ANT 101: Introduction to Anthropology

Family, Kinship and Descent

Lecture: 12
Chapter 10

Dr. Bulbul Ashraf Siddiqi

Associate Professor
Dept. of Political Science and Sociology
What is Family?
How do you define family?
◦ Is this universal- found in every culture?

Changing notion of family

◦ How do you see the change within the structure
of family?
◦ Discuss from your experience
A family can be defined as a set of people
related by blood, marriage or some other
agreed-upon relationship, or adoption,
who share the primary responsibility for
reproduction and caring for members of
society.
Functions of Family
Three major function of family and
marriage:

◦ Regulation of sexual access

◦ Arranging for the exchange of services

between male and female

◦ Assigning responsibilities for child care

A primary function of the family—husband and wife sharing responsibility for taking care
of the children— is illustrated in this yarn painting of the Huichol Indians of Mexico. As the
wife struggles to give birth, she pulls on a cord attached to the genitals of her husband so
that he, too, may share in the birth pains.
Functions of Family
The family performs six paramount
functions, first outlined nearly 80 years ago
by sociologist William F. Ogburn

Reproduction
Protection.
Socialization
Regulation of sexual behavior.
Affection and companionship.
Provision of social status.
Global view of the family
There are many variations in the family from
culture to culture. Yet the family as a social
institution exists in all cultures.

certain general principles concerning its

composition, kinship patterns, and authority
patterns are universal.

Tibetan
Marriage system, Betsileo of
Madagascar, Yanomami of Brazil and Venezuela
Composition: What Is the Family?
Types of family:
◦ Nuclear family: this type of family serves as
the nucleus, or core, on which larger family
groups are built.

◦ Extended family: A family in which relatives

—such as grandparents, aunts, or uncles—live
in the same home as parents and their children
is known as an extended family.
People Establish more than one family
through marriage:

◦ Family of orientation (Nuclear family in

which one is born and grows up) and
◦ Family of procreation (Nuclear family
formed when one marries and has children).
Types of Extended Family

Extended families may be patrilineal or matrilineal.

A patrilineal extended family is organized around a man,
his sons, and the sons’ wives and children. Societies with
patrilineal extended families also tend to have patrilocal
residence rules; that is, a woman lives with her husband’s
family after marriage.

A matrilineal family is organized around a woman and her

daughters and the daughters’ husbands and children.
Matrilineal families may have matrilocal residence rules (a
man lives in the household of his wife’s family) or
avunculocal residence rules (a married couple is expected to
live with the husband’s mother’s brother). If a couple can
choose between living with either the wife’s or the husband’s
family, the pattern is called bilocal residence.
This just-married Khasi couple
poses (in 1997) in India’s north-
eastern city of Shillong. The
Khasis are matrilineal, tracing
descent through women and
taking their maternal ancestors’
surnames. Women choose their
husbands, family incomes are
pooled, and extended family
households are managed by older
women.
Authority Patterns: Who rules?
Societies vary in the way power is distributed
within the family:
Patriarchy: A society that expects males to
dominate in all family decision making is termed a
patriarchy .
Matriarchy: Women dominate in all family
decision making
Egalitarian Family: spouses are regarded as
equals. That does not mean, however, that all
decisions are shared in such families. Wives may
hold authority in some spheres, husbands in others.
Kinship
The state of being related to others is called kinship.

A culturally defined relationship established on the

basis of blood ties or through marriage (Nanda,
2007).

Kinship is culturally learned, however, and is not

totally determined by biological or marital ties. For
example, adoption creates a kinship tie that is
legally acknowledged and socially accepted
(Schaefer, 2015).
Kinship Patterns
The family and the kin group are not necessarily
one and the same.

Whereas the family is a household unit, kin do

not always live together or function as a
collective body on a daily basis. Kin groups
include aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws, and so
forth.
Descent groups
Descent groups are permanent social units
whose members believe they have ancestors in
common.
The principle of descent assigns people to
kinship groups according to their relationship to
a mother or father. There are three primary ways
of determining descent:
◦ Bilateral
◦ Unilineal:
 Patrilineal:
 Matrilineal:
Descent groups
Bilateral: Bilateral means that both sides of a
person’s family are regarded as equally important. For
example, no higher value is given to the brothers of
one’s father than to the brothers of one’s mother.

Unilineal Descent: This means the descent rule uses

one line only, either the male or the female line.

◦ Patrilineal (from the Latin pater, “father”) Descent: only

the father’s relatives are significant in terms of property,
inheritance, and emotional ties.
◦ Matrilineal (from the Latin mater, “mother”) Descent:
only the mother’s relatives are significant.
Lineage and Clan
Descent groups may be lineages or clans.
Common to both is the belief that members
descend from the same apical ancestor. That
person stands at the apex, or top, of the
common genealogy. For example, Adam and
Eve, according to the Bible, are the apical
ancestors of all humanity. Since Eve is said
to have come from Adam’s rib, Adam stands
as the original apical ancestor for the
patrilineal genealogies laid out in the Bible.
Lineage and Clan
Lineage: A lineage uses demonstrated
descent. Members can recite the names of
their forebears in each generation from
the apical ancestor through the present.
(This doesn’t mean their recitations are
accurate, only that lineage members think
they are.)
Lineage and Clan
Clan: Unlike lineages, clans use stipulated
descent. Clan members merely say they descend
from the apical ancestor. They don’t try to trace
the actual genealogical links between themselves
and that ancestor.

Sometimes a clan’s apical ancestor is not a

human at all but an animal or plant (called a
totem). Whether human or not, the ancestor
symbolizes the social unity and identity of the
members, distinguishing them from other groups