Some anthropologists, particularly people like Claude Levi-Strauss, believe that kinship lies at the very core of culture, since it is kinship that takes biological relationships (mating and birth) and transforms them into culturally determined relationships.  Kinship represents culture’s power over nature; it transforms humans as biological beings into culturally shaped persons whose identities are bound up in this symbolic system.   Thus, Levi-Strauss argues that what makes us truly human beings with our capacity for culture begins with kinship.

What is a kinship system?  It is a language about relationships shared by all members of society.  Kinship relationships carry rights and obligations that members of society recognize and perform.  Perhaps what is most surprising about kinship is that it varies so much; in some ways it is the most basic difference between cultures.  Cultures have been able to take the two founding relationships of all kinship systems (descent/blood and marriage/mating) and turn them into incredibly varied ways of relating individuals to each other.  Societies like the Mbuti and the Tiv organize themselves around kinship rules and structures in a very complex pattern.  Our society tends to place less emphasis on kinship in the way individuals live within society.  Some anthropologists, social psychologists, and sociologists suggest that kinship plays a very minimal role in our society.  Others (I might include myself in this category) argue that the function of kinship in our society is poorly understood, and therefore seems of little importance when comparing it to its function in other societies.

How is our kinship system different from the Mbuti and the Tiv?  The purpose of this exercise is to explore this question, and to explore what we can learn by comparing the two systems.  I have two tasks for you; the first I'd like you to have you do outside of class; the second we'll do in class.

Come prepared for class:

1. Draw a map (known sometimes as a network map) of all of the relationships that you have.  You can place yourself in the middle, and draw out your relationships (in the form of the sun) from that center.  Can you categorize those relationships into different types... what kinds of relationships do you have?  What proportion of the relationships that you have are kinship relationships; what proportion are not based on kinship ties?

We will discuss this in class:

2. With a partner draw a chart of your kinship relationships (using the symbols I'll put on the board).  What rules seem to provide the structure of the relationships?  What things can you learn about our kinship system from this chart; I would like you and your partner to identify five things you learn about our kinship system.

In what way is the way we organize kinship relations different from the way the Tiv and the Mbuti organize their kinship relations?  What kinship rules or norms seem to organize Tiv kinship relations?  What does their kinship system reveal to us about their culture, and about our culture?  You might want to think about rules that govern who you can and can't marry, rules that govern who lives in which household, rules that govern relationships between members of the family, rules that govern descent.  Explore the issue briefly with your partner.