Cultural Anthropology Ch. 8

Front 1

Kinship System

Back 1

System of determining who one's relatives are and what one's relationship is to them. May consist of connections between people by "blood," marriage, or adoption, and the beliefs and practices by which people regard and treat each other as relatives.

Front 2

Consanguines

Back 2

People related by blood.

Front 3

Affines

Back 3

People related through marriage.

Front 4

Fictive Kin

Back 4

Unrelated individuals who are regarded and treated as relatives.

Front 5

Rules of Descent

Back 5

Social rules that stipulate the nature of relationships from one generation to another.

Front 6

Bilateral Descent

Back 6

Principle of descent in which people think of themselves related both their mother's kin and their father's kin at the same time.

Front 7

Unillineal Descent

Back 7

Principle of descent in which people define themselves in relation only one side, either their mother's side or their father's side.

Front 8

Kindred

Back 8

Kinship group consisting of known bilateral relatives with whome people interact, socialize, and rely on for economic and emotional assistance.

Front 9

Matrilineal Descent

Back 9

Descent system in which kinship group membership and inheritance pass through the female line.

Front 10

Patrilineal Descent

Back 10

Descent system in which kinship group membership and inheritance pass through the male line.

Front 11

Patriarchy

Back 11

Social system in which men occupy positions of social, economic, and political power from which women are excluded.

Front 12

Inheritance Rules

Back 12

Rules for the passage of land, wealth, and other property from one generation to the next.

Front 13

Double Descent

Back 13

Kinship principle in which people belong to kinship groups of both their mother and father.

Front 14

Parallel Descent

Back 14

Kinship principle in which descent and inheritance follow gender-linked lines so that men concider themselves descended from their fathers and women consider themselves descended from their mothers.

Front 15

Ambilinial Descent

Back 15

Principle of descent in which individuals may choose to affiliate with either their mother's or father's kinship group.

Front 16

Lineage

Back 16

A set of relatives tracing descent from a known common ancestor.

Front 17

Exogamy

Back 17

Marriage principle in which people cannot marry members of their own lineage or clan but instead must forge alliances with members of other groups.

Front 18

Endogamy

Back 18

Marriage principle in which people marry members of their own group.

Front 19

Parallel Cousin

Back 19

A child of one's mother's sister or of one's father's brother.

Front 20

Cross-cousin

Back 20

A child of one's mother's brother or of one's father's sister.

Front 21

Clans

Back 21

Named groups of people who believe that they are relatives even thourgh they may not be able to trace their actual relationships with all members of their group.

Front 22

Matriclans

Back 22

Clans formed through descent and inheritance from women of their group.

Front 23

Patriclans

Back 23

Clans formed through descent and inheritance from men of their group.

Front 24

Totem

Back 24

An animal or plant believed by a group of people to have been their primordial ancestor or protector.