Fictive kinship is the process of giving someone a
kinshipKinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through either biological, cultural, or historical descent. In anthropology the kinship system includes people related both by descent and marriage, while usage in biology includes descent and mating...
title and treating them in many ways as if they had the actual kinship relationship implied by the title. People with this relationship are known as
fictive kin. Fictive kinship is also known as
relatedness.
Fictive kinship is seen by most current anthropologists as working alongside (or within) but not replacing traditional
kinshipKinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through either biological, cultural, or historical descent. In anthropology the kinship system includes people related both by descent and marriage, while usage in biology includes descent and mating...
.
Janet Carsten developed the idea of "relatedness" in response to
David M. SchneiderDavid Murray Schneider was an American cultural anthropologist, best known for his studies of kinship and as a major proponent of the symbolic anthropology approach to cultural anthropology. He received his B.S. in 1940 and his M.S. from Cornell University in 1941...
's 1984 work on Symbolic Kinship.
Fictive kinship is the process of giving someone a
kinshipKinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through either biological, cultural, or historical descent. In anthropology the kinship system includes people related both by descent and marriage, while usage in biology includes descent and mating...
title and treating them in many ways as if they had the actual kinship relationship implied by the title. People with this relationship are known as
fictive kin. Fictive kinship is also known as
relatedness.
Fictive kinship is seen by most current anthropologists as working alongside (or within) but not replacing traditional
kinshipKinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through either biological, cultural, or historical descent. In anthropology the kinship system includes people related both by descent and marriage, while usage in biology includes descent and mating...
.
Janet Carsten developed the idea of "relatedness" in response to
David M. SchneiderDavid Murray Schneider was an American cultural anthropologist, best known for his studies of kinship and as a major proponent of the symbolic anthropology approach to cultural anthropology. He received his B.S. in 1940 and his M.S. from Cornell University in 1941...
's 1984 work on Symbolic Kinship. Carsten developed her initial ideas from studies with the Malays in looking at what was socialized and biological. Here she uses the idea of relatedness to move away from a pre-constructed analytics opposition which exists in anthropological thought between the biological and the social. Carsten argued that relatedness should be described in terms of indigenous statements and practices, some of which fall outside what anthropologists have conventionally understood as kinship.
A noted
GurungThe Gurung is an ethnic group from the Central region of Nepal. They live primarily in West Nepal’s Gandaki zone, specifically Lamjung, Kaski, Tanahu, Gorkha, Parbat and Syangja districts as well as the Manang district around the Annapurna mountain range. Some live in the Baglung, Okhaldhunga and...
tradition is the institution of "Rodi" where teenagers form fictive kinship bonds and become Rodi members to socialize, perform communal tasks, and find marriage partners.
In
Western cultureWestern culture refers to cultures of European origin.The term "Western culture" is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and technologies...
, a person may refer to close friends of one's parents as "aunt" or "uncle" (and their children as "cousin"), or may refer to close friends as "brother" or "sister". In particular, college fraternities and sororities usually use "brother" and "sister" to refer to members of the organization.
Compadrazgo, common membership in a unilineal descent group, and legal
adoptionAdoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another who is not kin and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
are among the phenomena which are described as examples of fictive kinship.
Fictive kinship was discussed by Jenny White in her work on female migrant workers in
IstanbulIstanbul is the largest city in Turkey and fifth largest city proper in the world with a population of 12.6 million. Istanbul is also a megacity, as well as the cultural and financial centre of Turkey. The city covers 39 districts of the Istanbul province...
. In her work she draws on ideas of production and the women she works with being drawn together through 'webs of indebtedness' through which the women refer to each other as kin.
External links