Kinship Categories Are Fundamental to the Study

Kinship categories are fundamental to the study of anthropology, as they are the basis by which societies and cultures are formed. Family kinship categories are broad and generally universal, as human beings must pass on their genes in the same ways regardless of culture. For example, family kin categories include kin types such as mother, father, son, daughter, aunt, uncle, grandmother, and so forth. Even in modern industrialized cultures in which many kinship ties are irrelevant for the social fabric of the society, kinship categories still exist. However, each culture will ascribe a different meaning, role, and function to various kin types. Regardless of how the kin types function and what their roles are within the society, the kinship categories remain the same. A mother will be a mother in any society, and a brother. Nevertheless, some cultures use far different kinship terminologies: for example, the mother's brother will be called something different than the father's brother. In English, both would be called "uncle."

In most cultures, the nuclear family, consisting of parents and children only, is the fundamental building block of kinship. In traditional cultures, extended family units make kinship classification and categorization more complex. Basically kinship categories are based on three elements: blood ties, marriage ties, and social or friendship ties. Traditionally, anthropologists describe kinship in terms of one or more of these types of kinship relationships, with the first two being most important.

Blood ties establish genealogical lines of descent in families. Unilineal systems of descent trace ancestry along the lines of only one gender: either the father or the mother. For example, matrilineal cultures trace genealogy through the mother's line of descent and patrilineal cultures trace decent through the father's line. However, biology transcends matrilineality and patrilineality: genes will be passed on from both mother and father. Anthropologists, however, will be generally concerned with classifying kinship according to the roles and norms within a society. In most European cultures, descent is bilateral, or cognatic, meaning that lineage is traced both through the mother's and father's line.

Common kinship classification systems used by anthropologists also take into account the nature of the marriage and family structures within a given society. Definitions and practices of marriage vary widely but can be broadly placed into two categories: exogamy and endogamy. Exogamy dictates that marriages must be with individuals that fall outside the immediate circle of family kin; exogamy rules are a result of incest taboos. However exogamy also ensures that a society's kinship ties will continually expand with each successive generation: new kinship ties will be formed as the result of a marriage union. The marriage union will result in new family kinship ties as well as social kinship ties unrelated to the family.