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Eskimo kinship (or Inuit kinship in Canada) is a category of
kinship
In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...
used to define family organization in anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...
. Identified by Lewis H. Morgan in his 1871 work '' Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family'', the Eskimo
''Eskimo'' () is a controversial Endonym and exonym, exonym that refers to two closely related Indigenous peoples: Inuit (including the Alaska Native Iñupiat, the Canadian Inuit, and the Greenlandic Inuit) and the Yupik peoples, Yupik (or Sibe ...
system was one of six major kinship systems (Eskimo, Hawaiian, Iroquois
The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...
, Crow
A crow is a bird of the genus ''Corvus'', or more broadly, a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not linked scientifically to any certain trait but is rathe ...
, Omaha
Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...
, and Sudanese). The system of English-language kinship terms falls into the Eskimo type.
Joint family
The joint family system places no distinction betweenpatrilineal
Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritanc ...
and matrilineal
Matrilineality, at times called matriliny, is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which people identify with their matriline, their mother's lineage, and which can involve the inheritan ...
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
A nuclear family (also known as an elementary family, atomic family, or conjugal family) is a term for a family group consisting of parents and their children (one or more), typically living in one home residence. It is in contrast to a single ...
, identifying directly only the mother, father, brother, and sister. All other relatives are grouped together into categories. It uses both classificatory
Classification is the activity of assigning objects to some pre-existing classes or categories. This is distinct from the task of establishing the classes themselves (for example through cluster analysis). Examples include diagnostic tests, identif ...
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 aca ...
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.
Usage
The Eskimo system is relatively common among the world's kinship systems, at about 10% of the world's societies. It is now common in most Western societies (such as those of Europe or the Americas). In addition, it is found among a small number of food-foraging peoples such as the ǃKung tribe of Africa and the Inuit (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-InuitNative Alaskans
Alaska Natives (also known as Native Alaskans, Alaskan Indians, or Indigenous Alaskans) are the Indigenous peoples of Alaska that encompass a diverse arena of cultural and linguistic groups, including the Iñupiat, Yupik, Aleut, Eyak, Tling ...
. In Canada, the term ''Inuit kinship'' is therefore widely used instead of ''Eskimo kinship''.
See also
*Kinship terminology
Kinship terminology is the system used in languages to refer to the persons to whom an individual is related through kinship. Different societies classify kinship relations differently and therefore use different systems of kinship terminology; ...
Citations
General and cited sources and external links
* William Haviland, Cultural Anthropology, Wadsworth Publishing, 2002. * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Eskimo Kinship Inuit culture Kinship and descent Kinship terminology