Practice question · Multiple choice
Many societies use one term for father's brother's children and another for father's sister's children, though both are first cousins by blood. What does that encode?
Hints
- In a patrilineal system, whose children stay in your father's lineage?
- Ask which cousins are marriageable in such a system, and which are treated as siblings.
Show the answer
C. Descent group membership: inside your lineage or outside
Why
Kin terms are a social map rather than a genetic one: your father's brother's children share your lineage and your father's sister's children do not, so one set is marriageable and the other is not. Genetically the two are identical, which is exactly the point, the terminology tracks the group, not the blood.
Practise Kinship and Family Systems
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More questions on Kinship and Family Systems
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