Additional Anthropology Flashcards . In a cognatic descent, all descendants of an ancestor\ancestress enjoy membership of a common descent group by virtue of … Tracing of a relationship through females only. 05/02/2011. For instance, we consider adopted individuals (fictitious or ritual kinship) to have the same descent as the members of the group that adopted them. A man and a woman who are distant patrilateral relatives are allowed to marry when it becomes impossible for them to name their common patrilateral ancestor, usually after four or five generations. Anthropologists frequently use diagrams to illustrate kinship relationships to make them more understandable. Spell. Term. In the … Cultural Anthropology, 2nd edition. This system is termed double descent or bilineal descent, not to be confused with bilateral or cognatic descent, where descent is equally determined by both parents’ sides. Rassumussen, Susan J. Such relatives may be known as cognates. 1996. the biological relationship that determines who one’s relatives are and one’s relationship with them. Some basic definitions by different people: “The social relationships deriving from blood ties ( real and supposed) and marriage are collectively referred to as kinship.” – Abercrombie et al ‘Kinship is the recognition of relationships between persons based on descent or marriage. A different view to these older theories is aired by Levi-Strauss’s alliance theory, which links the exchange of women and the interdiction of incest as the organizational principles of kinship. 2011. For instance, the patrilineal Nuer are patrilocal and the matrilineal Hopi, matrilocal. Cultural Anthropology, 13th edition. The term descent groups is thus limited to unilineal or double descent groups. Clan is the even wider social group in which members acknowledge a common ancestry and whose relationships are ruled by solidarity. things of high value given by a groom to his bride's father. Other societies trace descent through only one of the parent’s family line. Thus a lineage is a unilineal descent group in which membership may rest either on matrilineal descent (patrilineage) or on matrilineal descent (matrilineage). This is the form of descent practiced in the United States. Law Transmission of property, especially real estate, to a hereditary heir by an intestate owner. In particular, kinship refers to social relationships that usually coincide with biological ones. nuclear family in which one is born and grows up: Term. Descent Principles: Part 1. Terms in this set (23) Patrilineal Descent. 1995. http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/tutor/case_studies/turkish/turkterm.html, accessed February 24, 2015. We can define descent as bilateral or cognatic when the characteristics of our status are transmitted through both parents and we belong to both parents’ kinship groups. bride price. Kinship was regarded as the theoretical and methodological core of social anthropology in the early and middle part of the 20th century. Descent - AnthroBase - Dictionary of Anthropology: A searchable database of anthropological texts. Descent groups help to define the pool of potential mates, the group of people who are obligated to help in economic and political issues, and may even dictate which religion is followed, particularly in unilineal descent groups. (1983). The fact or process of being derived or developing from a source: a paper tracing the descent of the novel from old picaresque tales. Goody, J. These include name, surname, heritage, and so on. These include name, surname, heritage, and so on. Many American anthropologists, following Murdock (1949), regard a "clan" as the In Congo, for example, the husband lives in the same village as his father and sons (patrilocal residence) but belongs and inherits goods from his matrilineal descent group (matrilineal descent). Cultural recognition of children as kin of one or both parents is basis for the descent concept. theory. Cards Return to Set Details. In bilateral systems, children are equally descended through both parents. Consanguinity may exist, but it is in no way a necessary requirement. … The anthropology of kinship is about the socially transmitted information - in a word, culture - in which behaviour towards kin is embedded. The Nuer in Sudan, as well as the ancient Romans, have kinship groups of typical patrilineal or agnatic descent. A combination of matrilineal and patrilineal descent. alliescheider18. Although comparative studies gradually abandoned an explicit evolutionist agenda, there remained an implicit evolutionary cast to the way in which kinship studies were framed. Write. Undergraduate 1. When family is reckoned along the mother’s line the group is matrilineal. Inheritance is allocated equally between siblings. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. Crapo, Richley. Extending our discussion of kinship and descent, a kinship group (either lineage or clan) may be of matrilineal, patrilineal, or double descent. Family of orientation: Definition. Sign up here. Paris: Mouton. Some societies trace through both parents (e.g., Canada and the United States). ), The development of family and marriage in Europe (pp. In the common British anthropological sense, a descent group, usually consisting of several lineages, between which shared descent from an ancestor (or ancestress) is assumed but cannot actually be demonstrated (NG-164; RF 49). In J. Goody & L. Roper (Eds. In this arrangement Ego is a member of two separate and fundamentally distinct groups: a uterine group through his mother (in red) and an agnatic group through his father (in blue). When family is reckoned along the father’s line the group is patrilineal. We call these corporate descent groups. fields of anthropology - physical, linguistics, sociocultural, and archaeology. Married couples live away from their parents. A very inclusive definition is two or more people who define themselves as a family. Tuareg. Dumont, L. (1971). Click here to study/print these flashcards. Just as it applies to individuals, descent can pertain to groups when group members biologically descend from a common ancestor or when they declare this to be the case, as slaves did by assuming membership of their owner’s kinship group. Parents also determine our membership in kinship groups: our mother’s, our father’s, or both. Cards Return to Set Details. Whether the group is of matrilineal, patrilineal, or double descent depends on whether its members claim a common ancestor (who may be an existing or mythical person) and whether their characteristics are determined through the mother, the father, or both. Lévi-Strauss, C. (1949). Ambilineal systems require children to choose either the mother or father’s side of the family to be reckoned relatives. Matrilineal and patrilineal descent refer to the mother's or father's sib (or other group), respectively. If EGO chooses the mother’s side, then everyone marked in orange would be considered family. Mondal adds that kinship sets guidelines for interactions between people and defines the proper, acceptable relationship between father and daughter, brother and sister, or husband and wife, for example. In societies that regard some races or ethnic groups of people as dominant or superior and others as subordinate or inferior, hypodescent refers to the automatic assignment by the dominant culture of children of a mixed union or sexual relations between members of different socioeconomic groups or ethnic groups to the subordinate group. Boston: McGraw Hill Higher Education. A matriline is traced through the mother’s family line and partrilines are traced through the father’s. STUDY. Descent groups usually appear organized in such a way that enables them to make political, religious, or social decisions affecting their members. Fox, R. (1984). Also see "extended family," "nuclear family," U.S. Census Bureau definitions. Additional Anthropology Flashcards . Bilateral descent refers to descent derived from both sibs equally. Both men and women are included in the patrilineage It is a way of showing respect for the bride and her parents. This is not the same as bilateral descent. A system of descent in which individuals receive some rights and obligations from the father's side of the family and others from the mother's side, - A form of descent in which a person chooses to affiliate with a kin group through either the male or the female line, - A type of kinship system in which individuals emphasize both their mother's kin and their father's kin relatively equally, The married couple lives with … This descent was common among the Iroquois Native Americans, and it still happens in the Hopi tribe. Descent. Tracing of relationship through males and females. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, p. 366-370. There are two basic descent systems: corporate and cognatic. Created. ( noun) Tracing an individual’s descent through the father’s male line and the mother’s female line. This type of descent results in descent groups which are non-unilineal in the sense that descent passes either through women or men, contrary to unilineal systems, whether patrilineal or matrilineal. Family of procreation : Definition. 222-239). Normally, but not always, the clans are exogamous, or out-marrying: marriage within the clan is forbidden and regarded as a form of incest. The symbols shown here are usually employed. Tracing descent through males only. These theories are known as descent theories. Bilineal Descent. Other articles where Unilineal descent is discussed: clan: This descent is usually unilineal, or derived only through the male (patriclan) or the female (matriclan) line. the cognatic pattern of descent in which an individual is both a member of his mother's matrilineage and his father's patrilineage. Term. Kinship is reckoned in a number of different ways around the world, resulting in a variety of types of descent patterns and kin groups. Note that sociocultural anthropology and ethnology are closely related fields of study. (noun) Tracing an individual’s descent either through the father or mother as chosen by the individual. It is worthy to note their close link, stemming from a common social and biological character (only the former being necessary). In the Ashanti in Ghana, children inherit their fathers’ “spirit” as a characteristic of their status, but they belong to their mothers’ kinship groups, with whom they cohabit. The individuals indicated in blue constitute the patrilineal descendants of a common ancestor. Cognatic descent is also referred to as non-unilineal descent and there are two types of cognatic descent: bilateral and ambilineal. Because descent systems determine the kinship group to which individuals belong and with whom they usually cohabit, descent also appears related to the location of residence of both individuals and groups. 2010. Systematic Kinship Terminologies. 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