kinship
kinshipKinship is one of the main organizing principles of human society, and kinship systems have been extensively studied by social anthropologists, for whom they are of particular importance because of their primacy in non-state societies. Kinship systems establish relationships between individuals and groups on the model of biological relationships between parents and children, between siblings, and between marital partners. Relationships established by marriage, which form alliances between groups of persons related by blood (or consanguineous ties), are usually referred to as affinal relationships. Some social scientists make a distinction between the study of kinship and the study of affinity. All such studies depend on the assumption that these relationships are systematic, entailing the observation of norms relating to behaviour between those related by kin or affinity. The...
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