Significance of Kinship in primitive societies:
Introduction:
Kinship is a cultural principle and a social mechanism that explains the facts of procreation and regularized sexual union; it is the network of relationships created by genealogical connections by social ties, It is modeled on the natural relation of genealogical parenthood.
Kinship tie means not only a specification of the genealogical bond between individuals and the linguistic term that denotes – that bond, but a classification of their behaviour in many aspects of their life such ties serve to define the unique position of each individual in her social world.
There is no society without kinship system of one or the other, it means for things
- First, there is over-allowance made for sentiments generated by partition, sexual union and common residence.
- Second, the physical phenomenon provides a simple base, easily recognizable and usually unchangeable on which the other social relationships may be erected.
- Third, the kinship tie is permanent until death unless diverted by the fiction of adoption.
- Finally, in small societies it can be readily grasped why kinship is at the root of much of the social structure.
Kinship and Marriage:
Kinship and marriage are the basic facts of life. Marriage is the fountainhead of kinship. Marital bond forms into a kinship bond. The bond is the affinal kinship and their mating results in reproduction. Reproduction gives rise to new bonds of kinship like the parent-child tie or the mother-chiId tie. These are the most basic ties. Thus the family becomes the nucleus of the network of kinship ties.
The families form into lineages, and lineages into clans and different clans into phratries and phratries into moieties.
These different kin groups structure the social relationships. They group people together, create social ties. They own property. They provide integration, and regulate human behaviour. To be precise, kin groups like lineage, clan, and moiety rule dictate patterned kin behaviour and regulate and standardize the behaviour of Kin group members. Patterned Kin behaviour like defence, avoidance, joking, imitates, couvades, avunculate etc., between Kin tends to give regularity, predictability and structure to social relationship. It creates certain bonds that tie individuals and groups together in perpetual patterned rights and obligations.
Significance:
In simple societies, the structural and functional significance is paramount. No schools, colleges, police, churches, judges, courts, bureaucrats, physicians exist among the simple societies the only group that can act as agencies to educate the children, guide the religious life, apprehend the wrong doers, cure the ills, grow the food, determine the guilt or innocence, provide the basic necessities and run the society. The various functions performed by numerous specialists in our society are performed by groupings of Kin in simple societies.
The best example in this regard is the Tikopian society studied by Raymond Firth. To the Tikopian:
- Kinship is the basis of classification in the small residential units or households.
- It is the acknowledged bond between members of the major named groups of the society.
- It provides the link with elders and in particular kinship who exercise political and religious formations for the groups and for the society as a whole.
- It is the overt principle that regulates the ownership of lands.
- It provides the tern for address and reference, thus giving linguistic bridge between individuals.
- It is the common basis of assistance in cooking and primary economic cooperation.
- It stands behind great services of duties, privileges taboo and avoidances.
- It prescribes certain types of sex union and marriage.
- it is the basis for the assemblage of the members of the society , of the birth , initiation, sickness or death of anyone
- Enshrined in tradition, it largely recounts of the origins of present day social groups and distribution of territory among them.
- It projects the super natural world.
Kin groups in simple societies run the government and integrate the social units. in the absence of separate groups for carrying out different functions , kinship plays a great role in performing different functions in simple society.
Importance of Kinship in Peasant Societies:
In many societies in Africa, Latin America, Asia and elsewhere kinship is a fundamental factor in a great deal of social interaction. For millions of people around the world, kinship is perhaps the most important social factor influencing their lives, in many ways as it determines their role and status in society. In many societies to be without kin reduces a person to the status of an outcaste, with no hope of having a normal life, of marrying , of adequately meeting subsistence needs or being taken care of in old age. For all these things one must depend on Kin.
In many small-scale societies everyone in a person’s social Universe is either Kin or a stranger. For many people Kinship forms the basis of political, economic and even religious organization. A society itself may be built on groups recruited on the basis of Kinship. In many of these societies, especially in Africa and the Orient, ancestors remain a fundamental part of the social order. Ancestors are often the subject of worship, for they are seen as taking active part in the lives of this descendant, bringing them good luck if respected and ill fortune if mistreated.
In the essentially urban-industrial society like the United States Kinship plays a relatively small part in production and exchange beyond the level of the nuclear family ‘Productive activities and ‘ exchange are organized and governed according to principles that are not closely tied to Kinship, People are recruited to work largely on the basis of the skills or knowledge they possess, although Kinship too may play a part, there is feeling, however , the family and economic roles should be kept separate workers are expected to avoid bringing personal problems into the office or showing favoritism to a relative.
AS those societies where Kinship serves as a key element in their adaptive strategy have been incorporated into the modern World system, the role of Kinship generally has been reduced, Before the advent of colonial rule, for example, much of rural Africa was composed of small agricultural and pastoral societies each made up of a collection of Kin-based groups. Members of these groups worked largely on a collective basis. Land and other forms of property were owned by the groups and administered by senior members of the groups – Under colonial rule, the solidarity of the groups broke down as people sought to own property and accumulate wealth on an individual basis, a process which reduced the significance of Kinship in their lines.
Incorporation into the world system does not demolish Kinship’s significance, but kinship begins to assume the optional nature characteristic in our society. In fact, for many peoples who have been impoverished by incorporation into the world system, Kinship continues to be of considerable significance by providing one of the few sources of security available. Relatives share what little they possess to promote the welfare of the group instead of trying to survive as individuals.
Kinship in advanced societies:
The importance attached to kinship varies from one society to the next , although in very general terms it may decrease in the face of greater social scale and integration into the world System, within a single society it can vary among individuals and segments, and it change with time
In an advanced society like American society, the importance of Kinship varies a great deal from one family or individual to the next, depending on circumstances and outlooks For many of us, this Kin are an assortment of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, some of whom we have never met and some of whom we encounter only on rare occasions. A few of their relations may be important to them, or they may have been at some time in the past their grandparents whom they visited on holidays, a cousin who was a childhood friend, an uncle who gave them a summer job – but for who was a childhood friend, an uncle who gave them a summer job – but for the most part they are fairly marginal to their lives. This is, of course not true for everyone. Those of them who reside in the same town or neighbourhood as their grandparents or even great-grand parents are likely to have a large number of relatives whom they encounter frequently and who assume a large role in their lives. If their family is wealthy, or if a distant cousin – dies leaving them a fortune. Kinship can become quite significant. Among elite families. Kinship networks are very important Channels influencing the flow of wealth and power in an advanced society.
The importance of Kinship in an advanced society is not to be understood by reference to wealth or power, or even to friendship, although these certainly are considerations, these certainly are considerations, For many people what makes kinship important is its durability like other social institutions, Kinship has permanent quality that allows it to transcend individuals and their actions, it helps to provide them with a sense of security, with roots in a world that is otherwise, always changing and in which we may often feel alienated. They may enjoy the feeling that we are related to hundreds, even thousands, of people in other parts of the country, even if they know nothing about them as individuals.
Kinship can also provide them with a sense of security by providing links to the past, through a variety of ancestors. Almost, every family claims to be related to at least one national hero, although it is rarely clear what the connection is. Many families have purchased from mail order Fims coats or arms with an accompanying booklet telling of a few famous ancestors. Such coats of arms and claims of relationship to the once rich and famous have little practical importance, but they make people feel a little more significant. The Daughters of the American Revolution and members of many similar organizations consider their ancestry of considerable significance.