Iroquois kinship is a kinship system used to define
familyIn human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...
. Identified by Lewis Henry Morgan in his 1871 work
Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family, the Iroquois system is one of the six major kinship systems (
EskimoEskimo kinship is a concept of kinship used to define family in anthropology. Identified by Lewis Henry Morgan in his 1871 work Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family, the Eskimo system was one of six major kinship systems .-Kinship system:The Eskimo system places no...
,
HawaiianHawaiian kinship is a kinship system used to define family. Identified by Louis Henry Morgan in his 1871 work Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family, the Hawaiian system is one of the six major kinship systems .-Kinship system:Within common typologies, the...
, Iroquois,
CrowCrow kinship is a kinship system used to define family. Identified by Lewis Henry Morgan in his 1871 work Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family, the Crow system is one of the six major kinship systems .-Kinship system:The system is somewhat similar to the Iroquois system, but...
,
OmahaOmaha kinship is the system of terms and relationships used to define family in Omaha tribal culture. Identified by Lewis Henry Morgan in his 1871 work Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family, the Omaha system is one of the six major kinship systems which he identified...
, and
SudaneseSudanese kinship is a kinship system used to define family. Identified by Lewis Henry Morgan in his 1871 work Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family, the Sudanese system is one of the six major kinship systems .The Sudanese kinship system is the most complicated...
).
Kinship system
The system has both classificatory and descriptive terms. In addition to gender and generation, Iroquois kinship also distinguishes between parental siblings of opposite sexes. Parental siblings of the
same sex are considered blood relatives (i.e., 'Parents'). Parental siblings of
differing sex are labeled as "Aunt" or "Uncle" as the situation necessitates. Thus, one's mother's sister is also called mother, and one's father's brother is also called father; however, one's mother's brother is called uncle, and one's father's sister is called aunt.
Children of the parental generation (that is, children of parental siblings of the same sex) are considered siblings (
parallel cousinIn discussing consanguineal kinship in anthropology, a parallel cousin is a cousin from a parent's same sex sibling, while a cross cousin is from a parent's opposite-sexed sibling...
s). The children of an Aunt or an Uncle are
not siblings, they are instead cousins (cross cousins specifically).
Marriage
Ego (the subject from whose perspective the kinship is based) is encouraged to marry his cross cousins but discouraged from marrying his
parallel cousinIn discussing consanguineal kinship in anthropology, a parallel cousin is a cousin from a parent's same sex sibling, while a cross cousin is from a parent's opposite-sexed sibling...
s. New
genetic materialGenetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
is constantly brought into the pool via Ego's father's sister's (Aunt's) husband or Ego's mother's brother's (Uncle's) wife. The system also is useful in reaffirming alliances between related lineages or
clanA clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clan members may be organized around a founding member or apical ancestor. The kinship-based bonds may be symbolical, whereby the clan shares a "stipulated" common ancestor that is a...
s.
Usage
The term Iroquois comes from the six Iroquois tribes of northeastern North America. Some groups in other countries also happen to be independently organized for kinship by the Iroquois system. It is commonly found in
unilineal descentUnilineality is a system of determining descent groups in which one belongs to one's father's or mother's lineage. Both patrilineality and matrilineality are types of unilineal descent....
groups. These include:
- The entire population of South India
South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...
;
- The Dravidian population of India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Sri LankaSri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
;
- The Anishinaabe
Anishinaabe or Anishinabe—or more properly Anishinaabeg or Anishinabek, which is the plural form of the word—is the autonym often used by the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Algonquin peoples. They all speak closely related Anishinaabemowin/Anishinaabe languages, of the Algonquian language family.The meaning...
population of North America, which includes the Algonquins, NipissingThe Nipissing First Nation consists of first nation people of Ojibwa and Algonquin descent who have lived in the area of Lake Nipissing in the Canadian province of Ontario for about 9,400 years. Though in history known by many names, they are generally considered part of the Anishinaabe peoples,...
, MississaugasThe Mississaugas are a subtribe of the Anishinaabe-speaking First Nations people located in southern Ontario, Canada. They are closely related to the Ojibwa...
, Ojibwe, SaulteauxThe Saulteaux are a First Nation in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, Canada.-Ethnic classification:The Saulteaux are a branch of the Ojibwe nations. They are sometimes also called Anihšināpē . Saulteaux is a French term meaning "people of the rapids," referring to...
, OdawaThe Odawa or Ottawa, said to mean "traders," are a Native American and First Nations people. They are one of the Anishinaabeg, related to but distinct from the Ojibwe nation. Their original homelands are located on Manitoulin Island, near the northern shores of Lake Huron, on the Bruce Peninsula in...
and PotawatomiThe Potawatomi are a Native American people of the upper Mississippi River region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a member of the Algonquian family. In the Potawatomi language, they generally call themselves Bodéwadmi, a name that means "keepers of the fire" and that was applied...
. Many of these people were traditional neighbors to the Iroquois, but they spoke languages of the AlgonquianThe Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...
family.
South India and Sri Lanka
The entire
HinduHindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
population of
South IndiaSouth India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...
, numbering in the vicinity of 250 million people, uses the kinship tradition described above. This includes not only the traditional encouragement of wedding ties between cross-cousins, but also the use of kinship TERMS in the following format:
- One's mother's sister is also called mother, and her husband is called father;
- One's father's brother is also called father, and his wife is called mother;
- But, one's mother's brother is called father-in-law, and his wife is called mother-in-law; and,
- One's father's sister is called mother-in-law, and her husband is called father-in-law
Parallel cousinIn discussing consanguineal kinship in anthropology, a parallel cousin is a cousin from a parent's same sex sibling, while a cross cousin is from a parent's opposite-sexed sibling...
s are considered siblings. It is forbidden for Ego to wed them. Cross cousins are NOT considered siblings but termed Cousins; Ego may wed them.
See also
- Family
In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...
- Kinship and descent
- Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
- Cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans, collecting data about the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities. Anthropologists use a variety of methods, including participant observation,...
- Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
- List of anthropologists
Sources