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Kinship and Family Terms
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92
Anthropology
Undergraduate 1
10/10/2009

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Term
affinal
Definition
related through marriage
Term
affinal alliance/marriage alliance
Definition
the notion of links between groups (decent groups, village communities, etc.) being formed through marriage
Term
affines
Definition
relatives through marriage
Term
agnates/patrikin
Definition
kin traced through male links
Term
agnatic descent
Definition
descent traced through males; patrilineal
Term
alliance theory
Definition
theory of social organization stressing the properties of marriage systems
Term
ambilineal descent
Definition
descent traced through both males and females but not equally in both directions; descent traced back and forth between males
Term
apical ancestor
Definition
the most remote common ancestor linking two or more kin or groups of kin
Term
artificial insemination
Definition
a process of placing donor sperm into the vaginal cavity of a female in an attempt to achieve pregnancy
Term
avunculate
Definition
a special relationship between a male and his mother's brother which allows the nephew to take certain libertiews with the maternal uncle and/or grants him privileged access to the uncle's property or resources
Term
bilateral descent
Definition
descent traced equally through both males and females
Term
bride capture
Definition
a marriage practice whereby the groom's kin or friends abduct (usually only symbolically or ritually) a woman from another group to become his spouse
Term
bride service
Definition
a marriage practice whereby a groom lives with the bride's kin and performs labor for them for a period of time, either before or during the early stage of the marriage
Term
bridewealth
Definition
wealth transferred from the groom and/or kin of a groom to the kin of the bride as part of a marriage transaction
Term
clan
Definition
a group of category of people who claim to share descent from a common ancestor, but whose more remote genealogical inks are obscure or no longer traceable
Term
classificatory kinship terminology
Definition
any kinship terminology system in which some lineal kin are linguistically classified together with some collateral kin
Term
cognates
Definition
kin traced through both male and female links
Term
cognatic descent
Definition
descent traced through any combination of male or female links
Term
collateral kin
Definition
kin outside of a person's own line of descent, e.g., siblings, cousins
Term
conjugal
Definition
pertaining to marriage or the husband-wife relationship
Term
consanguineal
Definition
related through descent ("blood ties")
Term
consanguines
Definition
kin, as opposed to affines
Term
corporate group
Definition
a group of people who collectively share property, rights, privileges, and/or liabilities
Term
cross cousins
Definition
the children of two opposite-sex siblings; one's cross cousins are one's mother's brother's children and one's father's sister's children
Term
cultural constructivism
Definition
a theoretical approach in anthropology which emphasizes that cultures construct their own realities, hence, innumerable concepts (e.g., "male," "female," "gender," "kinship") are best seen as cultural constructions rather than as realities external to all cultures
Term
cultural relativism
Definition

the contention that

  1. each culture can only be understood on its own (emic) terms, or from within
  2. no culture is superior to another, or that all values are relative to cultural contexts
  3. no one mode of knowledge is intrinsically superior to another mode of knowledge or understanding
Term
descent
Definition
the notion of relationship downward from a common ancestor, often forming a clan or lineage
Term
descent group
Definition
social group formed by the principle of descent
Term
descent theory
Definition
theory of social organization stressing the properties of descent systems
Term
diffusionism
Definition
the position that major elements of particular cultures have been learned or borrowed from neighboring peoples, or through travel or communication, rather than independently invented; a reaction against nineteenth-century evolutionism
Term
double descent
Definition
the existence in one society of both patrilineal and matrilineal descent groups; each person in the society simultaneously belongs to descent groups of both kinds
Term
dowry
Definition
wealth from the kin of a bride that accompanies the bride to her marriage
Term
dual organization
Definition
a system of exogamous marriage between two moieties
Term
ego
Definition
an individual person who serves as a reference point for a kinship or marriage tie
Term
elementary structures
Definition
Lévi-Strauss's term for systems of cross-cousin marriage
Term
emic
Definition
pertaining to categories, concepts, or terms indigenous to a particular culture; the local meanings of such categories, concepts or terms; native perspectives
Term
endogamy
Definition
marriage within a certain social group or category; the requirement that spouses come from the same social group or category
Term
ethnocentrism
Definition
the view that one's own cultural or ethnic group is superior to or more natural than another or to others generally; the tendency to interpret ideas or practices of other cultures in terms of one's own cultural categories or values
Term
Eurocentric
Definition
characterized by the interpretation or evaluation of other cultures in terms of the central cultural concepts or values of European ones
Term
exogamy
Definition
marriage outside of a certain social group or category; the requirement that spouses come from different social groups or categories
Term
fictive kinship
Definition
a relationship that a cultural group recognizes as modeled on kinship, e.g., God-parenthood or ritually sealed blood-brotherhood
Term
filiation
Definition
ties between parents and children
Term
functionalism
Definition

a theoretical approach especially popular in anthropology in the early to mid-twentieth century which emphasized that certain parts of a culture (social institutions, religious beliefs, rituals, kinship, forms of government, etc.) either

  1. serve to fulfill basic human needs, or
  2. serve to maintain each other and so maintain and perpetuate the whole social system
Term
genealogy
Definition
the network of kinship links (biological or social) between persons; a diagramatic representation of kinship links between persons
Term
genitor, genetrix
Definition
biological father, mother
Term
ghost marriage
Definition
the practice whereby a patrilineal kinsman takes a wife in the name of a deceased man in order to produce children by the woman in that man's name
Term
house society
Definition
a society consisting of corporate domestic estates that transmit their titles, property, and prerogatives to their members over the generations
Term
hypergamy
Definition
marriage where the kin group of the bride is of lower status than that of the groom
Term
hypogamy
Definition
marriage where the kin group of the bride is of higher status than that of the groom
Term
incest taboo
Definition
prohibition on sexual relations (and often, by implication therefore, on marriage) between kin deemed too closely related
Term
inclusive fitness
Definition
the process by which an individual enhances his or her reproductive success through acts that favor the fitness of others who share some gens with that individual, as in the case of close relatives
Term
in vitro fertilization
Definition
the process of incubating oocytes with sperm in a receptacle such as a petri dish to produce fertilization
Term
isogamy
Definition
marriage between kin groups of equal status
Term
kindred
Definition
a set of relatives traced to a particular person (ego)
Term
kin selection
Definition
the process whereby natural selection acts on inclusive fitness such that the fitness of one's close kin is enhanced
Term
kinship terminology
Definition
an inventory of terms for relatives in a particular language
Term
kin terms
Definition
words for relatives
Term
mater
Definition
social mother (as opposed to biological mother)
Term
levirate
Definition
the marriage of a man to the widow of his deceased brother
Term
lineage
Definition
a line of descent or (in anthropology) a group of people who trace descent to a common ancestor through known links
Term
lineal kin
Definition
a person's direct ancestors or descendants
Term
matriarchy
Definition
a society in which women hold dominant authority; female dominance
Term
matrilineal descent
Definition
descent traced through females only
Term
matrilocal/uxorilocal
Definition
a postmarital residence pattern in which a married couple lives with or near the bride's kin
Term
moiety
Definition
one of two exogamous subdivisions (often clans or groups of clans) that together comprise a whole society
Term
monogamy
Definition
marriage between two persons, generally a man and a woman
Term
neolocal
Definition
a postmarital residence pattern in which a married couple moves to a new location, living with the kin of neither the bride nor the groom
Term
nuclear family
Definition
a familial unit consisting of a married couple and their unmarried children
Term
parallel cousins
Definition
the children of two same-sex siblings; one's mother's sister's children and one's father's brother's children
Term
parental investment
Definition
the contributions of parents to the survival and reproductive success of thier offspring
Term
pater
Definition
social father (as opposed to biological father)
Term
paternity certainty
Definition
the extent to which an individual male is led to beliee that he is the biological father of a particular child
Term
patriarchy
Definition
a society in which men hold dominant authority; male dominance
Term
patrilineal descent
Definition
descent traced through males only; agnatic descent
Term
patrilocal/virilocal
Definition
a postmarital residence pattern in which a married couple lives with or near the groom's kin
Term
phoneme
Definition
a minimal speech sound in a given language
Term
phratry
Definition
an exogamous subdivision of a society consisting of two or more clans
Term
polyandry
Definition
the marriage of a woman to two or more men at the same time
Term
polygamy
Definition
the marriage to more than one partner at the same time, male or female
Term
polygyny
Definition
the marriage of a man to two or more women at the same time
Term
primogeniture
Definition
a pattern of inheritance in which only the eldest child, usually the eldest male child receives an inheritance
Term
reciprocal altruism
Definition
the behavior of an organism that favors the biological fitness of another, unrelated organism, carried out in the expectation that this favoring behavior will be reciprocated on some other ocation such that the fitness of the first organism is potentially benefited
Term
sociobiology
Definition
the application of evolutionary theory to animal behavior, including that of humans
Term
sororate
Definition
the marriage of a man to the sister of his deceased wife
Term
structuralism
Definition
a theoretical approach that posits a universal structure in human unconscious thought processes (especially a tendency to think in terms of binary oppositions) which underlies what appear as variable cultural expressions
Term
superorganic
Definition
a characteristic of culture that, according to some anthropologists, allows it to develop a momentum of its own, such that "culture" cannot be reduced to or accounted entirely by other biological, social, economic, or material factors
Term
surrogate motherhood
Definition
the role of a woman who bears another couple's genetic child
Term
totemism
Definition
the symbolic identification of a group of people with a particular type of animal, plant, mythical being or object
Term
ultimogeniture
Definition
a pattern of inheritance in which only the youngest child, usually the youngest son, receives an inheritance
Term
unilateral descent
Definition
descent traced through only one sex, as in the cases of matrilineal or patrilineal descent
Term
uterine kin/matrikin
Definition
kin traced exclusively through female links
Term
women-woman marriage
Definition
the marriage of a barren woman (who counts as a "husband") to another woman; a genitor is arranged for the "wife," and the barren woman becomes the legal father of the children
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