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Sociology of Kinship

Notes person of Victoria family was dutiful towards the others only because ‘They were of the
same blood’. On this basis to avenge the death or insult of a kin is considered a duty. This
principle was found in Anglo Sexson people that the kins of a tribe of Philippines should
take revenge of the matter of a person of its group. Who will fulfill this duty was related to
the closeness of kinship.
5. Mental Satisfaction: The emotions of kinship provide mental satisfaction to a person. A
person hangs pictures of his ancestors at home, collects them in albums, probably the cau-
terized kinship centered experiences are behind all this. It is evident from human history
that mankind has been living in groups based on kinship since a long period of time. A
person’s health, safety life everything was in hands of his kins. A person devoid of kinship
used to consider himself without any social reputation and as wretched as dead. Fearing
the unknown and believing the known individuals is a human nature. Blood relatives are
our most known people because they are considered to be parts of our own organs. A per-
son feels extreme humanly himself between his kins.

The demands of our industrial culture is forwarding us to the construc-
tion of on inhuman and wise foreavcrative social structure.

6. Basis of Anthropological knowledge: Knowledge of kinship has an important place in the
study of anthropology. The primary anthropologists started the majority of studies from
kinship only. Studies of main anthropologists like Morgan, Mc Cleanan, Henary Men, Lovi,
Fraze Boas, Malenovoski, Redcliff Brown, Evans Prichard, Reverse, Saligmay etc. was re-
lated to study of kinship arrangement, family and marriage etc. of one or more than one
tribe. They wanted to understand the social structure on the basis of studies of kinship. In
addition they also had interest in the development of society and institutions. Study of kin-
ship proved very helpful in this direction. After much study it has become clear that there
had been basic political, religious, economic and regional units of descent in early societies.
Mc Cleanan has quoted those conditions from which the kinship of whole mankind and institu-
tions of marriage have gone through. He believes that initially kinship was accounted through
the medium of women, development through the medium of men developed later. Prior to Mc
Cleanan, Henary Men has studied the Indo-European families and told that patrilineal jointed
family was the family of joint rights of father and sons on property and in India such family
was the backbone of kinship. Morgan studied the ‘Eroquvees’ tribes of Newyork on the basis
of class based system. He did believed that development of family and marriage accured due
to traditional Sex Communism. Other anthropologists kept studying the kinship glossary for a
long time by getting inspired by Morgan. This is the reason that more that half of the kinship
literature is filled with the terms of kinship glossary only.
Lovi and Boas were against the evolution plans. Malenovoski has given a new life to the studies
of kinship by studying the people of Trobeiyanda island. He has studied the feelings and emo-
tions between kinship. Redcliff Brown showed interest in the glossary of kinship and developed
comparative approach. He laid emphasis on the study of social structure and kinship system to
give a clear concept of rights and duties.
In 1940, Evans Prichard published a book on the Nyur people of South Suddan in which stud-
ies on groups based on kin groups was included. In 1945, Mayor Fortess published a book after
studying marriage, descent and kinship of Tollensy people. Mardock has shown interest in
evolution in his book ‘Social Structure’. Levi stauss has described the vocabulary of kinship,
marriage alliance, law and about position of women through marriage.

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