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Anthropology

<OpenstaxParagraph>
	In his early research, Lewis Henry Morgan distinguished three basic forms of kinship structure commonly found across cultures. Today, we refer to these kinship forms as lineal, bifurcate merging, and generational kinship. Each one defines family and relatives a bit differently and so highlights different roles, rights, and responsibilities for these individuals. This means that depending on the kinship structure used by a society, EGO will refer to a different set of individuals as kindred and will have a different relationship with those individuals.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	<OpenstaxEm>Lineal kinship:</OpenstaxEm> <OpenstaxTerm>Lineal kinship</OpenstaxTerm> (initially referred to as <OpenstaxTerm><OpenstaxEm>Eskimo kinship</OpenstaxEm></OpenstaxTerm>) is a form of kinship <OpenstaxEm>reckoning</OpenstaxEm> (a way of mapping EGO to other individuals) that highlights the nuclear family. While kindred in a lineal system is traced through both EGO’s mother and father (a practice called bilateral descent), the kinship terminology clearly shows that the rights and responsibilities of the nuclear family far exceed those of other kindred. In effect, lineal kinship, associated frequently with North American and European societies, suggests a very small and nominal family with little power and influence across other social institutions.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxFigure id="fig-00001" src="https://openstax.org/apps/archive/20240226.174525/resources/eec3b8be2b499cc14ab23c845bb843e8fb6e969d" alt="A lineal kinship chart of three generations, starting from two sets of grandparents, as grandfather and grandmother respectively, their children, their respective wives, children, uncles, aunts, and a union of the father and mother, who in turn produce the subject of the chart and a brother or sister." mediaType="image/png" width="1811" height="1070" />
<OpenstaxFigureText width="1811">
	Figure 11.8 A lineal kinship diagram. Note the distinction of the nuclear family. (credit: “Eskimo Kinship Chart” by Fred the Oyster/Wikimedia Commons, CC0)
</OpenstaxFigureText>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	On the lineal diagram (<a href="#fig-00001">Figure 11.8</a>), note the following: each of the members of the nuclear family have specific kinship terms, but bilateral kin (through both EGO’s mother and father) and <OpenstaxTerm>collateral kin</OpenstaxTerm> (EGO’s siblings and their offspring) are lumped together with similar terms. These relationships are not highlighted by individualized terms because there are minimal rights and responsibilities between EGO and kin outside of the nuclear family of orientation and procreation.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	<OpenstaxEm>Bifurcate merging kinship:</OpenstaxEm> <OpenstaxTerm>Bifurcate merging kinship</OpenstaxTerm> (initially referred to as <OpenstaxTerm><OpenstaxEm>Iroquois kinship</OpenstaxEm></OpenstaxTerm>) highlights a larger family of orientation for EGO by merging EGO’s parents’ same-sex siblings and their offspring into the immediate family (creating parallel cousins) and bifurcating, or cutting off, EGO’s parents’ opposite-sex siblings and their offspring (creating cross cousins). <a href="#fig-00002">Figure 11.9</a> depicts bifurcate merging kinship with unilineal descent (either patrilineal or matrilineal). This means that once descent is introduced into the diagram, EGO’s relationships, with associated rights and responsibilities, will shift toward either the mother’s or father’s side. This form of kinship reckoning, quite common to tribal societies, is found extensively, and it creates a distinction between the family of orientation, which is merged together from various lines, and other relatives, who are bifurcated, or cut away.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxFigure id="fig-00002" src="https://openstax.org/apps/archive/20240226.174525/resources/d4d5b50929c314bde10fb38b2a649b23831eb962" alt="A Bifurcate Merging Kinship chart of three generations, starting from two sets of grandparents, as grandfather and grandmother respectively, their children, their respective wives, children, uncles, aunts, father, and mother, who in turn produce the subject of the chart and a brother or sister. The children of all the uncles and aunts are parallel cousins and cross cousins." mediaType="image/png" width="1793" height="1155" />
<OpenstaxFigureText width="1793">
	Figure 11.9 A bifurcate merging kinship diagram. Note the distinction between parallel and cross cousins. (credit: “Iroquois Kinship Chart” by Fred the Oyster/Wikimedia Commons, CC0)
</OpenstaxFigureText>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	On the bifurcate merging diagram (<a href="#fig-00002">Figure 11.9</a>), note that the members of the family of orientation share kinship terms that indicate a close intimacy with EGO. As an example, while EGO knows who his biological mother is (the woman who gave birth to him), his relationship with his biological mother has the same rights and responsibilities as his relationship with his mother’s sister(s), etc. Notice also that the category of individuals lumped together as “cousins” under the lineal diagram are here distinguished depending on EGO’s relationship with their parent. EGO’s mother’s sisters are called “mother” and his father’s brothers are called “father,” which means that any of their offspring would be EGO’s brothers or sisters. Notice, though, that the mothers and fathers highlighted outside of EGO’s biological parents are married to non-kin members; EGO does not refer to his mother’s sister’s husband as father—he is referred to as “mother’s husband.” Mother’s brothers and father’s sisters produce offspring who are bifurcated and lumped as “cousin.” Anthropologists distinguish between <OpenstaxTerm>parallel cousins</OpenstaxTerm> (EGO’s brothers and sisters through his parents’ same-sex siblings) and <OpenstaxTerm>cross cousins</OpenstaxTerm> (EGO’s cousins through his parents’ opposite-sex siblings). In many tribal societies, EGO would choose his (or her) marriage partner from among his (or her) cross cousins, thereby merging their children back into a primary kinship line. In this way, the family unit (the kindred) maintains a stable and significant presence across generations.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	<OpenstaxEm>Generational kinship:</OpenstaxEm> <OpenstaxTerm>Generational kinship</OpenstaxTerm> (initially referred to as <OpenstaxTerm><OpenstaxEm>Hawaiian kinship</OpenstaxEm></OpenstaxTerm>) presents a very different case. Widespread in Polynesia, especially during the times of chiefdom societies, generational kinship provides a distinction in kinship terms only along gender and generational lines. Generational kinship has the least complicated kinship terminology of all kinship systems, but the impact of creating a family of orientation this large and powerful is immediately apparent. In reading this chart, it is obvious that the intimate family was as large as could be configured and it would have significant sociopolitical impact within the society.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxFigure id="fig-00003" src="https://openstax.org/apps/archive/20240226.174525/resources/262024def61951e233a0a02d43ac60138a9cba06" alt="A Generational Kinship chart of three generations, starting from two sets of grandparents, as grandfather and grandmother respectively, their children, including father and mother, and their children being designated as brother and sister." mediaType="image/png" width="1797" height="1012" />
<OpenstaxFigureText width="1797">
	Figure 11.10 A generational kinship chart. Note the family of orientation, which is now at its maximal size. This graphically indicates the important role family has in all aspects of EGO’s life. (credit: “Hawaiian Kinship Chart” by Fred the Oyster/Wikimedia Commons, CC0)
</OpenstaxFigureText>

11.3.1 Types of Kinship Systems

1 What Is Anthropology?

1.1 The Study of Humanity, or "Anthropology Is Vast"

1.1.1 The Heart of Anthropology: Central Narrative and Commitments

1.1.2 Central Commitment #1: Exploring Sociocultural Diversity

1.1.3 Central Commitment #2: Understanding How Societies Hold Together

1.1.4 Central Commitment #3: Examining the Interdependence of Humans and Nature

1.2 The Four-Field Approach: Four Approaches within the Guiding Narrative

1.2.1 Biological Anthropology

1.2.2 Archaeology

1.2.3 Cultural Anthropology

1.2.4 Linguistic Anthropology

1.2.5 How the Four Fields Work Together: The Example of Race

1.3 Overcoming Ethnocentrism

1.3.1 Enculturation and Ethnocentrism

1.3.2 Primitivism and Orientalism

1.4 Western Bias in Our Assumptions about Humanity

1.4.1 Primitivism and Orientalism in Popular Culture

1.4.2 The Bias of Backwardness

1.5 Holism, Anthropology’s Distinctive Approach

1.5.1 Society as an Integrated Whole

1.5.2 Sources of Contradiction, Conflict, and Change

1.6 Cross-Cultural Comparison and Cultural Relativism

1.6.1 Relativism Is Not “Anything Goes”

1.6.2 Morality, Activism, and Cultural Relativism

1.7 Reaching for an Insider’s Point of View

1.7.1 The Challenge of Representing Others

1.7.2 Collaborative Methods of Representation

1.7.3 Working across Cultures toward Common Goals

1.7.4 Suggested Readings

2 Methods: Cultural and Archaeological

2.1 Archaeological Research Methods

2.1.1 Archaeological Techniques

2.1.2 Archaeological Dating Methods

2.2 Conservation and Naturalism

2.2.1 Early Efforts

2.2.2 Salvage Anthropology

2.2.3 Museum Collections

2.2.4 Interpretation and Voice

2.3 Ethnography and Ethnology

2.3.1 The Development of Ethnography and Ethnology

2.3.2 Perspective and Interpretation in Ethnography

2.4 Participant Observation and Interviewing

2.4.1 Participant Observation

2.4.2 Interviewing Informants

2.4.3 Ethical Considerations

2.5 Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis

2.5.1 Differences between Quantitative and Qualitative Information

2.5.2 Modeling

2.5.3 The Science of Anthropology

2.6 Collections

2.6.1 Archives

2.6.2 Three-Dimensional Collections

2.6.3 Ownership

2.6.4 Suggested Readings

3 Culture Concept Theory: Theories of Cultural Change

3.1 The Homeyness of Culture

3.2 The Winkiness of Culture

3.3 The Elements of Culture

3.3.1 Culture Is What We Make

3.3.2 Culture Is What We Do

3.3.3 Culture Is What We Think

3.4 The Aggregates of Culture

3.4.1 Symbols

3.4.2 Ritual

3.4.3 Social Structure

3.5 Modes of Cultural Analysis

3.5.1 Evolution, Adaptation, and Historical Particularism

3.5.2 Functionalism

3.5.3 Structuralism

3.5.4 Ontology

3.6 The Paradoxes of Culture

3.6.1 Paradox 1: Culture Is Continuous, but It Changes

3.6.2 Paradox 2: Culture Is Bounded but Mobile

3.6.3 Paradox 3: Culture Is Consensual but Contested

3.6.4 Paradox 4: Culture Is Shared, but It Varies

3.6.5 Suggested Readings

4 Biological Evolution and Early Human Evidence

4.1 What Is Biological Anthropology?

4.1.1 Looking to the Deep Past

4.1.2 Exploring What It Means to Be Human

4.2 What’s in a Name? The Science of Taxonomy

4.2.1 Defining the Science of Taxonomy

4.2.2 Defining a Species

4.3 It’s All in the Genes! The Foundation of Evolution

4.3.1 The Units of Life

4.3.2 Gregor Mendel and the Laws of Heredity

4.3.3 Mendelian Inheritance in Humans

4.4 Evolution in Action: Past and Present

4.4.1 Early Evolutionists and the Fixity of Species

4.4.2 Charles Darwin’s Role in Changing Views of the Natural World

4.4.3 Understanding Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection

4.5 What Is a Primate?

4.5.1 What Is a Primate?

4.5.2 Primate Behavioral Variation

4.5.3 Explaining Primate Success

4.5.4 Primate Classification and Taxonomy

4.6 Origin of and Classification of Primates

4.6.1 Understanding Concepts of Time

4.6.2 Fossils and Dating Methods

Question	Answer
a broader chart of EGO family relation that connects kinships by merging EGO’s parents’ same-sex siblings and their offspring into the immediate family (creating parallel cousins) and bifurcating, or cutting off, EGO’s parents’ opposite-sex siblings and their offspring (creating cross cousins); also called Iroquois kinship.	bifurcate merging kinship
EGO’s siblings and their offspring.	collateral kin
a kinship system in which the terms of reference are for gender and generation only, creating large units of immediate family; also called Hawaiian kinship.	generational kinship
a form of kinship reckoning that highlights the creation of a nuclear family; also called Eskimo kinship.	lineal kinship