Essay On Affinal Kinship

Anthropologists identify two kinds of traditional perceptions of kinship, namely affinal kinship and consanguineal kinship.

Affinal kinship is defined by the oath of marriage: Traditionally believed, when a man got married, a relationship was established with the woman which he got married to, and the woman’s family members too.

Additionally, the man’s family and the woman’s family became one and therefore, a mass of family relationships were formed after the marriage. This means that the new husband of the woman becomes a son-in-law and possibly a brother-in-law, and the new wife of the man becomes a daughter-in-law, and possibly a sister-in-law. Consequently, the couple’s marriage to one another constructs a new family, that is affinal kin.

These definitions prescribed the expected behaviour of one kin to another, and gave the members of the family a code of conduct.

After some dissatisfaction regarding the definitions of family, anthropologists created a new notion of the term ‘family’. This was done by the exploration of people residing in the same house, and researchers came to the conclusion that the actual doing of a resident in a house seems to be more significant than their blood connection. Consequently, blood ties were seen to be unimportant.

Fortes’ Model: The Developmental Cycle of the Domestic Group

A South African anthropologist, Meyer Fortes, introduced the DEVELOPMENTAL CYCLE OF THE DOMESTIC GROUP, which was a notion that replaced the ideal perceptions of a household.

Fortes described that there is a fluctuation within domestic groups over a lifespan, such as the expansion of the family once children are born after marriage, and later on dividing and passing when children and adults become older (Goody, 2009).

The expansion of the domestic group may consist of non-kin members. Usually, these members were given an imaginary kinship in order to create “normal” relationships within the domestic