What is Kinship?
[[Image:William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) - Fraternal Love (1851).png|thumb|right|William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Fraternal Love]] '''Kinship''' is the most basic principle of putting [[individual]]s into social [[group]]s, [[role]]s, and [[Category|categories]]. The basic sort of kinship is to belong to the same [[family]] by [[birth]]. == Kinship == Kinship tells us how we are related to our family or each other, through our biology and history. Kinship can be a complex system of social groups. It is a universal system as everyone has a family. Some small and large scale societies use kinship not only for human reproduction but for “economic transactions, the political system and [their] religious beliefs” (J.Hendry, 1999). == History == The [[Anthropology|anthropologist]] [[Lewis H. Morgan]] invented kinship studies. In the 1850s and 1860s he watched the [[Iroquois]], a Native American group in the [[Northeastern United States]]. He was mostly interested in what was keeping societies together. He was the first to state the different types of kinship systems that exist, in his book, called ‘Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family’. == Types == There are two main types of kinship. '''Consanguinity''' means to be related by blood. Laws in some countries use the amount of consanguinity between two people. For instance, deciding who is allowed to be married. It can also be used to decide who can receive property after death if there is no will. Many religions also use the amount of consanguinity to define acceptable practices. '''Affinity''' means to be related by social processes, like [[marriage]] or [[adoption]]. There are also legal and religious definitions for acceptable amounts of affinity. == Descent == There are two types of descent involved in kinship. ''Patrilineal'' are the relations that come from the father’s blood line. ''Matrilineal'' are the relations that come from the mother’s blood line. ==Examples of kinship== * [[parent]] ([[father]] or [[mother]]) * [[child]]