Kinship as a Mechanism for Social Integrating
It is often demonstrated in many anthropological studies that kinship acts as an
important means for social integrating in a given society. But is it a fair
generalization to say that kinship always functions as a mechanism for social
integration?
Kinship refers to the relationships established through marriage or descent
groups that has been proven in some societies to lead to social integrating, or
the process of interaction with other individuals. When researching the case
studies we have explored, I found that two main events that utilized kinship for
social integrating were death and marriage.
In the Trobriand Islands of Papua New Guinea, in the northern Kiriwina Island,
is where the Trobrianders, studied by Anette Wiener(1988), live. Death in the
Trobrianders is a momentous event full of mourning and economical organization.
The death of someone is a detailed example of how kinship can lead to social
integrating. Wiener explains, " The message of death spreads rapidly to other
villages where the dead person has relatives or friends," showing that death is
not only uses kinship to integrate individuals, but entire villages too. The
Trobrianders are a matrilineal society, meaning that all descent groups and
kinship recognition are passed through the mother. They are organize into dalas,
matrilineal descent groups and kumilas, one of four named matrilineal clans.
During Wiener's fieldwork in the Trobriand Islands, she experienced the death of
an old chief, Uwelasi. The preparation of the burial of a dead person is a
complicated division of responsibilities. These roles of obligation are filled
by those in Uwelasi's dala and his kumila. All these people must come together,
from other villages sometimes, to help with he planning of this event. A large
part of Uwelasi's death was the distribution of his possessions, this involved
the people from his dala assisted by those from his kumila as toliuli (workers)
and those who were related to him through marriage or patrilineally as toliyouwa.
The toliuli and toliyouwa are united through the man's death because of their
cooperation and common responsibilities they share towards Uwelasi as his
kinsmen.
Marriage, in the Trobrianders society is also a means of social integrating.
Marriage can take place out side your v...
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...s brothers (agnates), are always in direct
competition for wives making their relationships sometimes awkward and hostile.
Thus an affine (brother in law), who a man is not in competition with can
certainly grow closer over time than one's own agnate. The examples of
fissioning and the ax fight are in direct contradiction with kinship always
being a means of integrating. These two events both involve or are linked to
arguments and separation caused by kinsmen relationships.
There are an infinite number of variables that cause integration among
individuals, groups, villages, or society as a whole; and there can be no
dispute that kinship is an important and frequent one of those variables. The
inconsistency is assuming that kinship always functions as a mechanism for
social integration in society. It is not possible to make generalizations like
'always', when discussing different societies. As we can see from the Yanomamo
and Trobriand Islanders, societies can be very different in their culture,
beliefs and traditions. There is only one safe generalization: All societies are
different, you can always assume what works in one society may not always work
in another.
Kinship is studied primarily in social and cultural anthropology. While there is no concise definition for what kinship means in the field of anthropology it can generally be thought of as the relationships within a society that are usually based off of blood or marriage. These two things in some way shape or form are recognized in nearly every society. Links of kinship form off the basis of property rights, division of labor, and political organization
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