Diversity of Kin:
Kin are of several types. They may be classified on the basis of degree or relationship, on the basis of blood relationship and marital relationship, and on the basis of both the types of relationship
Kin based on the degree of relationship:
On the basis of degree of relationship Kin may be classified into primary, secondary, tertiary relatives and so on.
- A Primary kin is a person who belongs to the same nuclear family as ego. There are 8 primary kin including father, mother, brother, and sister in the family of orientation, and husband, wife, son daughter in the family of procreation.
- A Secondary kin is the primary kin of ego’s primary kin. There are potentially 33 kinds of secondary kin: Father’s father, father’ s mother, father ’ s brother, father ’ s sister , father’ s wife or step mother, father’s son of half-brother, father’s daughter or half-sister, mother’s father, mother’s mother, mother’ s brother, mother’ s sister, mother’ s husband, mother’s son, mother ‘ s daughter, brother’s wife, brother’s son, brother’s daughter, wife’ s father (or husband’ s father), wife’s mother (or husband’s mother), wife’s brother (or husband’ s brother), wife’ s sister (or husband’s sister), wife’s husband (or husband’ s wife, i.e. 7 co-spouse), wife’s son (or husband’s son) , wife’ s daughter Cor husband’s daughter),- son’s wife, son’s son, son’s daughter, daughter ’s husband, daughter’ s son and daughter ’s daughter.
- A Tertiary kin is the primary kin of a secondary kin. There are 151 possible tertiary kin including eight great-grandparents, eight first cousins, the spouses of all uncles, aunts, nephews, and nieces, and many others.
Kin on the basis of consanguineal and affinal relationship:
- A consanquineal kin is one who is related through blood ties such as father, mother, brother, sister, son and daughter.
- An affinal kin is one who is related through marriage such as spouse, spouse’ s parents and spouse’ s siblings.
Kin on the basis of descent and shared descent:
- A lineal kin is one who is related by a direct line of descent such as father , father ‘ s son and son’ s son.
- A collateral kin is one who is related indirectly through the mediation of another relative such as father’s brother , mother’ s sister , father’s sister, mother’s brother, father’s brother’s children, mother’ s sister’s children and so on.
Parents:
TWO of the most fundamental relationships in any system of kinship are those between parents and children and those between siblings. After all, these are the most immediate biological links that we possess. However, biology only provides – the basis for these relationships. Definitions of these relationships are culturally constructed.
In our society a distinction is made between the actual biological father, the socially and legally recognized father, and the mother’s husband. The same person may occupy all three statuses, but this is not necessary. When we talk about someone’s father we usually mean his or her social father, who may or may not be the biological father, when divorced couples remarry, for the sake of clarity we sometimes use terms like stepfather and real father, in other societies things can become even more complex, The Nuer allow women and even ghosts to assume the status of social father. Among Gallowses of Arunachal Pradesh, a group of brothers may be viewed collectively as social fathers of a single individual.
Siblings:
Definitions of siblings may be equally complex In our society siblings are often all related by blood, but this is not necessarily the case. It is relatively common to make no distinction between siblings who are a couple’s natural offspring and those who are adopted. And often no distinctions are made between children of a couple from previous marriages and those of the present one. The situation can become a great deal more complex in societies that allow individuals to have more than on spouse at the same time, for many half-sibling relationships occur between people who have the same mother or the same father but not both.
Some societies further distinguish siblings according to relative age. One might use a different term for older brothers and younger brother, or there might simply be a special term for the oldest brother. In still other societies siblings and cousins are categorized together, in some societies, for example, the same terms are used for sisters and all female cousins, and for brothers and all made cousins. The Cheyenne, for example, draw no distinction between siblings and cousins, but within the family they differentiate between older and younger siblings (Hoebel 1978: 29-30).
Cousins:
Cousins – the children of a own sibling and his or her spouse siblings – are also basic to any kinship system. In our society virtually the only distinction made is between those cousins considered too close for sexual or marriage purposes and those who are felt to be sufficiently distant. Although the reasons for making such a distinction are often couched in biological terms, the distinction in fact represents a strictly cultural pattern, in other societies, paternal cousins may be considered different than maternal cousins. And the relationship between cross-cousins – the children of two siblings of the opposite sex may be considered different than the relationship between paral1el-cousins – children of two siblings of the same sex. The following diagram shows the details:
These distinctions are deeply rooted in people’s cultural traditions and social structures. The Kekchi Maya distinction between older and younger siblings is related to their hierarchical view of family relations and to a system of inheritance favoring the oldest male sibling. Our own society’s emphasis on physiological paternity is a peculiarity of our culture, linked to our religious and scientific heritage. Likewise, the distinction that many societies make between kinds of cousins is related to inheritance patterns and strategies. Many of these distinctions are also products of particular kinship systems and the manner in which descent is traced.