Kinship by Blood

• Allows an individual to identify another

individual as a family member through
consanguinity.
• Blood relatives – type of kinship links
individuals based on their genetic relations.
• Referred to as descent or the socially accepted
connection between an ancestor and its
succeeding generation.
Unilineal Descent

• Allows an individual to be affiliated to the

descent of one sex group only either the male or
the female.
• Two types of unilineal descent: matrilineal and
patrilineal
1. Matrilineal
Descent

• Referred to as uterine descent.

• Leads an individual to trace kinship relations through the female’s line.
• This implies that the surname and inheritances of a family are passed on
from one female to the another.
• In Asia, the Minangkabau ethnic group of West Sumatra, Indonesia,
practices matrilineage. In society, land and property ownership is passed
on from mother to daughter, leaving the men to deal with political and
religious affairs.
2. Patrilineal
Descent

• Referred to as agnatic descent.

• An individual traces his or her kinship through the male’s line only. This
promotes a passing down of name and inheritance to the male offspring only,
while allowing the female offspring to be a part of another family through
marriage.
• Chinese who are highly patrilineal, enforcing strict kinship relations trace
through the male’s line. In traditional Chinese, the only females recorded are the
mothers. Female children are excluded from the list, as they are believed to be
married off and made part of another family.
• Clan –an expansion of unilineal
descent groups creates a kinship group.
This type of kinship is observed among
groups of people who believe that they
have unilineal relations based on a
common ancestor.

• Phratries –similar to clans, the identity of the kinship originator is usually

unknown, rending him or her as a mythical being. This type of descent was
observed in the highlands of New Guinea, where kinship is traced through
the male line.
• Moiety –similar with phratries in having multiple clans within it, but differs
from a phratry in its function of creating a sustainable systematic balance
within a society.
Bilateral
Descent
• Allows an individual to trace kinship ties on both
sides of the family.
• An individual can recognize both his or her
parents’ relatives as his or her own relatives.
• This provides a limit on the extent by which
kinship ties can be recognized.
• Bilateral descent can only trace EGO’s
immediate family.
Kinship by
Marriage

• Marriage -"socially or ritually recognized union or legal contract between

spouses that establishes rights and obligations between them, between
them and their children, and between them and their in-laws“
• (Haviland et al., 2011). It is believed that all societies have a form of
marriage that makes it a cultural universal.
• Cultural variation produces different perspectives and practices of relating
to marriage.
• Function of marriage: First, it regulates mating and reproduction. Second,
it creates a system that allows for sexual division of labor. Third, it provides
a family dynamics that ensures the provision of needs of children. Last, it
perpetuates economic institutions that are based on family systems.
Four types of families based on marriage
systems:
• Patrifocal and Matrifocal
• This type of family is focused on one parent: a
father (patrifocal) or a mother (matrifocal).
• Patriarchal -rule of the father
• Matriachal- rule of the mother.
• In some situations, one parents is deemed more
important than the other due to the economic or
political he or she holds in the family and in
society.
Monogamous
• This type of family consists of a single couple
and their child or children.
• Referred as nuclear family.
• Most societies in the world have thus type of
family.
• Serial monogamy occurs in societies where
remarriage is allowed after a divorce or death of
the spouse.
Polygamous

• This type of family consists of several parents and their children.

• Two types of polygamous: polyandry and fraternal polyandry
• Polyandry -is a marriage pattern wherein a woman is allowed to marry
several men.
• Fraternal polyandry -women are allowed to marry several husbands
who are at times brothers.
• The primary reason for allowing this practice is the need to preserve
land ownership through generations. If brothers are to marry different
women, they will need to divide the land, which would have detrimental
effect on the entire family that is based on agriculture.
• Polygyny -is a marriage practice that allows a man to marry several
women.
• Sororal polygyny -preferred to facilitate a less competitive environment
in the home, as a sisters would normally be more supportive as co-
wived than women coming from different families.
Extended Family
• This type of family has several married couples and their children
living in one household. This can consists of the married parents
and their married children living in one house. Filipinos and other
Asians societies are known to practice extended family
arrangements as a form of securing care for the elderly members of
the family.
• In some cases, rituals allow for the inclusion of individuals into a
family.
• Comparadrazgo -system that is popular in spanish-influenced
regions of the world.
• Individuals not originally part of the family are made extended
family members by being godparents of a child of one of the actual
family members.
• In the Philippines, this is practiced on our concept of having ninong
and ninang for occasions such as baptism, confirmation, and
marriage.
Reconstituted Family
• Not part of the traditional categories of families,
reconstituted families are a growing percentage of
household classification in countries allowing
divorce and legal seperations. Such families consist
of spouses and children whom the spouses may have
had prior to their marriage or union.
• In this type of family, the current spouses were
previously married and had children.
• These individuals remarked and created a new
family by bringing in their children from their past
marriages and often birthing their own. Concepts
such as stepmothers, half-brothers, and stepsisters
are all part of the existence of reconstituted families.