Re: Kinship Terms

The "Old Starrish" kinship system revolves around the
concept of motherline and fatherline.  My motherline
[1] is my mother and all relatives by purely maternal
lineage: my mother's mother, her sister, her mother's
sister, her mother's sister's daughter etc.  My
fatherline is my father and all relatives by purely
paternal lineage.

There are two slightly different concepts, having a
mother/fatherline and being on a mother/fatherline.
Everyone has a motherline and a fatherline.  However,
a woman is on her motherline, but not on her
fatherline; a man is on his fatherline but not on his
motherline.

A man is considered most closely related to those on
his fatherline, slightly less closely related to those
on his motherline, and considerably less related to
those on neither line.  Likewise a woman is considered
most related to those on her motherline, less to those
on her fatherline, and even less to those on neither
line.

There are different terms for aunts and uncles
depending on whether they are on your
mother/fatherline or not.  So my mother's sister would
have the term for "motherline aunt", but my father's
sister and my aunts by marriage would have the term
for "non-motherline aunt".  Similarly for uncles.

For cousins there are three categories: motherline
cousin, fatherline cousin, and neitherline cousin.
Cousins are defined by whether they have the same
mother/fatherline as you.  So my motherline cousins
are my mother's sisters' children, my fatherline
cousins are my father's brothers' children, and my
neitherline cousins are my mother's brothers' children
and my father's sisters' children (as well as any
spouses of any of my cousins).

At some time, a 4-clan system arose, and it was passed
on through these lines: a boy got the clan of his
father, but a girl got the clan of her mother.

[1] In a broad sense.  In a narrow sense, my
motherline is simply my maternal ancestors.  "Old
Starrish" probably has separate words for these
concepts, but I don't.

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