Definition:
“A linguistic guide in a human society that serves to define how far and in what ways the biological network of an individual extends, both ideally and in practice is called kinship terminology”. (Rhys Williams 1998: 408)
A. Morgan’s Classification: (Classificatory and Descriptive)
In Anthropological parlance Lewis Henry Morgan took up the initial studies on Kinship. Morgan’s idea of kinship was reflected in his two major works Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family (1870) and Ancient Society (1877) which consisted of ethnographic data collected from the Iroquois, an American tribe during his student days. Later he also acted on behalf of the Iroquois in cases related to land rights. Morgan coined and described the terms Classificatory and Descriptive systems of kinship relationships. Morgan discovered that the Iroquois had two types of terminologies referring to their kinsman. He stated that in the classificatory system the Iroquois merged lineal kin with the collateral kins who were linked through the same ties (sex), like for example a father’s brother is classified as a father (both having the same ties through men) and a mother’s sister as mother (again both having same ties through female). While on the other hand distinguished lineals from collaterals who were not linked through the same ties, for example mother’s brother had a separate term of reference Uncle (being related differently-different sex) and father’s sister as Aunt. Likewise, parallel cousins (father’s brothers’ children and mother’s sisters’ children) were considered as siblings whereas cross cousins (father’s sisters’ children and mother’s brothers’ children) were not considered as siblings.
Morgan’s descriptive system on the other hand classified all collaterals together and kept them separate from the lineal kin. The descriptive system is commonly seen in the European societies where parents (father/mother) are distinguished from all collaterals, who themselves have common terms of reference regardless of the line of descent (uncle, aunt, nephew, niece). The Iroquois Kinship System clearly shows the distinction between the classificatory and the descriptive system.
Morgan later discovered that Ojibwa Indians had the same classificatory and descriptive kinship terminology as the Iroquois, though the language spoken was completely different. Similarly, it was discovered that Tamil and Telegu populations of South India shared similar kinship terminologies as with the Iroquois and the Ojibwa Indians. The South Indian kinship later came to be known as Dravidian kinship.
The kinship terminology of the Lapps (Finland) is descriptive in that it has separate terms for the kin types we call Fa, MO, Br. si , so, Da, Hu and wi ; whereas the Lakalai of New Britain have a classificatory terminology in that they refer to siblings and parallel cousins by the same terms indiscriminately and do the same with children and parallel nephews and nieces. In Truk , there are no terms that refer only to relationships in the nuclear family.
Morgan said that the type of terminology indicates the level of evolutionary development or social complexity. According to him primitive societies have classificatory systems, while the civilized societies have descriptive systems, in fact, primitives do not terminologically distinguish between ego’s line of descent from collateral lines of descent; they do not distinguish between ego’ s siblings and his cousins or between his parents and their siblings. The descriptive and classificatory terminologies are shown in the following diagrams:
B. Murdock’s Classification:
Murdock in his detailed analysis of Kinship presents an elaborate scheme for understanding Kinship Terminology, According to him kinship terms are technically classified in three different ways:
- By their mode of use
- By their linguistic structure and
- By their range of application.
- Mode of use of Kin Terms: As regards their mode of use, kinship terms may be employed in either direct address or in indirect reference. A term of address is one used in speaking to a relative, and a term of reference is one used to designate a relative in speaking about him/her to a third person. Thus in English terminology, the terms ‘ father’ and ‘mother’ are terms of address while terms like ‘nephew “ and ‘niece’ are terms of reference.
- Linguistic Structure of Kin Terms: When classified according to linguistic structure, kinship terms are distinguished as elementary, derivative and descriptive. An elementary term is an irreducible word like English ‘nephew’ which cannot be analysed into component lexical elements with kinship meanings. A derivative term is one which like English ‘sister-in-law’ is compound from an elementary term and some other lexical element which does not have a kinship meaning, in actual use, the qualifying lexical element is commonly dropped, A descriptive term is one which like Swedish ‘farbror’ (i.e., father’s brother) combines two or more elementary terms to denote a specific relative.
- Range of application of Kin Terms: AS regards range of application, kinship terms are differentiated as denotative and classificatory A denotative term is one which applies only to relatives in a single kinship category. Such a term can denote only one person, as in the case of English ‘father * and ‘mother’. A classificatory term is one that applies to persons of two or more kinship categories. Such a term can denote two or more persons, as in the case of English ‘grandfather * which applies to both father’s father and mother’s father; ‘aunt’ which applies to a sister of either parent or a wife of either a maternal or a paternal uncle; ‘cousin’ embraces all collateral relatives of one’s own generation.