Program 17: Lesson 15 - Kinship and Descent, pt.2

Faces of Culture - "Kinship and Descent, pt.2"

Narr: For thousands of years people have traveled and lived in small communities in which almost everyone was related to each other by ties of blood, marriage and adoption.

How these relations are recognized and treated in a culture is what anthropologists call "kinship."

For traditional people like the Netsilik of Canada, kinship helps determine the obligations and expectations of every individual in all aspects of life.

In larger more settled communities, groups based on descent fulfill the political, economic and religious functions which require a continuity from generation to generation. And in almost all societies kinship is at the core of a culture's values, and helps structure the behavior of the individual.

(Women singing.)

Narr: These are the Bakhtiari of Iran, a nomadic, pastoral people.

This girl's wedding is a sad day for her. She goes far away with her husband, leaving behind all her known relatives who will benefit from her "bride-wealth" of camels and sheep. She will become the newest member in her husband's kinship network and have new kinship duties.

In Japan, a young girl leaves her home and relatives to go to a new school. Her family and friends present her with ribbons to symbolize their lasting ties to her. Her family ties must be loosened, though her kinship group will continue to be important throughout her whole life.

From birth until death, in most cultures, kinship can be a blueprint for "ideal social behavior" and a code for the culture's "values," and kinship studies can provide anthropologists a lens through which to observe, classify and understand a culture.

Anthropologists have what sometime seems a fixation on kinship for a very real reason, namely, that most of the societies that anthropologists study organize themselves around kinship lines, and if you don't know how people are related to one another, you have no basis of understanding the interaction between them. So, there's that angle.

Plus the fact that there's something nice about a kinship and in that it's concrete; you have limited possibilities. It often seems to work in almost mathematical way, so that sometimes, it's easier to get control of than some more elusive subject. So there's that angle of it.

It often seems very difficult for people when you get into these different systems of kinship, and I was one of those students, as an undergraduate, who used to gnash his teeth and pull his hair, and curse the day kinship was invented, and think it was terribly difficult.

It really isn't terribly difficult. The only reason it seems so is that we don't make much of kinship in our society so that we're not used to that sort of thing, and, therefore, it becomes very difficult to understand a system in other societies that is a bigger deal.

But, then, after you anguish over Australian kinship and think that any six year old Australian knows how the system works. You know if a six year old kid can understand it, why can't we?

To organize and translate the information they gather in the field, anthropologists often employ "kinship charts." Using circles to represent females and triangles to represent males, anthropologists can show all the members in a kinship group.

A "kindred group" is all the relatives of one individual called "ego" and ceases to function when ego dies.

Kinship diagrams also can reveal differences in "kinship terms." Many cultures throughout the world have different ways of referring to relatives.

For example, in our own culture, we have only one person we refer to as "father," but in another culture, all of a father's brothers may be termed "fathers" by ego, and may also be treated like fathers.

This is but one part of the Iroquois terminology system. Anthropologists can also show all the descendants of one ancestor.

Descent can be traced through generations through the female line in a "matrilineal" system of descent, or the male line in the "patrilineal" system of descent.

It is common for anthropologists to classify a culture in terms of whether it is "patrilineal" or "matrilineal," whether it uses the "Iroquois naming system" or one of the other five naming systems that anthropologists have developed to classify kinship terms.

These systems can help anthropologists understand kinship practices in cultures throughout the world.

The Navajo Indians have lived in the American Southwest for over 3,000 years. They are a matrilineal society, and for as long as anyone can remember, their social organization has been structured by their kinship arrangements.

This girl lives with her great-grandmother and mother's family on the land that has been passed on from mother to daughter for several generations.

The Navajo culture is "matrilocal" as well as "matrilineal." It is the women who play a major role in the economy.

(Noise of children and animals.)

Narr: Women and children take care of the sheep which provide the Navajo with the food and wool they need. The women are usually the ones who process the wool and make the well-known weavings that can be sold for additional income.

Though the men are fine silversmiths, it is the women who usually provide most of the money. The women are also the ones who perform most of the domestic chores.

Kinship among the Navajo not only affects domestic and economic life, it also helps mold social behavior.

The traditional Navajo use kinship terms when addressing each other. It is considered rude to call someone by name to his face. Often children will go without names until they come in contact with people outside the culture, because kinship associations are so compelling.

Everyone in a kin group is responsible for everyone else in the group. If a person behaves poorly, the Navajo say, "He acts as if he has no relatives."

(Man singing.)

Narr: Children are the most precious possession of the Navajo, and it is important that they learn from their kinsmen the ways of their people so they can continue the culture.

Every Navajo is not only a part of a matrilineal kinship group, but also a member of a larger matrilineal descent group, a "clan."

A Navajo cannot marry someone in their mother's or father's clan, because it is considered incestuous.

The Navajo use the "Crow kinship terminology system" which is considerably different than ours.

This girl lives with her cousin, who, in Navajo kinship terms, she regards as a "sister," because she refers to both her mother and her mother's sister as "mother."

There are even fewer terms to describe the male side of the family. All the male members of one's father's matrilineal group are referred to by the same term.

If our own culture were that way, we would refer to both our father and his sister's son by the same term.

Their kinship terminology reflects the matrilineal aspect in the importance of women domestically in the Navajo culture.

In the Navajo myth of creation, a character named "Changing Woman" is the one who helped create the Earth's people and taught them how to live.

Changing Woman seems an appropriate name for in the thousands of years the Navajo have existed, they had to change their means of subsistence dramatically, the women often remaining the chief provider.

The Navajo began as nomadic hunters, then learned agriculture from the Pueblo Indians, and became more settled.

Anthropologists speculate that it was about this time, 400 years ago, that the Navajo changed from simple family bands to a tribal society with matrilineal clans.

Later they learned from the Spaniards about the domestication of horses, goats and sheep, and they lived in larger, settled groups.

(Older girl teaching young sister to say, "I live in Zuma, Arizona.")

Girl: " I live"

Sister: "I"

Girl: "live"

Sister: "live"

Girl: "in"

Sister: "in"

Girl: "Yuma"

Sister: "Yuma"

Girl: "Arizona."

Sister: "Arizona."

(Navajo language.)

Narr: Since the mid-19th century, the influence of the larger American society has been increasingly felt through schools, reservations and other government institutions. During these changes, they have remained essentially Navajo, holding onto their traditional ways.

The Yanomamo of South America are also a traditional culture, relatively unaffected by the industrial world, but unlike the Navajo, they are "patrilineal" and are organized around "lineages" rather than "clans."

In both cultures, though, kinship helps specify the duties of every member of the society, especially in the domestic sphere.

This Yanomamo male is expected to do "bride service" now that he is married. He must share the game and food
he gets with his new in-laws, but he must also carefully avoid them, because they are "taboo" to him. So he asks his father to alert everyone to his generosity.

His young bride collects the bounty to take back to her family. The very weight of it enhances the reputation of her husband.

As part of his "bride service" a son-in-law's kinship duties include performing favors for his in-laws; such as, harvesting their peach palm gardens.

However, the additional kinship duties men assume with marriage do not eliminate their obligations to their own kinsmen. They must continue to aid their brothers and older relatives.

These young men help prepare special food for a political feast that will be held for the allies of their senior kinsmen. How goods are distributed and shared among the Yanomamo varies greatly with kinship distance.

Sharing with closely-related kinsmen is a moral obligation, and generosity is mandated. More distant kinsmen need to be watched carefully and will be given things depending on prior exchanges.

People from distant villages are often more remote kinsmen, and may be treated with hostility. Interactions can start with haggling and dueling and then escalate to fighting.

The Yanomamo have an "Iroquois naming system" reflecting their patrilineal descent. It is almost the reverse of the matrilineal "Crow system" that the Navajo use. Other societies, however, may not fit so neatly into a standard kinship terminology system.

(Flute music.)

Narr: Kypseli village, Thera Island, Greece. For as long as anyone can remember, Kypseli life has been divided into distinct male and female areas. Their unique kinship system reflects this division and defies simple classification. Their society has both patrilineal and matrilineal aspects.

In any culture, when a girl marries her life becomes different, and her kinship relationships change. Among the Kypseli this is especially so.

When a woman marries in Kypesli, she does not leave her kinship group to join another. Instead, the men in the village lead her to the home which she will share with her husband.

(Men playing music.)

Narr: If she is the oldest daughter, it will be her mother's home. If she is a younger daughter, it will be close to her mother's.

Like the Navajo, homes belong to the women in Kypseli. They even have female names.

Couples live "matrilocally." That way, brothers can look after sisters, yet, it is not a "matrilineal" society.

The home is part of a "dowry" from the bride's family. A good dowry helps establish a solid alliance with another kinship group within the village.

When a woman marries, she ties two kinship groups together. She is a "daughter" to her father and a "wife" to her husband, the key link between two groups of men, but not completely accepted by either. She will take her husband's last name reflecting the male dominance in the "patrilineal" aspect of the culture.

The naming of children, however, reveals the importance of both male and female lines of descent in Kypseli.

In Kypseli a first born son is given the name of his father's father, and will inherit his father's occupation. A second born son, however, is given the name of his mother's father. A third son will be given the
name of his father's eldest brother.

Similarly, a first born daughter will be named after her mother's mother, and will inherit her mother's home. A second daughter, after her father's mother, and the third daughter, after an older sister of her mother's.

By having children so carefully named after relatives of both the mother's and father's sides of the family, the two kinship groups are further intertwined symbolically.

At the same time the Kypseli's reckoning of descent and inheritance reinforces the division between men and women in Kypesli society.

Courtyards are for men in the evenings, for cards and talk, but during the day, they are women's for work. Children learn these differences at an early age.

A girl helps her mother while her brother plays with a toy. The boys are allowed freer reign while growing up. Girls must be constantly watched. A woman is expected to chastise a girl if she acts foolishly.

Among the Kypseli it is socially accepted that women are "impure" and not to be trusted. Only when a woman's husband dies is she regarded as somewhat "safe." They believe that as a widow her menstruation stops.

When her husband dies, she is no longer between the two male kinship groups, and her kinship expectations are different. She is freer to go into male places, but the woman must wear black the rest of her life, and never remarry.

(Flute music.)

Narr: From birth until death, in Kypseli society, "kinship" is a dominating force in the lives of the people.

The study of kinship with its many charts and terminology systems, provides anthropologists a way to understand one of the most important foundations of behavior in a culture.

By referring to the Yanomamo as a culture with "patrilineal descent" and an "Iroquois naming system," we know something about the way the society functions.

Describing the Navajo as a people with "matrilineal descent" and a "Crow naming system," tells us much about their domestic relationships and how they are different from other cultures.

Understanding kinship can also help us to see similarities between cultures that would not be readily apparent.

The Kypseli trace their descent, "bilaterally," through both parents' families. So do the Eskimos, and, so do we.

Yet, the obvious differences in the actual kinship behavior and social structure of these "bilateral" cultures highlight the danger of relying exclusively on kinship terms and charts to understand cultures, for kinship and descent are but one aspect of a completely integrated pattern of culture, and these patterns can differ widely.

Human beings are one of the few species which recognizes" relatives" and bases behavior on those relationships. And in all known societies kinship expectations determine many of the obligations and duties of individuals.

They can morally obligate a person to give close kinsmen his choicest goods, or obligate him to give in-laws a large share of his food. They can specify that a cousin live in another family other than her own, where the children will regard her as a "sister," and they can require the use of detailed perscriptions in determining a child's name.

Throughout the world, the study of kinship can provide important perspectives on the differences and similarities between the various peoples and the many faces of culture.