Kinship

Kinship is a system of social relations based on descent, marriage, or culturally recognized ties. It organizes belonging, obligations, inheritance, and family identity.

Descent: The tracing of social identity or group membership through lines of ancestry. Descent supplies one of kinship's principal bases for assigning relationships and group membership.
Unilineal descent: A descent system that traces group membership through either the maternal or paternal line. It is one specific way kinship assigns descent-group membership.
Biological relationship: A connection between people grounded in genetic ancestry or reproduction. Biological connection may exist without being treated as kinship, or vice versa.
Kinship care: Child care provided by relatives or other adults with an established kin-like relationship. It turns recognized kin ties into arrangements for children's care.
Consanguinity: A relationship understood as sharing biological ancestry. Consanguinity is one culturally interpreted basis for recognizing kin ties.
Bilateral descent: A descent system that recognizes relatives through both maternal and paternal lines. It contrasts with one-sided descent by recognizing kin on both parental sides.
Nuclear family: A family unit centered on parents and their dependent children. Kinship systems can extend far beyond this comparatively narrow family form.
Clan: A descent-based social group whose members identify with a common ancestor, often symbolic. Clans organize kinship into larger groups that can regulate identity and obligations.
Affinity: A relationship created through marriage or a comparable socially recognized union. Affinity shows how marriage can create kin ties beyond shared ancestry.
Marriage: A socially recognized union that establishes rights and obligations between partners and often their families. Marriage commonly creates affinal relationships between people and groups.

Linked from 72 pages