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Social Structure and Social Change

Notes origin, which may be called one’s “descent group”. In some cultures, kinship relationships may be
considered to extend out to people an individual has economic relationships with, or other forms of
social connections. Within a culture, the descent groups may be considered to lead back to gods, or
animal ancestors totems. This may be conceived of on a more or less literal basis.
Kinship can also refer to a perceived universal principle or category of humans, by which we or our
societies organize individuals or groups of individuals into social groups, roles, categories, and
genealogy. Family relations can be represented concretely (mother, brother, grandfather) or abstractly
after degrees of relationship. A relationship may have relative purchase (e.g., father is one regarding
a child), or reflect an absolute (e.g., status difference between a mother and a childless woman).
Degrees of relationship are not identical to heirship or legal succession. Many codes of ethics consider
the bond of kinship as creating obligations between the related persons stronger than those between
strangers, as in Confucian filial piety.

The Kinship
In every society, a male at some time in his life, plays the roles of a husband, a father (unless he
decides to remain unmarried) and a son and a brother in some family; and a female plays the roles of
a wife, a mother (unless she decides to remain spinster) and a daughter and a sister. But due to the
incest taboo, a man cannot play the roles of a father and a husband in the same nuclear family in
which he is a son and a brother. Similarly, a woman cannot play the roles of a mother and a wife in
the same nuclear family in which she is a daughter and a sister. Hence, every adult individual belongs
to two nuclear families—the family of orientation in which he was born and reared, and the family of
procreation which he establishes by marriage. It is this fact of individual membership in two nuclear
families that gives rise to kinship system. By the virtue of the fact that individuals belong to two
nuclear families, every person forms a link between the members of his family of orientation and
those of his family of procreation. Such links bind individuals to one another through kinship ties.
Kinship as such, may be defined as “a social relationship based upon family relatedness” (Theodorson
and Theodorson, 1969: 221). The nature of relationship which may be consanguineal (based on ties of
blood) or affinal (based on marriage) determines the rights and obligations of related persons. A kin
group may be explained as “a group united by ties of blood or marriage”. Most kin groups, other than
the family, are consanguineal. Kinship system may be considered as “the customary system of statuses
and roles that governs the behaviour of people who are related to each other through marriage or
descent from a common ancestor”. It may also be described as “a structured system of relationship in
which kin are bound to one another by complex inter–locking ties”.
5.1 Kinship Categories

There are mainly four kinship categories: primary kin, secondary kin, tertiary kin, and distant kin.
The primary kin are those kin who belong to the Ego’s nuclear families of orientation and procreation.
Thus, father (Fa), mother (Mo), sister (Si), and brother (Br) in one’s family of orientation, and husband
(Hu), wife (Wi), son (So), and daughter (Da) in one’s family of procreation, are one’s primary kin.
Each of Ego’s primary kin will have his/her own primary kin, who will not be primary kin of Ego.
These will be called Ego’s secondary kin. For example FaFa, FaMo, MoFa, MoBr, etc. There are 33
types of secondary kin. The primary kin of the secondary kin are called tertiary kin. For example Fa-
FaFa, FaFaBr, etc. There are 151 types of tertiary kin. Lastly, the primary kin of tertiary kin are called
distant kin. For example FaFaFaFa, FaMoFaFa, etc. Their number is very large.
Kinship relationship is functional in two ways: (i) it characterizes every relationship between kin,
and (ii) it determines reciprocal behaviour.
Kinship Terminology
Part of the reciprocal behaviour characterizing every relationship between kin, consists of a verbal
element, that is, the terms by which each addresses the other. In some cases, people use personal
names, in others they use kinship terms, and in a few cases they employ what Tylor has called
‘teknonymy’, that is, combination of personal and kinship terms; for example, Ram’s father, Asha’s
mother, and so forth.

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