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Avunculate
The avunculate, sometimes called avunculism or avuncularism, is any social institution where a special
relationship exists between an uncle and his sisters' children.[1] This relationship can be formal or informal,
depending on the society. Early anthropological research focused on the association between the avunculate
and matrilineal descent, while later research has expanded to consider the avunculate in general society.

Definition
The term avunculate comes from the Latin avunculus, the maternal uncle.

The 1989 Oxford English Dictionary defines "avunculate" as follows:

"Avunculate. The special relationship existing in some societies between a maternal uncle
and his sister's son; maternal uncles regarded as a collective body.

1920 R. H. LOWIE Prim. Soc. v. 81 Ethnologists describe under the heading of

Avunculocal societies
An avunculocal society is one in which a married couple traditionally lives with the man's mother's eldest
brother, which most often occurs in matrilineal societies. The anthropological term "avunculocal residence"
refers to this convention, which has been identified in about 4% of the world's societies.[3]

This pattern generally occurs when a man obtains his status, his job role, or his privileges from their nearest
elder matrilineal male relative. When a woman's son lives near her brother, he is able to more easily learn
how he needs to behave in the matrilineal role he has inherited.

Cultures with a formal avunculate

According to the Kazakh common law, the avunculate nephews could take anything from the relatives of
the mother up to three times. In the Kyrgyz past a nephew, at a feast at his maternal uncle or grandfather,
could take any horse from their herd or any delicacy.[4]

In the Southwest United States, the Apache tribe practices a form of this, where the uncle is responsible for
teaching the children social values and proper behavior while inheritance and ancestry is reckoned through
the mother's family alone. Modern day influences have somewhat but not completely erased this tradition.
The Chamorros of the Mariana Islands[5] and the Taíno of Turks and Caicos Islands[6] are examples of
societies that have practiced avunculocal residence.

Anthropology research
Research on the avunculate in the early 20th century focused on the association between the avunculate
and patrilineal/matrilineal societies. Franz Boas categorized various avunculate arrangements based on the
location of residence in 1922.[7] Henri Alexandre Juno made the claim that the avunculate in the Tsonga
indicated that society had previously been matrilineal.[8] Alfred Radcliffe-Brown identified the Tsonga
(BaThonga) of Mozambique, the Tongans of the Pacific, and the Nama of Namibia as avunculate societies
as early as 1924. He also expanded the concept to incorporate other family relationships.[8][9]

Later research moved beyond the issue of matrilinealism. Claude Lévi-Strauss incorporating the avunculate
into his "atom of kinship".[10] Jan N. Bremmer argued based on a survey of the Indo-European peoples
that the avunculate is explained by the principle of education outside the (extended) family, and does not
indicate matrilinealism.[11]

Avunculate marriage
In historical (not anthropological) terminology, an avunculate marriage is the marriage of a man with the
daughter of his sister (not explicitly forbidden by the listings in Leviticus 18). In most cultures with
avunculate customs in the sense used by anthropologists, such a marriage would violate incest taboos
governing relations between members of the same matrilineal lineage.

Notes
1. Barnard, Alan; Spencer, Jonathan (2009-12-04). The Routledge Encyclopedia of Social and
Cultural Anthropology (https://books.google.com/books?id=F0aOAgAAQBAJ&q=Avunculate
&pg=PT232). Routledge. ISBN 9781135236403.
2. Oxford English Dictionary. Second Edition 1989. On-line version.
3. Rosman, Abraham and Rubel, Paula G. The Tapestry of Culture: An Introduction to Cultural
Anthropology. Mcgraw-Hill College, 1995. (ISBN 0-07-053955-3)
4. Yu.Zuev, "Early Türks: Sketches of history and ideology", Almaty, Daik-Press, 2002, p. 30,
ISBN 9985-4-4152-9
5. Cunningham, Lawarence J. Ancient Chamorro Society. Bess Press, 1992. (ISBN 1-880188-
05-8)
6. Keegan, William F. Before Columbus: Caonabo’s Homeland (http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/cariba
rch/middle1999.htm), Middle Caicos Earthwatch Report, 1999.
7. Boas, Franz (1922-01-01). "The Avunculate among the Vandau" (https://doi.org/10.1525%2F
aa.1922.24.1.02a00150). American Anthropologist. 24 (1): 95–97.
doi:10.1525/aa.1922.24.1.02a00150 (https://doi.org/10.1525%2Faa.1922.24.1.02a00150).
JSTOR 660075 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/660075).
8. Ryder, J. W.; Blackman, M. B. (2016-09-14). "The Avunculate: A Cross-Cultural Critique of
Claude Levi-Strauss". Cross-Cultural Research. 5 (2): 97–115.
doi:10.1177/106939717000500202 (https://doi.org/10.1177%2F106939717000500202).
S2CID 144308623 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:144308623).
9. Radcliffe-Brown, Alfred (1952). Structure and Function in Primitive Society (http://radicalanth
ropologygroup.org/sites/default/files/pdf/class_text_055.pdf) (PDF). London: Routledge &
Kegan Paul. pp. 15–31.
10. Penner, Hans H. (1998-01-01). Teaching Lévi-Strauss (https://books.google.com/books?id=
S_DnQ82WpaoC&q=levi-strauss+avunculate&pg=PA140). Scholars Press.
ISBN 9780788504907.
11. Bremmer, Jan (1976-01-01). "Avunculate and Fosterage" (http://www.rug.nl/research/portal/p
ublications/avunculate-and-fosterage(062fe6fa-623a-4676-b367-0575eba0ad5b).html).
Journal of Indo-European Studies. 5 (1): 65–78.

References
Kosven, M. O. (1948). "Avunkulat [The Avunculate]". Sovietskaya Etnografiya. 1: 3–46.
Zuev, Yury (2002). Rannie tjurki: očerki istorii i ideologii [Early Türks: Sketches of History
and Ideology]. Almaty: Daik-Press. p. 210. ISBN 9985-4-4152-9.

Further reading
Barnard, Alan (2010). "Avunculate". In Alan Barnard; Jonathan Spencer (eds.). Routledge
Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology (2nd ed.). London and New York:
Routledge. p. 78.
Bachofen, J. J. (1880–86). Antiquarische Briefe (https://archive.org/details/antiquarischebri1
2bachuoft). 2 vols. Strassbourg: Tuebner. Available from the Internet Archive (https://archive.
org/search.php?query=bachofen%20briefe). Reprinted in his Collected Works.
Beekes, R. S. P. (1976). "Uncle and Nephew". Journal of Indo-European Studies. 4 (1): 43–
62.
Bell, Clair Hayden (1922). The Sister's Son in the Medieval German Epic (https://archive.or
g/details/sisterssoninmedi00bellrich). Publications in Modern Philology 10.2. Berkeley, CA:
Berkeley, Calif., University of California Press.
Bloch, Maurice & Dan Sperber (2002). "Kinship and Evolved Psychological Dispositions:
The Mother's Brother Controversy Reconsidered" (http://jeannicod.ccsd.cnrs.fr/docs/00/05/3
2/24/PDF/ijn_00000003_01.pdf) (PDF). Current Anthropology. 43 (5): 723–48.
doi:10.1086/341654 (https://doi.org/10.1086%2F341654). S2CID 13963476 (https://api.sem
anticscholar.org/CorpusID:13963476). Preliminary draft of article (PDF) available here (htt
p://jeannicod.ccsd.cnrs.fr/docs/00/05/32/24/PDF/ijn_00000003_01.pdf).
Bremmer, J. N. (1976). "Avunculate and Fosterage" (https://web.archive.org/web/201107241
64927/http://theol.eldoc.ub.rug.nl/FILES/root/1976/5293/5293.pdf) (PDF). Journal of Indo-
European Studies. 4 (1): 65–78. Archived from the original (http://theol.eldoc.ub.rug.nl/FILE
S/root/1976/5293/5293.pdf) (PDF) on 2011-07-24. Retrieved 2010-08-01.
Bremmer, J. N. (1983). "The Importance of the Maternal Uncle and Grandfather in Archaic
and Classical Greece and Early Byzantium" (http://irs.ub.rug.nl/dbi/442ce957e92bb).
Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik. 50: 173–86.
Bremmer, J. N. (1999). "Fosterage, Kinship and the Circulation of Children in Ancient
Greece". Dialogos: Hellenic Studies Review. 6: 1–20.
Bremmer, R. H. (1980). "The Importance of Kinship. Uncle and Nephew in Beowulf".
Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik. 15: 21–38. doi:10.1163/18756719-015-01-
90000004 (https://doi.org/10.1163%2F18756719-015-01-90000004). hdl:1887/17594 (http
s://hdl.handle.net/1887%2F17594).
Farnsworth, W. O. (1913). Uncle and Nephew in the Old French Chansons de Geste: A
Study in the Survival of Matriarchy (https://archive.org/details/unclenephewinold00farnrich).
New York: New York : Columbia University Press.
Fox, Robin (1967). Kinship and Marriage: An Anthropological Perspective. New York:
Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-27823-2.
 Goody, Jack (1959). "The Mother's Brother and the Sister's Son in West Africa". Journal of
the Royal Anthropological Institute. 89: 61–88.
Jaski, B. (1999). "Cú Chulainn, gormac and dalta of the Ulstermen". CMCS. 37: 1–31.
Korotayev, Andrey (2001). "An Apologia of George Peter Murdock. Division of Labor by
Gender and Postmarital Residence in Cross-Cultural Perspective: A Reconsideration" (http
s://web.archive.org/web/20090306050236/http://eclectic.ss.uci.edu/~drwhite/worldcul/Korota
yev.pdf) (PDF). World Cultures. 12 (2): 179–203. Archived from the original (http://eclectic.ss.
uci.edu/~drwhite/worldcul/Korotayev.pdf) (PDF) on 2009-03-06. Retrieved 2010-08-03.
Lévi-Strauss, Claude (1963) [1945]. Structural Anthropology. New York.
Needham, R. (1962). Structure and Sentiment: A Test Case in Social Anthropology (https://ar
chive.org/details/structuresentime00need). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Ó Cathasaigh, T. (1986). "The Sister's Son in Early Irish Literature". Peritia. 5: 128–60.
doi:10.1484/J.Peri.3.131 (https://doi.org/10.1484%2FJ.Peri.3.131).
Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. (1952) [1924]. Structure and Function in primitive society (https://archi
ve.org/details/structurefunctio00radc). London.

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