Reflective Essay On Kinship And Family

During the process of creating my kinship chart, keeping in mind the limit on the relatives that could be listed, I asked myself the question, who am I close with? Furthermore, I only looked at my consanguine relationships, blood relatives, as opposed to affines, non-blood related. I indeed have close friends whom I may consider family; however, when I think of kinship and family, I think of my blood relatives who have been there throughout my life and have helped shaped who I am today. Constructing my kinship chart, I quickly realized that the majority of the relatives whom I consider to be closest with, were on the paternal side of my family; my father’s side. My father’s side is the bigger side of the family because he has two other brothers, my uncles Dino and Kevin, whom both have kids and, in fact, a few of those kids now have kids of their

This is due in part because of my aunt Beth’s, my dad’s brother’s wife, efforts to maintain strong relational ties with the ‘Williamson’ side of the family, which is the last name we use to distinguish my father’s side of the family. Anthropologist Micaela Di Leonardo, highlights the role of women as being the key components for carrying out kinship work in the family. In her work on kinship she explains that women, historically, have been, “involved in three types of work: housework and child care, work in the labor market, and the work of kinship” (Di Leonardo 1987, 442). This expectation for women to be the ones to maintain familial ties is especially present in my family today, as my Aunt does not have a job, however, she is the one who does the cleaning, cooking, and coordinates family events. As a result, I am much closer with my father’s side of the family because we do so much with that part of the family. In contrast, my immediate family is not as close with my mother’s side of the family. Di Leonardo emphasizes the lack of kinship work that is