KINSHIP

KINSHIP
REFERS TO THE WORD “WEB OF
RELATIONSHIPS” THAT HUMANS FORM AS
PART OF A FAMILY, WHICH IS THE SMALLEST
UNIT OF SOCIETY. FERRARO AND ANDREATTA
[2010] DEFINED FAMILY AS “A SOCIAL AND
ECONOMIC UNIT CONSIST OF ONE OR MORE
PARENTS AND THEIR CHILDREN”. THERE ARE
SEVERAL POINTS THAT YOU CAN LEARN FROM
THIS DEFINITION.
1. A FAMILY IS A SOCIOECONOMIC UNIT – What makes a group of individuals a family is
their dependency on one another with regard to their social and economic activities.
2. A FAMILY CAN HAVE ONE OR MORE PARENTS – In the society that you grow up in, a
family usually consists of two parents. However, this is not the norm for other societies
who would have multiple parents due to multiple marriage.
3. A FAMILY CAN HAVE PARENTS WHO ARE NOT MARRIED – Although the marriage of
parents is important in religious countries it is not a prerequisite in other societies.
4. A FAMILY CAN HAVE PARENTS WITH SAME GENDER – Although same sex marriage is
illegal in most countries, some societies allow the marriage of individuals with the
same sex.
5. A FAMILY SHOULD HAVE ATLEAST ONE CHILD – One of the most crucial elements of a
family is the existence of children. Without a child a couple remains to be a couple and
not a family.
• SYMBOLS OF KINSHIP DIAGRAM

BIG IDEA
THE FAMILY IS THE PRIMARY SOCIOECONOMIC UNIT WHEREIN AN INDIVIDUAL
LEARNS HIS/HER SOCIAL ROLES.
• THE TWO PRIMARY PURPOSES OF A FAMILY [1] TO ORIENT THE INDIVIDUAL OF THE
NORMS OF THE SOCIETY AND [2] TP PROVIDE PHYSICAL SUPPORT AS THE INDIVIDUAL
MATURES. THIS IS SEEN IN THE TWO TYPES OF NUCLEAR FAMILY.
• FAMILIES OF PROCREATION AND ORIENTATION

• EGO IS PART OF TWO TYPES OF FAMILIES: THE FAMILY OF ORIENTATION AND THE
FAMILY OR PROCREATION. IN HER FAMILY OF ORIENTATION, SHE LEARNED SOCIETAL
NORMS AND ROLES FROM HER FATHER, MOTHER, AND BROTHER, AND THIS FAMILY
SERVED AS HER PRIMARY SUPPORT GROUP WHILE GROWING UP. IN HER FAMILY OF
PROCREATION, CONSISTING OF HER HUSBAND, SON, AND DAUGHTER, EGO
NEGOTIATES AND CREATES HER OWN CONCEPT OF FAMILY, PERPETUATING THE
VALUES ACQUIRED FROM HER FAMILY OF ORIENTATION.
 KINSHIP BY BLOOD
• One factor that allows an individual to identify another individual as a
family member is through consanguinity, popularly called as blood
relatives. This type of kinship links individual based on their genetic
relations. In anthropology, there are main descent rules that are recognize.

UNILINEAL DESCENT
Refers to tracing kinship relations through one sex group only, either
male or female. There are two types of unilineal descents: matrilineal and
patrilineal descent. Matrilineal and patrilineal descent involves tracing kinship
through the female line, where surnames and inheritances are passed from
one female to another within the family.
 MATRILINEAL DESCENT GROUP
THE FIGURE DEPICTS OFFSPRING INHERITING DARKER COLOR FROM THE FEMALES, SYMBOLIZING
MATRILINEAL DESCENT. IN THE MINANGKABAU ETHNIC GROUP OFF WEST SUMATRA, INDONESIA, MATRILINEAGE IS
PRACTICED WHERE LAND AND PROPERTY PASS FROM MOTHER TO DAUGHTER. MEN HANDLE POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS
MATTERS IN THIS SOCIETY. MATRILINEAL DESCENT IS SYNONYMOUS WITH UTERINE DESCENT.
IN PATRILINEAL DESCENT INVOLVES TRACING KINSHIP EXCLUSIVELY THROUGH THE MALE LINE, ENSURING
NAME AND INHERITANCES PASS TO MALE OFFSPRING ONLY, WHILE FEMALES JOIN NEW FAMILIES THROUGH MARRIAGE.
KNOWN AS AGNATIC DESCENT, IT’S PREVALENT IN MANY ASIAN SOCIETIES, NOTABLY AMONG THE CHINESE , WHO IS
STRICTLY ADHERE TO PATRILINEAL KINSHIP, EMPHASIZING LINEAGE THROUGH THE MALE LINE.
PATRILINEAL DESCENT
IT ILLUSTRATES MALES PASSING DOWN DARKER COLOR TO ALL OFFSPRING, BUT FEMALES CANNOT
TRANSMIT IT TO THEIR CHILDREN. IN TRADITIONAL CHINESE KINSHIP RECORDS, ONLY MOTHERS ARE LISTED, WHILE
FEMALE CHILDREN ARE OMITTED, REFLECTING THE BELIEF THAT THEY MARRY INTO OTHER FAMILIES AND ARE THUS
EXCLUDED FROM LINEAGE DOCUMENTATION.
BILATERAL DESCENT
THIS ALLOWS INDIVIDUAL TO TRACE KINSHIP TIES ON BOTH SIDES OF THE FAMILY, RECOGNIZING BOTH
PARENTS RELATIVES AS THEIR OWN. THIS LIMITS THE EXTENT OF KINSHIP TIES THAT CAN BE RECOGNIZED, USUALLY TO
IMMEDIATE FAMILY MEMBERS. IN SOME CASES, TIES EXTEND TO FAMILY MEMBERS OF SPOUSES, FORMING A KINDRED
GROUP. HOWEVER, THIS GROUP RISKS DISSOLUTION WHEN CONNECTIONS TO A COMMON RELATIVE ARE LOST, SUCH
AS THROUGH DEATH.
 Expansion on unilineal descent groups leads to the
formation of clans, observed among people who believed in
unilineal relations from a common ancestor. Unlike earlier
unilineal descent groups, clan members cannot specify their
exact relations, often rendering the ancestor as a mythical
figure. Native American clans contribute animal
characteristics to ancestors, known as totems, and use
animal symbols to represent their group. Totem poles are
erected to North America by Native American clans to
commemorate their family’s history.
TOTEM POLE IN CANADA
The Lenape Native Americans, also known as the Delaware Indians, organize
themselves into three phratries, each compromising 12 clans named after animals and
plants. For instance, within the phratry of Turkey [pul-la-ook], there are clans such as Big
Bird, Bird’s Cry, Eye Pain, Scratch the Path, Opossum Ground, Old Shin, Drift Log, Ground
Scratcher, Living in the water, Root Digger, Red Face, and Pine Region. This kinship
structure emphasizes male-line descent and fosters a sense of brotherhood and familial
connection among clans within each phratry. The totems of the clans are evident in the
seal of the Lenape phratries.

SEAL OF THE LENAPE

The Kariera, an Australian Aboriginal group, practices a kinship system based on
moiety, a type of unilineal group. Unlike phratries, moieties aim to establish a sustainable
systemic balance within society by dividing it into two distinct groups. These groups have
reciprocal responsibilities, promoting equality in accessing economic and political values.
Intermarriage between the moieties strengthens the bonds between them, contributing to
social cohesion.
 KINSHIP BY MARRIAGE
Marriage is defined as the “socially or ritually recognized union or legal
contract between spouses that establishes rights and obligations between
them, between them and their children, and between them and their in-laws”.
It is believed that all societies have a form of marriage that makes it a
cultural universal.

• There are four types of families based on marriage systems: patrifocal and
matrifocal, monogamous, polygamous, and extended.
 PATRIFOCAL AND MATRIFOCAL
A patrifocal or matrifocal family is centered around one parent, either the father or the mother, and
can be associated with patriarchal or matriarchal structures respectively. This doesn’t necessarily mean
there’s only one parent, but rather that one is considered more significant due to economic or political roles
within the family and society.

MONOGAMOUS
This type of family compromises a single couple and their children, commonly known as the nuclear
family. It’s prevalent across most societies allowing remarriage after divorce or the death of a spouse, serial
monogamy occurs, where individuals may have multiple spouses sequentially.

POLYGAMOUS
Polygamy encompasses two main forms: polyandry and polygyny. Polyandry, practiced in Tibet,
allows a woman to marry multiple husbands, often brothers, aiming to preserve land ownership through
generations, vital for agricultural families. On the other hand, polygyny permits a man to marry multiple
woman, commonly seen in Islamic societies. In some instances, these woman are sisters, known as sororal
polygyny, fostering a more harmonious and supportive co-wife dynamic compared to unrelated co-wives.
 EXTENDED FAMILY
Extended family arrangements, common in Filipino and other Asian societies,
involve multiple married couples and their children residing together, often including
married parents and their married offspring. Additionally, rituals like the compadrazgo
system, prevalent in Spanish-influenced regions, incorporate individuals into a family by
making them godparents to a family member’s child, as seen in the Filipino practice of
having ninongs and ninangs for events like baptisms, confimations, and marriages.

RECONSTITUTED FAMILY
Reconstituted families, though not traditional, are increasingly common in
countries with divorce and legal separations. They involve spouses who were previously
married, bringing children from those marriages into a new union. These families blend
biological and stepchildren, introducing concepts like stepmothers, half siblings, and
stepsiblings into the dynamic.
 POST MARITAL RESIDENCY RULES
One of the biggest questions that newlyweds have to answer is where to live and
build a family after marriage. Every society has its own rules and traditions on post marital
residency. Anthropology has identified seven major residency patterns: patrilocal,
matrilocal, avunculocal, neolocal, natalocal, matrifocal, and andmbilocal.

• PATRILOCAL RESIDENCE
In traditional societies, particularly those practicing patrilineal descent, it’s
customary for a woman to move to her husband’s family home upon marriage. This
arrangement, known as virilocal residence, fosters integration into the husband’s lineage
without necessarily emphasizing the creation of a distinct patrilineal descent.

• MATRILOCAL RESIDENCE
Upon marriage, uxorilocal residence expects the husband to move in with his wife’s
mother’s household, while matrilineal descent goes further, integrating the husband and
wife’s children into the maternal line, establishing a lineage through the mother’s side.
• NEOLOCAL RESIDENCE
A nuclear family arrangement involves both spouses leaving their respective
households to create their own, often in a different locality. This supports the formation of
nuclear households, common in developed and industrialized societies, typically
compromising a parent and a child.
• AVUNCULOCAL RESIDENCE
The residency pattern involves two transfers: initially, married couples reside
with the husband’s father, practicing virilocality. Once the children reach adulthood, they
relocate to live with their maternal uncle, contributing to the formation of a patrilineage.
This system balances the roles of both parental lineages in upbringing and lineage
continuity.
• NATALOCAL RESIDENCE
The arrangement allows spouses to maintain separate households after
marriage. Meetings are arranged as they don’t live together. Children can choose which
parent’s household to join, with patrilineal descent if joining the father and matrilineal
descent if joining the mother.
• MATRIFOCAL RESIDENCE
The residency rule described involves children residing solely with their mother
due to the father’s inability to provide support, making the mother the sole provider and
caregiver. This arrangement differs from uxorilocality and matrilocality, where both
spouses typically cohabit.
• AMBILOCAL RESIDENCE
The residence pattern described is called bilateral descent, where couples have
the option to live with either the wife’s or husband’s extended families, with multiple
married children and couples living together in one household.
• TRANSNATIONAL FAMILIES
Globalization increased migration have led to alternative residency patterns
based on economic opportunities rather than lineage, resulting in transnational families
where members live in different countries. The overseas Filipino worker [OFW] phenomenon
exemplifies this, with parents working abroad while their children stay in the Philippines for
education.
POLITICS OF
KINSHIP
Kinship can extend beyond social ties to influence politics,
leading to the formation of political alliances and
dynasties. These dynasties involve the continuous rule of
one family, either through succession or holding multiple
political positions. The compadrazgo system further
strengthens these alliances, often based on pseudo-kinship
rather than shared political ideologies. To combat potential
corruption, laws like Article 2 Section 26 of the 1987
Philippine Constitution aim to prevent political dynasties.
However, despite legal efforts, political landscape due to
varying interpretations of the law.
Thank you
Members:
EINMARIE SUZANNE FRANCISCO
HERA SANTOS
MARY JOY TORILLA
RHIA ARGONSOLA BABAC
JOMELL RAYOS
MARK LAWRENCE SANTOS