Classificatory Kin Terms: It is basically through the liberal use of classificatory terms that all societies reduce the number of kinship terms from the thousands that are theoretically distinguishable to a very modest number. Kroeber has estimated that it is generally practicable in actual usage to employ, on an approximate average, only twenty-five kin terms. Murdock discusses in detail the nature of classificatory kin terms as a classificatory term can arise only by ignoring one or more fundamental distinctions between relatives which, if given full linguistic recognition, would result in designating them by different denotative terms. The pioneer researches of Kroeber and Lowie have led to the recognition of six major criteria which, when linguistically recognized as a basis of terminological differentiation, yield denotative terms but the ignoring of any one of which produces classificatory terms,
These criteria are generation, sex , affinity, collaterally, bifurcation and polarity. They are the criteria employed above in calculating the number of potential categories of primary, secondary, and tertiary relatives, In addition, the same authors have isolated three subsidiary criteria relative age, speaker ’ s sex and decadence the linguistic recognition of which makes a classificatory term less inclusive or a denotative term more specific. These nine criteria have an empirical as well as a logical basis; severally and in combination they appear to include all the principles actually employed by human societies in the linguistic classification and differentiation of kinsmen. Each will now be considered individually.
- The criterion of generation it rests on a biological foundation. The facts of reproduction automatically align people in different generation: Ego’s own generation, which includes brothers, sisters, and cousins; a first ascending generation, which embraces parents and their siblings and cousins; a first descending generation, which includes sons, daughters, nephews, and nieces; a second ascending or grandparents! Generation; a second descending or grandchildren’s generation; and so on. Since marriages in most societies normally occur between persons of the same generation, affinal relatives tend to be aligned by generation in the same manner as consanquineal relatives; most kinship systems give extensive recognition to generation differences The English, for example, ignores them in only a single unimportant instance, namely, when the term “cousin” is applied to a “cousin once (or twice) removed”, i.e., one or two generations above or below Ego.
- The criterion of sex : It derives from another biological difference, that between males and females, and is also widely taken into account in kinship terminology. The English system, for example, ignores sex in respect to only one basic term, namely, “cousin.
- The criterion of affinity: It arises from the universal social phenomena of marriage and incest taboos. In consequence of the latter, marital partners cannot normally be close consanguineal relatives. Among relatives of like degree, therefore, whether they be primary, secondary, tertiary, or destant, there will always be one group of consanguineal kinsmen , all equally related biologically to Ego biologically to Ego and a second group of affinal relatives whose connection to Ego is traced through at least one marital link and who are biologically unrelated or only remotely related to him. This difference is widely recognized in kinship terminology. In the English system, for example, it is completely ignored only in the term “ uncle” , which includes the husbands of aunts as well as the brothers of parents , and in the word “aunt ” , which similarly includes the wives of uncles as well as the sisters of parents. Classificatory terms resulting from the ignoring of this criterion are particularly common in societies with preferential rules of marriage. For example, under a rule of preferential cross-cousin marriage with the FZD, the latter may be called by the same term as wife , and the single term may suffice for FZ and WM.
- The criterion of collateralty: It rests on the biological fact that among consanguineal relatives of the same generation and sex , some will be more closely akin to Ego than others, A direct ancestor , for example , will be more nearly related than his sibling or cousin , and a lineal descendant than the descendant of a sibling or cousin , The English kinship system consistently recognizes the criterion of col laterality and , with the sole exception of “cousin “ , never employs the same term for consanguineal kinsmen related to Ego in different degrees , The majority of societies , however, ignore collaterality with greater frequency, and in this way arrive at various classificatory terms. The phenomenon of grouping – lineal and collateral kinsmen , or relatives of different degrees , under a single classificatory term is technically known as merging. Among the relatives most commonly merged are a parent and his sibling of the same sex , a sibling and a parallel cousin (child of a F8 or M2) , a wife and her sister , and a son or daughter and a nephew or niece.
- The criterion of bifurcation (forking): It applies only to secondary and more remote relatives, and rests on the biological fact that they may be linked to Ego through either a male or a female connecting relative, Recognition of this criterion involves applying one term to a kinsman if- the relative linking him to Ego is male and quite another term if the connecting relative is female. The English kinship system ignores the criterion of bifurcation throughout, and derives many of its classificatory terms from this fact Thus we call person ’‘grandfather” or “grandmother” irrespective of whether he is the father’s or the mother’s parent.
- The criterion of polarity, the last of the six major criteria for differentiating kinship terminology, arises from the sociological fact that it requires two persons to constitute a social relationship, Linguistic recognition of this criterion produces two terms for each kin relationship one by which each participant can denote the other, When polarity is ignored, the relationship is treated as a unit and both participants apply the same classificatory term to each other. In the English kinship system polarity is recognized throughout, with the sole exception of the term “cousin”. Thus, reciprocity shows a single term applied by two relatives to each other. Among the Telugus a man calls his daughter’s father-in-law as, “Bawa” and the daughter’s father-in-law also calls him “Bawa”. Likewise a woman calls the mother-in-law of her daughter as “vadina” and the mother-in-law of her daughter calls her “vadina”.
- The criterion of relative age: It reflects the biological fact that relatives of the same generation are rarely identical in age. Of any pair , one must almost inevitably be older than the other, while ignored completely in the English kinship system, and not treated as one of the six basic criteria in our theoretical analysis, relative age is widely taken into account in kinship terminologies. A significant majority of all systems differentiate terminologically between elder and younger siblings of the same sex. Some societies make extensive age distinctions in terminology, differentiating, for example, the elder and younger siblings of a parent and the spouses and children of an elder and an younger sibling
- The criterion of speaker s sex : It rests on the biological fact that the user of a kinship term as well as the relative denoted by it is necessarily either a male or a female. Kinship systems which recognize this criterion will have two terms for the same relative, one used by a male speaker and the other by a female. Among the Haida, for example, there are two denotative terms for father, one employed by sons and one by daughters. The criterion of speaker ’ s sex often operates in conjunction with the criterion of sex, with the result that the sameness of oppositeness of sex of the speaker and relative may appear more important than the actual sex of either. This is especially common in sibling terminology, where one term (or a pair distinguishing relative age) may be used by a man for his brother And by a woman for her sister, while a different term is employed by a .man for his sister and by a woman for her brother.
- The criterion of decedence. The last and least important of the nine, is based on the biological fact of death. Like the criterion of difurcation, it applies particularly to secondary relatives and depends upon the person through whom kinship is traced. But whereas the crucial fact in bifurcation is whether the connecting relative is male or female, in the criterion of decadence it is whether that relative is dead or alive. A very few societies, especially in California and adjacent areas, have two kinship terms for certain relatives, one used during the lifetime of the connecting relative, the other after his death. While not itself of great consequence, decedence completes the roster of criteria which, through linguistic recognition or non-recognition, yield most if not all of the known variations in kinship nomenclature.