In law and in cultural anthropology, affinity, as distinguished from consanguinity, is kinship by marriage. It is the relation which each party to a marriage, the husband and wife, bears to the kindred of the other. Affinity is usually described as of three kinds. (1) Direct: that relationship which subsists between the husband and his wife's relations by blood or between the wife and the husband's relations by blood. The marriage having made them one person, the blood relations of each are held as related by affinity in the same degree to the one spouse as by consanguinity to the other. But the relation is only with the married parties themselves, and does not bring those in affinity with them in affinity with each other; so a wife's sister has no affinity to her husband's brother. This is secondary affinity. Collateral affinity is the relationship subsisting between the husband and the relations of his wife's relations. Anthropology (from the Greek word άνθρωπος, humane) consists of the study of humankind (see genus Homo). ... Consanguinity, literally meaning common blood, describes how close a person is related to another in the sense of a family. ... Marriage is a relationship between individuals which has formed the foundation of the family for most societies. ... Husband may refer to: the male spouse in a marriage a husband pillow. ... Marriage is a relationship that plays a key role in the definition of many families. ... Red blood cells (erythrocytes) are present in the blood and help carry oxygen to the rest of the cells in the body Blood is a circulating tissue composed of fluid plasma and cells (red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets). ...

The subject is chiefly important from the matrimonial prohibitions by which the canon law has restricted relations by affinity. Taking the table of degrees within which marriage is prohibited on account of consanguinity, the rule has been thus extended to affinity, so that wherever relationship to a man himself would be a bar to marriage, relationship to his deceased wife will be the same bar, and vice versa on the husband's decease. See affinity (canon law) for more discussion. In Western culture, canon law is the law of the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches. ... Definition In canon law, affinity is a relationship arising from the sexual intercourse of a man and a woman, sufficient for the generation of children, whereby the man becomes related to the womans blood-relatives and the woman to the mans. ...

Briefly, direct affinity is a bar to marriage. This rule has been founded chiefly on interpretations of the eighteenth chapter of Leviticus. Formerly by law in England, marriages within the degrees of affinity were not absolutely null, but they were liable to be annulled by ecclesiastical process during the lives of both parties; in other words, the incapacity was only a canonical, not a civil, disability. By the Marriage Act 1835 all marriages of this kind not disputed before the passing of the act were declared absolutely valid, while all subsequent to it were declared null. This rendered null in England, and not merely voidable, a marriage with a deceased wife's sister or niece. (See consanguinity, marriage.) Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location within the UK Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population – Total (mid-2004) – Total (2001 Census) – Density Ranked 1st UK 50. ... In Western culture, canon law is the law of the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches. ... 1835 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Consanguinity, literally meaning common blood, describes how close a person is related to another in the sense of a family. ... Marriage is a relationship between individuals which has formed the foundation of the family for most societies. ...

References

• See Affinity (In the Bible) an article from the Catholic Encyclopedia
• This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, a publication in the public domain.