Eskimo kinship or Inuit kinship is a category of
kinship used to define
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
organization in
anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...
. Identified by
Lewis Henry Morgan
Lewis Henry Morgan (November 21, 1818 – December 17, 1881) was a pioneering American anthropologist and social theorist who worked as a railroad lawyer. He is best known for his work on kinship and social structure, his theories of social evol ...
in his 1871 work ''Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family'', the Eskimo system was one of six major kinship systems (Eskimo,
Hawaiian,
Iroquois
The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...
,
Crow
A crow is a bird of the genus '' Corvus'', or more broadly a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. Crows are generally black in colour. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not pinned scientifica ...
,
Omaha, and
Sudanese). The system of English-language kinship terms falls into the Eskimo type.
Joint family
The
joint family
An extended family is a family that extends beyond the nuclear family of parents and their children to include aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins or other relatives, all living nearby or in the same household. Particular forms include the stem a ...
system places no distinction between patrilineal and matrilineal relatives; instead, it focuses on differences in kinship distance (the closer the relative is, the more distinctions are made). The system emphasizes the
nuclear family, identifying directly only the mother, father, brother, and sister. All other relatives are grouped together into categories. It uses both
classificatory Classification is a process related to categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated and understood.
Classification is the grouping of related facts into classes.
It may also refer to:
Business, organizat ...
and
descriptive
In the study of language, description or descriptive linguistics is the work of objectively analyzing and describing how language is actually used (or how it was used in the past) by a speech community. François & Ponsonnet (2013).
All acad ...
terms, differentiating between gender, generation, lineal relatives (relatives in the direct line of descent), and collateral relatives (blood relatives not in the direct line of descent). The Eskimo system is defined by its "cognatic" or "bilateral" emphasis - no distinction is made between patrilineal and matrilineal relatives.
Parental siblings are distinguished only by their sex (Aunt, Uncle). All children of these individuals are lumped together regardless of sex (Cousins). Unlike the
Hawaiian system, Ego's parents are clearly distinguished from their siblings.
Occurrence
The Eskimo system is relatively common among the world's kinship systems, at about 10% of the world's societies.
Nature of Kinship
/ref> It is now common in most Western societies (such as those of Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
or Americas
The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World.
Along with th ...
). In addition, it is found among a small number of food-foraging peoples such as the !Kung tribe of Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
and the Eskimos (Inuit-Yupik) for whom it is named.
The system is widely used in non-unilineal societies, where the dominant relatives are the immediate family. In most Western societies, the nuclear family represents an independent social and economic group, which has caused the emphasis on the immediate kinship. The tendency of families in Western societies to live apart also reinforces this.
Terminology
The term ''Eskimo'' is considered pejorative in Canada, and has been replaced there by the term ''Inuit''. The former remains in use in Alaska, though less so than in past decades, because the term includes both Inuit and non-Inuit Native Alaskans
Alaska Natives (also known as Alaskan Natives, Native Alaskans, Indigenous Alaskans, Aboriginal Alaskans or First Alaskans) are the indigenous peoples of Alaska and include Iñupiat, Yupik, Aleut, Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and a number ...
. In Canada, the term ''Inuit kinship'' is therefore widely used instead of ''Eskimo kinship''.
See also
* Kinship and descent
* Kinship terminology
Citations
General and cited sources and external links
* William Haviland, Cultural Anthropology, Wadsworth Publishing, 2002.
The nature of kinship
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eskimo Kinship
Inuit culture
Kinship and descent
Kinship terminology