American Kinship Analysis Of David M. Schneider's Nuclear Family

David M. Schneider best presents the idea of American Kinship and how we view those in relation to us. He recognizes that all around the world there are different languages and naming categories, yet as a human race we understand those various definitions and are able to relate our own classifications to them. Schneider uses the word “relative,” (others may use, folks, people, family) to define a relationship though blood or marriage. On my kinship chart I placed my relatives, those related to me by blood or marriage, and labeled them appropriately. My kinship chart represents bilateral descent because my paternal and maternal relationships are equally important. I define my relatives using basic terms (ex: siblings, cousins, aunts, etc.), …show more content…
My kinship chart is a web of those who I am biologically related to and refer to as my relatives or family. Although this is the case for my kinship chart, I have observed that in our society this is not the only classification. Families are more complex than just simply placing them into two elements, of relationship as a natural substance and relation as a code of conduct. By recognizing that there is a difference between my “nuclear” family, as Schneider refers to it, and other families, I am able to acknowledge traditions and values different from mine. There are several new things that I learned from laying out my kinship chart. As mentioned above, I learned that there are families who do not fall into the category of being “nuclear” as mine has. In my concept of kinship, biology cannot be dismissed, so I have included individuals on my chart that I do not recognize as existing. By physically laying out my family history and relations, I also realized that I have the same relationship with cousins from my maternal and paternal side, even if my cousins from my paternal side are older and have children of their …show more content…
However, I realize and acknowledge that there are multiple classifications of relationships, and that families are far more intricate and complicated beyond lines of a chart, biology and legality. Further, my kinship chart relates to Karl Marx’s idea of the commodity fetish, in which relatives from my kinship tree were victims of such unjust and unreciprocated labor. Lastly, Marcel Mauss’ concept of gift exchange is stressed in relationships, and thus in my kinship, gift exchanges are a method of reciprocity and exchange also, forming to this a part in society based around commodity