SC2218: Anthropology and the SC2218: Anthropology and the Human ConditionHuman Condition

Lecture 5: Families and KinshipLecture 5: Families and Kinship

Eric C. Thompson Eric C. Thompson

Semester 1, 2011/2012Semester 1, 2011/2012

Where Are We Going?Where Are We Going?

• Part 1: What is Anthropology?– Strangers Abroad, Race, Culture

• Part 2: What do Anthropologists Study?– Kinship– Gender– Economy– Community

• Part 3: Current Debates and Trends– Representing Others, The Poetry of

Culture, World Anthropologies

YOU AREHERE

Lecture Outline:Lecture Outline:Kinship and FamilyKinship and Family

• What is Kinship?

• Ju/’hoansi kinship (a study in Cultural Complexity).

• Kinship Exercise

• Changing Patterns of Modern Kinship– Attenuated Kinship in Modern Societies– Technological Innovations and New Horizons of Kinship

What is Kinship?What is Kinship?• Kinship = Social and Cultural Elaborations of

Biological Reproduction

• Marriage = Cultural recognition of a sexual relationship; legitimization of paternity.

• Ordering (arranging) social relationships through cultural interpretations of biological reproduction.

• Kinship is “based on” biology.

• But kinship is not determined by biology.

Kinship as an Organizing Kinship as an Organizing Principle of Society*Principle of Society*

• Kinship is a primary organizing principle in most, if not all, societies.

• In complex agricultural, industrial, and ‘post-industrial’ societies, other institutions displace kinship. Institutions use kinship metaphorically.– States (“State Fatherhood”; Citizenship; Patronage)– Ethnic Groups, Races,Nations (“Fraternal”

Democracy; Imagined Community)– Organized Religion (“Brotherhood” of Monks)

– Corporations (“Salary Man”; “Company Man”)

*Cultural Principles ordering Social Relationships

Complexity of Kinship* Complexity of Kinship* among Dobe Ju/’hoansiamong Dobe Ju/’hoansi

(From Lee, (From Lee, The Dobe Ju/’hoansi)The Dobe Ju/’hoansi)

*Many thanks to Dr. Stephanie Rupp for creation and use of the slides to follow.

!kun!a !kun!atun tun

!kuma !kumatuma tuma

!ko !kwitsintsin

!hai =hai

ba tai

Basic Kin Relations – Dobe Ju/’hoansi

ego

1

2

3

4

5

tsiu

!kun!a !kun!atun tun

!kuma !kumatuma tuma

!ko !kwitsintsin

!hai =hai

ba tai

Reciprocal Relations – Dobe Ju/’hoansi

“old name”grandfather

“small name” grandson

ego

grandmother

granddaughter

!kun!a !kun!atun tun

tsin

!kuma !kumatuma tuma

!ko !kwitsin

!hai =hai

ba taitsu tsu//ga //ga

!kun!a!kun!a tuntun !kun!a !kun!atun tun

ego

Joki

ng

Avo

idan

ceJo

kin

gA

void

ance

Joki

ng

Reciprocal Relations between Alternate Generations

Man’s perspective

Woman’s perspective

Affinal* Relations

****************************************************************************************************

Joking Kin Joking Affines Avoidance Kin Avoidance Affines

=tum

=tum

/otsu

/otsu

/otsu /otsu

*Related by Marriage

Another Layer of Complexity: Name RelationshipsCommon Pattern - Naming Children after

Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles

12345

1234567

When a Man Is Named after His Father’s Brother …

1234567

Joki

ng

Joki

ngA

void

ance

Joki

ngA

void

ance

Avo

idan

ce

Complicated Intersections of Kinship: Can =Toma and Chu/o Marry?

(They must have a ‘joking’ relationship)

=Toma Chu/o

Joki

ng

Joking

Chu/o

=Toma

Avo

idan

ce

Avoidance

Kinship ExerciseKinship Exercise

• Kinship and Marriage in the Kalahari.

• Each of you will be assigned to a family.

• You must talk to other parents and children to find a good match.– Parents talk to parents; children to children.

• After the “visiting period”, return to sit with your “family” and discuss marriage proposals.

Concept of Wi – Relative Age

Lee to !Xam: “When two people are working out what kin term to employ, how do they decide whose choice is to prevail?

!Xam to Lee: “… it is always the older person who wis the younger person. Since I am older than you, I decide what we should call each other.”

(Lee 2003: 72)

Marriage – New Horizons of KinshipBased on Name Relationships

All women namedN=isa could call him“husband”

All husbands of women named N=isa could call him“brother” or “co-husband”. All fathers of women

named N=isa could callhim “son-in-law”.

All siblings of womennamed N=isa could callhim “brother-in-law”.

ego N=isa

Dobe Camp Composition:Social Organization and Rights to Waterholes

Based on Kinship

core siblings

spouses of core siblings

siblings of spouses of core siblings

spouses of siblings of spouses of core siblings

Patterns of MarriagePatterns of Marriage• Monogamy: One spouse at a time.

– Strict Monogamy: One and only one spouse over a lifetime (“until death do we part”)

– Serial Monogamy: Culturally acceptable to have more than one spouse over a life time (but only one at a time; divorce and remarriage)

• Polygamy: More than one spouse at a time.– Polygyny: Multiple wives allowed.*– Polyandry: Multiple husbands allowed.

*Polygyny is the most common cultural pattern. But usually only a few men, not all, have multiple wives.

““Fictive Kinship”Fictive Kinship”

• In many (most?) societies, the role of kinship is so important, people do not know how to relate to one another unless they first establish their kin-relationship.

• People who do not have a place in the kinship system are incorporated into it through “fictive kinship” (e.g. Richard Lee).

• Does Singapore have “fictive” kinship?

Loss of Complexity inLoss of Complexity inIndustrial SocietiesIndustrial Societies

• In industrial societies, kinship becomes less important than foraging or agrarian societies.

• Complexity of kinship is lost as its organizational importance is displaced by other cultural principles and social institutions.

• “Anglo-American” kinship in the 19th century (Gillis)

• Contemporary China under the one-child policy.

1980

2000

2020

China’s kinship structure – “One Child Policy”

“Uncle”“Aunt”“Cousin” Will All Structurally Cease to Exist (At least in theory)

New Horizons of KinshipNew Horizons of Kinship• What are the implications of new reproductive

technology?• What are the implications of completely

decoupling sex and reproduction?– Highly effective birth control; abortion– Sperm donation– Surrogate Motherhood– Commodification

• Men pay for sex

• Women pay for sperm

48QAH

• Donor #48-QAH (“Quite a Hunk”)

• 150-200 Donations @ $50 each.

• Paid $10,000 to father up to 200 children. (Surrogate mothers get more to give birth to just one child.)

• Implications?

• Relationship with Donor; Siblings?

• Paternal Responsibilities?

• “Surrogate Fathers”?

• Accidental Incest?

• Industry Regulation?

Meet the Donor 66 FamilyMeet the Donor 66 Family• The Donor Sibling Registry: Creating

“Donor Families” (Started by Wendy and Ryan Kramer)

• Donor 66 Family: Ryan, his 10 to 25 siblings, their mothers.

• 30,000 children every year in the United States.

• Up to 1 Million children so far.

• The DSR has identified up to 20 Siblings from 1 Donor.

• Cases of over one hundred offspring from single donors

Front Row: Women who share a DonorBack Row: Siblings and half-siblings

6 Brothers & Sisters of 5 Mothers & Donor 66

Kinship & Cultivation of the HeartKinship & Cultivation of the Heart• Kinship, like all cultural systems, is a

conceptual structure that people are born into, live through, and which remains after the death of any individual.

• Kinship (and other cultural systems) are perpetuated through the struggles, triumphs, creativity and cultivation of the people who live them . . . Think of…– The experimentation with family

and kinship in America and Europe during the early 19th century (Gillis)

– The struggle of Dadi to simultaneously hold her family together and to see her children thrive (“Dadi’s Family”).

Two TUN with their TUMA

BA and !HAI

Summing Up…Summing Up…• Kinship is a cultural elaboration on

biological relatedness. It is a cultural and creative way of producing (new) forms of relatedness; not just a reflection of biology.

• Throughout human histories, most societies have been organized primarily through kinship.

• In modern societies, other institutions have become important in organizing society.