Page 15 - DSOC402_SOCIOLOGY_OF_KINSHIP_ENGLISH

Unit 2: Kinship: Basic Terms and Concepts: Lineage, Clan, Phratry, Moiety ...

Phratry and Moiety Notes
When due to any reason many Lineages get joined as a bigger group then such group is called
Phratry. All the lineage of a tribe when divided into two Phratries, then the social structure so
form is called dual organisation and every phratries among this is called Moiety. Phratry may be
exogamous or may not be. Two Toda Phratries i.e. Tarathral and Teyevaliole are endogamous,
though these are divided in many exogamous liniages. It is said that Moiety of Nagas were en-
dogamous in the past but later on became exogamous. Social organisation of Bondo is divided
in two Moieties—Ontal and Killo. These became region exogamous and lineage exogamous by
coming in contact of their neighbour’s culture. Due to this endogamy also developed in their
Moiety.
One phratry has many lineages. How phratry is formed, its knowledge is important in itself. In
this reference Lowy has described four possibilities —
First, many lineage can mix together without losing their all residues of earlier separation.
Second, a lineage may so big or comprehensive that it may divide in many small groups. In
these groups the earlier precepts of unity is not get broken totally. The example of addition or
subtraction of lineages is seen in Uranv, Ho and Munda tribes of common origin.
Third, is the interesting possibility of extinction of lineage. Reverse had given such information
about extinction in Toda tribes. According to him, earlier lineages were popular in Todas but
later on they all got extinct and only two remained safe on which its dual organisation is based.
In this process, a lineage grown so much that its member started taking their spouse from all
other lineages. As a result, it became difficult to marry between other lineages and stages ar-
rived that they all mixed and became a lineage. The dual organisation popular among Gond’s
may also developed in this way.
Fourth, Lowy had told that the origin of lineage and Moiety may be by separate ways and due to
separate reasons. Further, they can mix together and form a big organisation of social arrange-
ment. The base of this possibility of Lowy is American Dutt.

Paternity and Maternity

Morgan and his followers had tried to find in their studies the origin and preliminary types
of social institutions. Their belief was that the social evolution is a fixed law and truly applies
on all social institutions. In this way Morgan tells that the ancient form of kinship group was
lineage or flock and the development of family occurred comparatively afterwards. Carrying
this further Morgan believed that in view of evolution, maternal lineage was of earlier period
in comparison to paternal lineage and therefore it is the most ancient kinship group of human
society. For description of the origin of family, Morgan had established some reasons which are
hypothetical random.
It is a belief of Morgan that free sex is the first stage of the sexual relation of early humans,
thus paternal fixation was difficult. As a result, inheritance was decided in form of matriarchy.
In course of time, free sex was replaced with controlled sexual relations and even collection of
property also started. In this situation, fathers may have opposed the entity of mothers in which
they were deprived of their rights of paternity as well as their descents from the succession of
their property. According to Morgan, due to this revolt of fathers, paternal sibs were estab-
lished. In the situation of free sex, reproduction among blood relatives may be popular gener-
ally. It is a belief of Morgan that the health of related persons may has affected adversely by such
endo reproduction. Therefore the exogamous sib may be a result of reformative act. Thus, no
medical or historical evidence is available to prove true or false to the hypothetical side effects
of reproduction. The argument of Morgan can also be not accepted that under sib exogamy even
the marriage is prohibited among the biotically unrelated people but it is permitted among the
people related with blood.

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