HOW SOCIETY IS ORGANIZED

Kinship, marriage and the household

• Family is defined as a type of social institution
that unites people by blood, kinship or alliance
into one group within a society.
• The unifying factor could be that two people are
in love, or simply they want to care for each
other or they have similar personal goals.
• Parents, grandparents, siblings, relatives and
even close friends can be called family.
• A typical family would consist of the parents
and their children living in the same residence.
 Kinship by blood
• The term kinship is different from family
because the former is more linked to
marriage, common ancestry, or adoption.
• Kinship is a culture’s system of recognized
family roles and relationships that define the
obligations, rights, and boundaries of
interaction among the members of a self-
recognizing group.
 Descent and marriage
• The rules of descent are divided into the
following:
– unilineal
– matrilineal
– patrilineal
– bilateral
 Unilineal descent
• The unilineal descent is identified by tracing
the affiliation of a person through descent of
only one sex, the female or the male, the
mother or the father in the ancestry line.
• Both matrilineal and patrilineal descents are
considered classifications under unilineal
descent.
• The unilineal descent is divided into four
groups: clans, lineages, moieties, and
phratries.
• In lineage, the type of link is through
common ancestry using both mother and
father’s side of the family.
• A clan is a link by kin with members tracing
connection through one another even if the
supposedly ancestral union is not clear.
• Moieties are based on the association by
choice with an ancestral line but the
members could not explain the reason for
the link.
 Bilateral, patrilineal, and
matrilineal descents
• The bilateral descent traces the affiliation of a person
from both the female and the male as recognition of the
equal worth and value of both sexes in identifying the
ancestry line.
• The patrilineal descent is identified by tracing the
ancestry of an individual by his or her relatives from the
men, sons or fathers of the families in the ancestry line.
• The matrilineal descent is identified by tracing the
affiliation of an individual by his or her relatives from the
women, daughters or mothers of the families in the
ancestry line.
 Kinship by marriage
• Marriage is defined as the union of a couple
through legal and socially accepted means.
• Kinship by marriage is a union of two families
where the family and relatives from both
sides are related by affinity (affinal kin or in-
laws).
• Where relationship is a bond through blood
and common ancestry, it is called a
consanguineal kin.
 Marriage Patterns
• Endogamy is marriage of an individual to a
person belonging to the same religion, age,
race, social class or standing.
• Exogamy is the opposite of endogamy, where
there is a significant difference between the
mentioned social components.
 Marriage rules cross-culturally
• Monogamy is defined in society as the union
of two partners or being married to one
person only at a given time. Highly
encouraged in high income nations , a
monogamous union creates financial stability
for the family.
• Polygamy is the opposite of monogamy. This
means that an individual could have two or
more partners.
 Marriage rules cross-culturally
• Kinds of Polygamy:
1. Polygyny which is marriage of a man to
more than one woman
2. Polyandry which is marriage of a woman to
more than one man
 Marriage rules cross-culturally
• Post-marital residency rules are also called
residential patterns being followed by married
couple in terms of living areas.
• A patrilocality is a residential pattern where
married couples live with or near the family of
the husband. This is opposite to the
matrilocality pattern where the married couple
is residing with or near the family of the wife.
Neolocality is a residential pattern where the
married couple resides in an area separate from
both the family of the husband and the wife.
 Kinship by ritual (compadrazgo)
• The compadrazgo relationship promotes ties
through baptism or marriage. Relationships
are formed between godchildren and
godparents, as well as between the
godparents and the parents of the
godchildren. A form of familial support is
established since the godparents are also
expected to guide and protect their
godchildren almost the same way as the
parents would.
 Family and the household
Variations of family arrangement:
• In the nuclear family, only the parents and
the children stay in their residence.
• The extended family consists of parents,
children, and other relatives like
grandparents and cousins and the spouse of
one of the married children (and it could
reach up to the fourth generation) who stay
under one roof.
 Family and the household
Variations of family arrangement:
• In a way, an extended family is similar to the
reconstituted or blended family, which
housed any of the couple’s immediate family
members from his or her previous
relationship.
• A transnational type is a family living in a
different country outside their original
country of residence.
 Family and the household
Variations of family arrangement:
• In some cases, because of transnational
migration, some members of a family are being
adopted by other relatives residing abroad or by
a foreign family. Parents who are divorced or
who annulled their marriage go separate ways.
One of them becomes a single parent or both
can still provide financially for the children
depending on the arrangement between them.