Kinship In Anthropology

The word kinship can be defined in numerous ways, by different cultures. Kinship is when one individual or other individuals are related to each other. The people within a culture decide the behavior of a kin, and provide specific guidelines about who the kin exactly are. People will usually be taught about their culture’s kinship system, when they are infants. Kinship is also associated with reproduction, and the modes of livelihood. (Miller 2011: 118) A kinship diagram is a way to present kinship relationships of a particular individual, the ego, and this is depicted by using various symbols. A genealogy is a way of presenting a family tree by starting with the earliest ancestors, that can be found, then going down to the current people …show more content…
The three factors anthropologist have come up with in order to cross- culturally establish kinship relationships are descent, sharing, and marriage. Descent is defined as discovering the relationships of kinship though the origins of a person’s parents. Some cultures may look at their descent from only one of their parents, which is unilineal descent. Some cultures may look at their descent from both of their parents, which is bilineal descent. (Miller 2011: 120) Numerous cultures may stress how important sharing and support is in kinship. Sharing is evident in kinship when a person adopts or fosters a child, through godparents or brothers that are blood related, and when a kin gives a portion of their food to another person in their family. (Miller 2011: 122) Two forms of adoption would be closed adoption and open adoption. Closed adoption is when a child is adopted, and their birth parents do not want to have any particular relationship with this infant. Open adoption is when a child is adopted, and their birth parents want information or to interact with this child. Fostering a child may be similar to adoption, or it can be defined as a temporary home for a child where a feeling of kinship is not established. (Miller 2011: 123) …show more content…
A household is a space where one person or multiple people live together who may or may not be associated through kinship. A nuclear household is a group that contains only one adult pair, and an extended household contains more than one couple that is married. (Miller 2011: 130) A marriage crisis is when an individual who wants to get marriage cannot get marriage for one or more motives. (Miller 2011: 134) It will never be an easy task to keep up with the alterations in kinship, the home, and domestic life, since the patterns in these areas are always changing. (Miller 2011: