Everything about Iroquois Kinship totally explained
Iroquois kinship (also known as
bifurcate merging) 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 Iroquois system is one of the six major kinship systems (
Eskimo,
Hawaiian,
Iroquois,
Crow,
Omaha, and
Sudanese).
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 (for example, 'Parents'). However, parental siblings of
differing sex are labelled 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 father-in-law, and one's father's sister is called mother-in-law.
Children of the parental generation (that is, children of parental siblings of the same sex) are considered siblings (
parallel cousins). The children of an Aunt or an Uncle are
not siblings, they're 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 cousins. New
genetic material 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
clans.
Usage
The term Iroquois comes from the
Iroquoian Indians of northeastern North America. However, multiple groups around the globe employ the "Iroquois" system and is fairly commonly found in
unilineal descent groups. These include:
- The entire population of South India;
- The Dravidian population of India and Sri Lanka;
South India and Sri Lanka
The entire
Hindu population of
South India, 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;
However, 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 cousins are considered siblings, and it's forbidden for Ego to wed them. Cross cousins are however NOT siblings but termed Cousins; Ego may wed them.
China
Until recently, the same system was in use in rural Chinese societies.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Iroquois Kinship'.
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