11.2.1 Reading and Using Kinship Charts

Anthropologists graphically illustrate relationships between family members with kinship charts (also called kinship diagrams). Anyone who has ever used an online genealogy program like Ancestry.com is already familiar with the ways that family relationships can be depicted. Anthropological charts use EGO as their starting point. The term EGO identifies the person whose chart is depicted. EGO marks the starting point for the kinship chart, and relationships are read as alignments between EGO and other individuals. The sum of kinship relationships identified through EGO is referred to as EGO’s kindred. Serving as a map and model, the kinship chart can be “read” like a text, with its own syntax and grammar identifying each individual within a society by means of their relatedness to each other.

Kinship charts depict two types of relationships, consanguineal and affinal. A consanguineal tie between individuals indicates a perceived biological connection (a connection “by blood”) and is indicated by a single line, regardless of whether it is drawn vertically or horizontally. A consanguineal tie is most often considered to be permanent. An affinal tie depicts a contractual relationship by marriage or mutual agreement and is drawn as a double line. Such ties usually can be broken, and if they are, a forward slash will be struck through the double line. There is also a hashed line (----) used for relationships that do not conform completely to type (e.g., to indicate adoption or an honorary family member). Hashed double lines are used to distinguish between a formal marriage and a relationship of cohabitation. The following is the most basic legend of the kinship chart:

An anthropological kinship legend to identify family relationships. Top row: Blue triangle with line through it labeled male deceases. red circle with line through it labeled female deceased. Row 2: blude triangle labeled male ego. Red circle labeled female ego .Row three: blue triangle equal sign red circle. Vertical line below connected to a horizontal line with downward pointing arrows at each end pointing to a blue triangle and a red circle. The vertical line represents Parent to children and the horizontal connects siblings. Key at bottom: Blue triangle - male, red circle - female, orange square -non specific gender, equal sign - married to and not equal sign - divorced from
Figure 11.4 An anthropological kinship legend. The iconography of kinship denotes such things as gender, relationships of marriage and descent, and individual terms of reference. (attribution: Copyright Rice University, OpenStax, under CC BY 4.0 license)

Kinship charts can be read both vertically and horizontally. Individuals who share the same horizontal line are considered to be in the same cohort or generation, and individuals above and below EGO are in relationships of descent, meaning they are believed to be connected by blood or enduring kinship bond across generations. Anthropologists use common abbreviations to depict kinship relations across cultures, allowing us to compare families: father (FA), mother (MO), brother (BR), sister (SI or Z), aunt (AU), uncle (UN), son (SO), daughter (DA), and then compound terms, such as mother’s or father’s brother (MoBr, FaBr) or mother’s or father’s sister (MoSi, FaSi). Grandparents are usually designated as GrFa and GrMo.

Figure 11.5 depicts a kinship chart utilizing standard icons and abbreviations. Within this chart, EGO is depicted as a part of two different families: the family of orientation, which is the nuclear family unit in which EGO was reared and nurtured as a child and adolescent, and the family of procreation, which is the family that EGO creates, usually as a result of marriage. Test yourself and see if you can read it.

A generic kinship chart of three generations, starting from two sets of grandparents, as grandfather and grandmother respectively, their children, their respective wives, children, and a union of the male child of one family with the female child of the other family, who in turn produce the subject of the chart and a brother or sister.
Figure 11.5 This generic kinship chart shows three generations, with a family of orientation. (credit: “Eskimo Kinship Chart” by Fred the Oyster/Wikimedia Commons, CC0)

As you can see in Figure 11.5, EGO has multiple ties and embeddedness within the kinship network, leading to a complex web of rights and obligations. These concurrent ties with more than one family involve descent rules (how an individual traces relatedness across generations), residence rules (where an individual will live following marriage), and in some societies, even remarriage rules (how marriage will be reinstated following the death of a spouse). Each of these will be discussed later in the chapter.

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The content of this course has been taken from the free Anthropology textbook by Openstax