India or the Arabs have for their relationships.
ding to
this system, each generation is distinguished from the other and collaterals on the
male side are also differentiated from those on the female side.
different term wil
which some sort of combination of any of these three types of relationship may be
made.
McIver observes that kinship principles are not fast decaying and, at least, the
classificatory relationship system continues under some disguise or the other.

can well be recognized and understood.

In the world of today, the family has assumed more of importance than the kinship
system, but kins at times claim a right of living in a joint family, and in this regard
the Indian society has a built-in system of security offered to widows claiming any
sh
and frequent, and social occasions like that of the wedding or the sradha ceremony
demand that no kin shall be left out of the privilege of being invitees.
In some relatively unenlightened families, too, in villages, kins even have a say

reduced to a little more than a mere formality, for siblings too are unable to

Kinship in India

pattern in the world. It varies according to varying cultural systems. By way of

illustration, we may refer to differences in kinship patterns obtaining in European
and Indian societies.
In the former a very clear-cut distinction is drawn between consanguineous kin and
affinal kin the two are poles apart. Kinship terminologies used in these societies
bring out the distinction very boldly. A married man and a married woman refer to
the relatives of their spouses as in-laws. Usage determines the relationships with
in-laws.
- them apart from blood kins. Again, in

family. In Indian society, on the other hand, the distinction between blood kins and
affinal kins is not so sharply drawn.
Sometimes the distinction is so blurred that it is difficult to tell one from the other.

kins.
In Indian society, apart from blood kins and affinal kins, even the Active kins are

persons related by blood, by marriage, by living together in the same house,

neighbourhood and village, by being members of the same class in school, by
working together in the same office, by being initiated by the same Guru, and so
forth.
Inden and Nicholas have brought out the basic difference in cultural values in this
regard among Wester

people are seen as related both by substance and by a code for conduct.
The difference in kinship patterns obtaining in Western society and Indian society
owes its origin to a deep and basic difference in the underlying principles of social
organisation in these two types of societies. Our society extends beyond family
only to the limits of a village, and no farther.
The defining characteristics of such a narrow society, including rights and
obligations of all groups of people in such a society, are shaped by the demands of
the collective life of the family and the village.
Naturally, a very close-knit relationship among members of a village develops. On
the other hand, a Western society extends far beyond family and village. As a
result, formal ties replace informal ties of relationship, and a sharp distinction
between blood kins and affinal kins is the natural off-shoot.
We cannot also speak of a uniform kinship pattern for the whole of India so long as
different social conditions continue to persist in different parts of the country and
influence norms and institutions in those regions. But we may broadly delineate a
picture of kinship pattern which prevails all over India with minor variations from
region to region.
Wider ties of kinship in India:
Outside his family, a villager spends much of his time with his other kinsmen. In
the village a family depends on them in an emergency or on ritual or festive
occasions of in connection with work in the field and sometimes even in settlement
of disputes. We may take into account various classes of kinsmen outside his
immediate family with whom he interacts.
We may, in the first place, consider those, families which are closest to him in
terms of residence as well as in terms of patrilineal descent. Such a group has been
characterised by Mandelbaum as a localized lineage. These men are brothers who
have set up separate households or the sons of brothers or patrilateral cousins.
All the persons who reside in such households, including wives, adopted children
and resident sons-in-law, are considered to be part of the lineage even though they
are of different partrilineai descent.
The families who belong to one lineage usually perform formal ritual functions
together, particularly observance of mourning rites. Such joint observance helps to
define the boundaries of the group. They also participate jointly in many other
activities. The lineage is regarded as an extension of the family and, as such, it is
an exogamous unit.Secondly, a larger exogamous category is known in many jatis,
though not in all.
It is called gotra or clan.. is usually a grouping rather than a group, a
taxonomic category rather than the basis for joint Each person inherits
the gotra of his father. Marriage within the gotra is forbidden because persons
bearing the same gotra are considered to be descended s from the same progenitor.
The members having the same gotra tend to be too dispersed and their kin ties too
remote to be able to share much in the way of common interests or joint action.

Thirdly, there is a class of kinsmen who provide a basis for some joint action. In
this category are the families of the jati group, i.e. those belonging to the same jati,
who live in one village. They are looked upon as kinsmen in the sense that they
are actual or potential relatives with the added bond of village

Finally, there is a class of fictive kin. Since villagers consider kinship bonds to be
the best basis for reciprocity and allegiance, people who are not actually related by
b
this way a person can secure for himself the benefits of a wider circle of kin than

Kinship Bonds in North and in South India:

Marriage alliances are the principal means by which new kinship bonds can be
forged. There is, however, a fundamental difference in this regard between North
and South India. In the first place, broadly speaking, in the South a family tries to
strengthen existing kin ties through marriage. In the North, on the other hand, a
family tends to affiliate with a separate, set of people to whom it is not already
linked.

The system of kinship terms used by most Dravidian-speaking people of South

India is connected with closer marriage. All descent lines are divided into two
categories: those with whom one may marry and those with whom one may not.

derived from a few postulates, a principal one being that the children of brother
and sister should marry. The term used for cross-cousin of the opposite sex (a

has the connotation of prospective or possible spouse. By extension all potential

mates are called cross-
Co-operation among kins is periodically strengthened by marriages within that
circle.
In his analysis of South Indian kinship, Nur Yalman says:
spring must
In view of this, Mandelbaum observes:

tendency in making marriage alliances. A prospective match is seen more as an

opportunity to ally two different sets of kin than- as a way of strengthening an

either in fact or by implication, so that village exogamy is common. In the

Southern usage, the emphasis is more on bi-lateral connections, and there is little