Systems of Kinship

What is Kinship?

Kinship refers to ties that are socially recognised, majorly originating from biological relationships. It is the trait of persons recognised by the relationship either through blood (consanguinity) or marriage (affinity). Kinship plays a crucial role in the formation and maintenance of social structure and social system. Critically, social recognition is more important than biological fact: even when the biological fact is absent, social relations can exist (adopted children); and even when biological fact is present but not socially recognised, a child is called illegitimate.

Kinship relations are classified along generational lines:

• Primary Lineals: Father-Son (direct one-generation link)
• Secondary Lineals: Grandfather-Grandson (two-generation link)
• Tertiary Lineals: Great Grandfather-Great Grandson

Family: Definitions and Types

G.P. Murdoch defines the family as a group in which both relations of affinity and consanguinity (or adoption) are found. He studied 250 societies and argued the elementary family is found universally, with four defining characteristics: common residence; economic coordination; reproduction with socially approved sexual relations between adults of both sexes; and socialising children born to or adopted by the adults.

Exception to Murdoch's universality claim (Colliers, 1997):: The Na of China have no fixed co-resident husband-wife pair men visit women's households at night and have no domestic role. Zambian families in Africa also deviate significantly. Murdoch's family is therefore not truly universal.

Anthony Giddens offers a simplified definition: a family is a group of persons directly linked by kin connections, adult members of which assume responsibility for caring for children. He emphasises commitment over traditional structural features, and argues that in contemporary society "forever love" has transformed into "love till further notice" what he calls "plastic love."

Types of Family

Type	Description
Conjugal / Companionate	Deliberately avoid having children also called DINK (Double Income No Kids)
Nuclear	Children born out of monogamous families; the standard modern form
Compound	Children born from polygamous families
Lineally Extended	Three or more generations under one roof
Laterally Extended	Two or more couples of the same generation
Extended Joint (Henry Maine)	Property held jointly; the classic Indian joint family
Reconstituted	Spouses live with children of both previous and current marriages
Single-Parent (Rapaport)	One adult cares for children alone
Dual-Career (Mowrer)	Both partners work full-time outside the home
Homosexual Parents' Family	Same-sex parents raising children
Commune Living	Groups of unrelated people sharing resources and child-rearing

Families can also be classified by: descent (patrilineal, matrilineal, bilateral e.g. Nairs of Malabar and Khasis of Meghalaya are matrilineal); residence (matrilocal, patrilocal, neolocal, duolocal, avunculocal); authority (patriarchy, matriarchy, filiocentric); and name (patronymic, metronymic).

Functions of Family

Murdoch (Social Structure) identifies four functions: economic, reproduction control, regulating sexual relations, and socialising children.

Talcott Parsons identifies two basic functions that no other institution can replace: primary socialisation of children and stabilisation of adult personality. He argues that industrialisation led to the nucleation of the family because: specialised skills are now required; tasks are less labour-intensive; geographical and social mobility is high; universalistic values conflict with the particularistic values of extended family networks.

Ronald Fletcher describes the multifunctional family in which basic functions persist but other functions are being reinvented rather than simply lost.

Functions for the individual: physical, emotional, psychological, and economic security; legitimate means of sexual gratification; entertainment; readymade status; and initial socialisation.

Functions for society: reproduction (providing members); cultural transmission; mechanism of social control; unit of economic production.

Critiques and Dysfunctions of Family

• Marx / David Cooper (Death of Family): Family assures conformity, making individuals submit to exploitation. Family is an ideological conditioning device in an exploitative society.
• R.D. Laing (Politics of Family): Studies schizophrenic children and concludes the disorder is caused by the excessive expectations of parents.
• Edmund Leach (A Runaway World): Family members expect too much of each other, producing emotional stress and conflict.
• Feminist critique: Family legitimises the exploitation of women: household work goes unnoticed; family legitimises sexual abuse and domestic violence. Murray Strauss: "Marriage provides a hitting licence."
• Jordan Peterson: Families can fail to prepare children for the harsh realities of the world, making them vulnerable to bullying.

Family in India

Indological View:: David Mandelbaum considers the joint family one of three distinguishing characteristics of Indian society (alongside the caste system and the village). Henry Maine and O. Mailey studied the traditional Indian joint family and termed it patriarchal. Irawati Karve noted the prevalence of the idea of one roof, one kitchen, one property, one deity while acknowledging differences across Dravidian, tribal, lower-caste, and non-Hindu families.

AM Shah's Household Dimension:: Shah argued that the proper unit of study should be the household, assessed along four dimensions: commensal (eating together), co-resident (living together), coparcenary (sharing property), and co-ritual (sharing religious practices). His field studies found two types: simple and compound.

Pauline Kolenda:: Nuclear family is becoming more prevalent, but average household size is increasing due to declining death rates and greater longevity. Households have lifecycles: fission → fusion → fission. Stem family exists (parents reside with one married child). Rural household size is larger than urban; regional differences persist North India has larger joint families than South India.

IP Desai (studying Mahua, Gujarat) and KM Kapadia found half of families are still joint. RP Mukherjee concluded Indian families are still functionally joint. Shah, Kolenda and others broke the myth of joint family disintegration in India.

Contemporary trends in India:: Marriage still an important milestone; caste is still active but class is becoming more important; live-in relationships increasing in urban areas; divorce rate rising; joint family has retained sentimental value; girl's choice is increasingly considered; elderly confined to rituals; rise of filiocentric families and the "six-pocket syndrome" (grandparents and parents lavishing resources on a single child).

Marriage

Marriage is the social institution that gives sexuality social recognition the institutionalising of sexual relations into a framework of rights and obligations. A minimal sociological definition: a social arrangement in which individuals and groups acquire certain rights over each other kinship rights (sexual rights, generician) and domestic rights (household cooperation).

Types of Marriage

Type	Description	Notes
Classical Monogamy	Marriage is sacred; the bond is not dissolved; women have no right to divorce or remarry	Traditional Hindu and Catholic contexts
Serial Monogamy	Marriage as a contract; remarriage possible but only one spouse at a time	Dominant form in modern Western societies
Polygyny	One man, multiple wives; rights shared by women; more prevalent; outcome of patriarchy	Allowed in Islam (up to 4 wives)
Polyandry	One woman, multiple husbands; fraternal polyandry co-husbands are brothers (e.g. Pandavas)	Re-emerging in Punjab, Haryana, UP due to shortage of women
Levirate	Upon death of husband, woman marries husband's younger brother	Common in several communities
Sororate	Upon death of wife, man marries wife's younger sister	e.g. Mopola Muslims
Cross-Cousin Marriage	Marriage between children of mother's brother or father's sister	Common in South India; prohibited in North India among Hindus
Parallel-Cousin Marriage	Marriage between children of mother's sister or father's brother	Prohibited in Hinduism; allowed in Islam

Functions of Marriage

• Biological regulates sexual urges
• Social provides framework for procreation
• Cultural transmits values across generations
• Economic governs inheritance
• Psychological provides emotional expression and bonding
• In India: marriage is also a Dharma a moral and religious duty

Lineage and Descent

Descent is the principle whereby a child is socially affiliated with the group of his or her parents. Lineage refers to a kin group in which members have a common ancestor whose identity is known it is the principle upon which inheritance is based. Family is the smallest descent group compared to lineage.

Types of Descent

Unilineal Descent (one line recognised):

• Patrilineal Descent male line (most prevalent worldwide)
• Matrilineal Descent female line (Nayars of Kerala, Khasis of Meghalaya)

Why patrilineal descent is more prevalent (Robin Fox):: Every kin group must fulfil four conditions: men are needed to impregnate women; women are needed to bear and rear children; enough men are needed for food and property management when women are pregnant; incest must be avoided. The patrilineal system is the easier solution own group's women are sent out; other group's women are received for mating and kept subordinate so as not to threaten group unity. Patriliny and patriarchy thus went hand in hand historically.

The Matrilineal Puzzle:: In matrilineal systems, own group's males are sent out; other group's males are received. Since incoming (affinal) men have lesser group unity, problems arise during childbearing and rearing. Solutions: the Na of China and the Nayars of Kerala practise "visiting husbands" the biological father has no social role; the mother's brother (maternal uncle) acquires a crucial role in child-rearing and inheritance.

Other Descent Types:

• Bilateral Descent both sides recognised equally and symmetrically; rising with birth control, reduced muscular labour requirements, and technology equalising men and women's work
• Double Unilineal Descent both sides recognised but unequally; one line governs movable property, the other immovable property (Yako of Nigeria)
• Ambilineal Descent individual can choose which line to affiliate with (Samoa Margaret Mead's study)
• Parallel Descent sons inherit from father, daughters from mother (Saha tribe)

Descent Groups

• Agnates kin connected from father's side; form Patrilineal Descent Groups
• Uterines kin connected from mother's side; form Matrilineal Descent Groups
• Clans unilineal descent groups subdivided into lineages; exogamous (one cannot marry within one's clan since the clan traces descent from a common ancestor)
• Lineages subgroups within clans tracing descent from a known real ancestor; help determine claims over immovable property and subcaste identity
• Kindred bilateral kin groups; rising in modern industrial societies

Functions of Descent Groups (in simple societies)

• Marriage regulation rules of exogamy govern who may marry whom
• Economic cooperation loans, land held in common
• Agricultural cooperation during sowing and harvesting
• Religious practices clan deities (Kul devatas); solidarity during death
• Political cohesion and dispute resolution by lineage heads (panchayats)
• Legacy good name commanded by the group

In modern industrial societies, descent groups are giving way to kindred groups, which remain active in celebrations, mourning, loans, babysitting, and providing networks for business and job opportunities.

Patriarchy and Sexual Division of Labour

Patriarchy refers to the condition in which men achieve and maintain social, cultural, and economic dominance over women both within and outside the family. The term was introduced by Weber (originally meaning rule by the father or male head), but now means authority and dominance of males over various aspects of existence in both public and private spheres. The Sexual Division of Labour (SDOL) is the segregation of work based on gender, where men are mostly given public roles and women are mostly given private (domestic) roles.

Theories Explaining SDOL

Sociobiological (Biological):: Men have stronger spacio-visual skills; women have developed linguistic skills different brains produce different talents. Critique: no conclusive evidence exists for this claim.

Sociobiological (Evolutionary Robin Fox):: SDOL is the result of millions of years of adaptation. Men: hunters; women: childbearing and rearing. Differences in body types mean men are more suited for outside, muscular tasks.

Functional (Murdoch):: SDOL is the most convenient way of organising tasks (based on study of 250 societies). Parsons: women are more expressive and do adult personality stabilisation. Delinquency studies: delinquency results from lack of motherly support.

Feminist Critique:

• Jessie Bernard criticises Parsons: the family serves male personality stabilisation, not gender-neutral adult personality stabilisation
• Ann Oakley criticises Murdoch: incorrect to say women are unsuitable for public tasks (India: construction site workers are mainly women; Pygmies: no post-natal dependence on men; Israel: large participation of women in the army). SDOL is socially created.
• Margaret Mead (Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies): Study on tribes of Papua New Guinea found both men and women doing equally stern tasks with similar personalities, sometimes with home-loving men a society exactly opposite to the West, proving SDOL is culturally variable. Critique (Deborah Gewertz, 1981): found evidence men dominated women, controlled their produce, and made all important political decisions. Mead used subjective descriptions.
• Shulamith Firestone (Dialectics of Sex): Sexual inequality is the most fundamental inequality; criticises Marx for overlooking it. Because of SDOL, women are confined to the domestic sphere where their work is not valued (it doesn't fetch profits). Even when women work outside, they still work at home double exploitation. The labour market has two segments: primary (high income, promotions, prestige dominated by men) and secondary (low income, unstable, part-time, low status confined to women). Firestone argued technology could eventually free women from biological reproduction.

Sylvia Walby: Theorising Patriarchy

Six structures of patriarchy:

• Different emoluments women receive lower wages for equivalent work (public patriarchy)
• Beauty ideals defined from the male point of view, even inflicting painful procedures on women
• Male control over female sexuality virginity and chastity as female virtues
• Women as primary source of domestic labour unpaid and unrecognised
• Violence: private, public, workplace, mental, and physical

Indian Legal Milestones

• 1937 widows gained the right to seek claim in husband's property
• 1956 daughters became equal co-heirs with sons (but daughters had to seek the right; sons were natural heirs)
• 2006 both daughters and sons are natural heirs of property

Strong filial ties often prevent women from dragging brothers to court despite the legal equality. Key dimensions of contemporary patriarchy: private vs. public sphere distinction; paid vs. unpaid (domestic) work; unequal salaries for the same work; gender-typing of jobs (pink-collar work); glass ceilings for women contrasted with glass elevators for men (Karuna Ahmad).

Contemporary Trends in Kinship

• Diversity in family forms is growing no single dominant model
• Marriage is losing appeal; rising divorces and separations; sanctity of marriage declining; law has made divorce easier; stigma of divorce vanishing
• Giddens: "forever love" changing into "love till further notice" plastic love
• Colin Bell: modified or dispersed extended family common residence may not exist but kinship ties are maintained via internet, telephone, and air travel (frequency less but quality more)
• William Goode: achieved status and individualism are rising, working against familial norms and conventional role bargains
• Bade Thorne: "cereal packet image" problem the monolithic image of the ideal family obscures the reality of a plurality of family forms
• Elizabeth Roberts and Wilmott and Young: industrialisation actually led to growth of the extended family through shared childcare and mutual help a direct counter to Parsons
• Shah and Kolenda demolished the myth of joint family disintegration in India