Eskimo kinship (also referred to as Lineal 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 Eskimo system is one of the six major kinship systems (Eskimo, Hawaiian, Iroquois, Crow, Omaha, and Sudanese). Kinship and descent is one of the major concepts of cultural anthropology. ... A family of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in 1997 A family is a domestic group of people, or a number of domestic groups, typically affiliated by birth or marriage, or by comparable legal relationships including domestic partnership, adoption, surname and in some cases ownership (as was the case in the Roman... Lewis H. Morgan Lewis Henry Morgan (November 21, 1818 – December 17, 1881) is considered to be the Father of American anthropology, although his professional life was in the field of law. ... 1871 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Hawaiian kinship (also referred to as the Generational system) is a kinship system used to define family. ... Iroquois kinship (also known as Bifurcate merging) is a kinship system used to define family. ... Crow kinship is a kinship system used to define family. ... Omaha kinship is a kinship system used to define family. ...

Kinship system

The Eskimo system places no distinction between patrilineal and matrilineal relatives, instead focusing on differences in kinship distance (the closer the relative is, the more distinguished). The system also emphasizes the nuclear family, identifying directly only the mother, father, brother, and sister (lineal relatives). All other relatives are grouped together into categories. It uses both classificatory and descriptive terms, differentiating between gender, generation, lineal relatives (realtives in the direct line of descent), and collateral relatives (blood relatives not in the direct line of descent). Inuit woman Inuit (Inuktitut syllabics: ᐃᓄᐃᑦ, singular Inuk or Inuq / ᐃᓄᒃ) is a general term for a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples of the Arctic who descended from the Thule. ... A nuclear family (sometimes known in the British sociological term, cornflake family) is a household consisting of two married, heterosexual parents and their legal children (siblings), as distinct from the extended family. ...

Parental siblings are distinguished only by their sex (Aunt, Uncle). All children of these individuals are lumped together regardless of sex (Cousins). Unlike the Hawaiian system, Ego's parents are clearly distinguished from their siblings. Hawaiian kinship (also referred to as the Generational system) is a kinship system used to define family. ...

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (900x296, 11 KB)Graphic of the Eskimo kinship system, authored by the uploader. ...

Occurrence

The Eskimo system is comparatively rare among the world's kinship systems and is at present used in most advanced Western societies (such as those of modern-day Europe or North America). A small number of food-foraging peoples also use it (such as the !Kung tribe of Africa). World map showing location of Europe When considered a continent, Europe is the worlds second-smallest continent in terms of area, with an area of 10,600,000 km² (4,140,625 square miles), making it larger than Australia only. ... World map showing location of North America A satellite composite image of North America North America is a continent in the northern hemisphere, bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west... In anthropology, the hunter-gatherer way of life is that led by certain societies of the Neolithic Era based on the exploitation of wild plants and animals. ... Kung-ekoka or !Xũ or !Kung as it is often spelled in English, is a Northern Khoisan language of Namibia, Angola, and Botswana. ... Africa is the worlds second-largest continent and second most populous after Asia. ...

The system is largely used in bilineal societies where the dominant relatives are the immediate family. In most Western societies, the nuclear family represents an independent social and economic group, further emphasizing the immediate kinship. The tendency in Western societies to live apart and interact with extended family only on a ceremonial basis also reinforces this. Bilinear descent (or bilateral descent) is a kinship system in which descent is traced through both maternal and paternal ancestors. ...

Terminology

While the term "Eskimo" has now dropped out of favor and is generally considered to be somewhat archaic, or even offensive, keep in mind that the system was named during the Victorian era. The Alaskan tribes Morgan referred to are more appropriately referred to as the Inuit (although some Arctic Alaskan groups - most notably the Yupik - that do not speak Inuit languages object to being called "Inuit", and will often use the term "Eskimo"). Queen Victoria (shown here on the morning of her Accession to the Throne, 20 June 1837) gave her name to the historic era The Victorian Era of Great Britain is considered the height of the British industrial revolution and the apex of the British Empire. ... State nickname: The Last Frontier, The Land of the Midnight Sun Other U.S. States Capital Juneau Largest city Anchorage Governor Frank Murkowski (R) Senators Ted Stevens (R) Lisa Murkowski (R) Official languages English Area 1,067,653 mi² / 1,717,854 km² (1st)  - Land 1,481,347 km²  - Water... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ...

See also

• Iroquois kinship
• Family
• Kinship and descent
• Anthropology
• List of anthropologists

Iroquois kinship (also known as Bifurcate merging) is a kinship system used to define family. ... A family of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in 1997 A family is a domestic group of people, or a number of domestic groups, typically affiliated by birth or marriage, or by comparable legal relationships including domestic partnership, adoption, surname and in some cases ownership (as was the case in the Roman... Kinship and descent is one of the major concepts of cultural anthropology. ... Anthropology (from the Greek word άνθρωπος, human) consists of the study of humankind (see genus Homo). ... See Anthropology. ...

Sources & external links

• William Haviland, Cultural Anthropology, Wadsworth Publishing, 2002. ISBN 053427479X
• The nature of kinship
• The Encyclopedia of North American Indians