A sibling-in-law is the
spouse
A spouse is a significant other in a marriage. A female spouse is called a wife while a male spouse is called a husband.
Married
The legal status of a spouse, and the specific rights and obligations associated with that status, vary signific ...
of one's
sibling
A sibling is a relative that shares at least one parent with the other person. A male sibling is a brother, and a female sibling is a sister. A person with no siblings is an only child.
While some circumstances can cause siblings to be raised ...
or the sibling of one’s spouse.
More commonly, a sibling-in-law is referred to as a brother-in-law for a male sibling-in-law and a sister-in-law for a female sibling-in-law.
Sibling-in-law also refers to the reciprocal relationship between a person's spouse and their sibling's spouse. In
Indian English
Indian English (IndE, IE) or English (India) is a group of English dialects spoken in the Republic of India and among the Indian diaspora and native to India. English is used by the Government of India for communication, and is enshrined ...
this can be referred to as a co-sibling (specifically a co-sister, for the wife of one's sibling-in-law,
or co-brother, for the husband of one's sibling-in-law
).
Relationships
Siblings-in-law are related by a type 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 ...
called ''
affinity
Affinity may refer to:
Commerce, finance and law
* Affinity (law), kinship by marriage
* Affinity analysis, a market research and business management technique
* Affinity Credit Union, a Saskatchewan-based credit union
* Affinity Equity Pa ...
'' like all in-law relationships. All of these are relations which do not relate to the person directly by blood.
[Cambridge Dictionaries Online.]
Family: non-blood relations
.
Just like the children of one's siblings, the children of one's siblings-in-law are called simply
''nieces'' and ''nephews'' – if necessary, specified whether "by marriage", as opposed to "
by blood" or "by adoption".
If one pair of siblings is married to another pair of siblings, the siblings-in-law are thus doubly related, each of the four both through one's spouse and through one's sibling, while the children of the two couples are
double cousins.
Culture
One study, examining the issue of envy in the triadic system of sibling, sibling-in-law and spouse, concluded that "The sibling-in-law relationship shared similarities with both
spousal and
sibling relationships" and that "Relational closeness and satisfaction for all relationships in the triad were correlated."
In
Islamic law
Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on scriptures of Islam, particularly the Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' refers to immutable, intan ...
(Sharia) and
Jewish law
''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is based on biblical commandments ('' mit ...
(''halakha''), sexual relations between siblings-in-law are prohibited as incestuous, unless the spouse is no longer married. Conversely, in Judaism there was the custom of
yibbum
''Yibbum'' (, ) is the form of levirate marriage found in Judaism. As specified by , the brother of a man who died without children is permitted and encouraged to marry the widow. However, if either of the parties refuses to go through with the ...
, whereby a man had a non-obligatory duty to wed his deceased brother's childless widow, so she might have progeny by him.
Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy (; ) is the fifth book of the Torah (in Judaism), where it is called () which makes it the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament.
Chapters 1–30 of the book consist of three sermons or speeches delivered to ...
25:5–10.
See also
*
Nephew and niece
In the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a niece or nephew is a child of an individual's sibling or sibling-in-law. A niece is female and a nephew is male, and they would call their parents' siblings aunt or uncle ...
*
Cousins-in-law
*
Affinity (law)
In law and in cultural anthropology, affinity is the kinship relationship created or that exists between two people as a result of someone's marriage. It is the relationship each party in the marriage has to the family of the other party in th ...
References
{{Family
Affinity (law)
Kinship and descent
Law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...