Re: Kinship terminology

Boudewijn Rempt wrote:
>I noticed I didn't have the difference between niece/nephew
>and cousin - probably since Dutch doesn't have that difference
>either. I'm getting curious for other people's kinship
terminology -
>has anybody else worked on that area?
I have posted about the Boreanesian kinship system before, but here
is a refresher (and repost). Sorry for the late reply.

The Boreanesian kinship system conforms to what anthropologists call
the Iroquoian system. I attribute this to be because the descent
system is dual descent moiety system, that is, Boreanesians trace
their affiliation through both a patrilineal moiety and a
matrilineal moiety at the same time. Furthermore, the varioius
moieties are strictly exogamous, that is, it is forbidden for one to
marry another who is member of the same moiety. These two factors
creates a situation where it is very important to distinguish
between *both* a father's lineage and a mother's lineage.

The distinction between different kinds of cousins reflects this
division between descent lines but also marks a second important
difference: parallel cousins, like brothers and sisters, are
prohibited from marrying; cross cousins are not and may very often
be chosen as preferential marriage partners in small isolated
Boreanesian villages. The result is something called a bifurcate
merging where one distinguishes between relatives on one's mother's
side of the family and those on one's father's side (bifurcation),
and lumps or merges father with father's brother and mother with
mother's sister. Accordingly, father's brother's children and mother
sister's children (parallel cousins) are merged with brother and
sister. This principle creates a system that conforms to the
Iroquois classificatory pattern of kin terms. This is exemplified
below (where /_\ = male, (_) = female):

  /F\-----------(B)-----------(B)=/A\-----------/A\-----------(E)
   |             |               |               |             |
(H)-/G\       (D)-/C\  (D)------[*]------/C\  (D)-/C\       (H)-/G\
                        |        |        |
                     (L)-/K\  (J)-/I\  (L)-/K\

[*]= "EGO" (oneself)
  A = /?@paih/     E = /?@naih/     I = /s@wah/
  B = /?@maih/     F = /?@taih/     J = /l@wah/
  C = /p@jaNh/     G = /t@jaNh/     K = /s@pu@h/
  D = /m@jaNh/     H = /n@jaNh/     L = /l@pu@h/

A comparison between Boreanesian and English terms is provided
below, as per a male ego addressing a relative. (M = mother, F =
father, D = daughter, S = son, Z = sister, B = brother, W = wife,
and H = husband):

/?@paih/  F    Father
---"----  FB   Uncle
/?@taih/  MB   --"--
/p@jaNh/  B    Brother
---"----  FBS  Cousin
---"----  MZS  --"---
/t@jaNh/  FZS  --"---
---"----  MBS  --"---
---"----  WB   Brother-in-law
---"----  ZH   ------"-------
/s@wah/   S    Son
---"---   BS   Nephew
/s@pu@h/  ZS   --"---

Note that Boreanesians once practiced a system of village endogamous
cross cousin marriages. As a result, the cross-cousin terms /t@jaNh/
and /n@jaNh/ also means "husband" and "wife" respectively. For
instance, a man's term for his female cross-cousin, /n@jaNh/, is
also the term for "wife". The term for male cross-cousin, /t@jaNh/,
also denotes "brother-in-law", in both senses of the term, since
ego's wife's brother would normally have been married to ego's
sister. In a similar fashion women classifies male cross cousins and
husbands within one category and female cross cousins and
sisters-in-law within another.

-kristian-