Bilateral Kinship Systems
Bilateral kinship organization presents something of a classification
problem as all societies
recognize and interact with a variety of maternal and paternal kin
on a regular basis. Thus, while members of
unilineal societies rely exclusively on agnatic or uterine kin in certain
formal situations, they also
maintain both structured and informal relationships with other relatives
and form bilateral
kindreds for a variety of purposes.
The universal occurrence of bilateral kinship, often in conjunction
with unilineal institutions, has
led to a variety of controversies as to whether bilateral structures
exist as a general form or whether a
specific society is unilineal or bilateral. Such debates have arisen
about historical Anglo-Saxon society, ancient Roman kinship, and
modern Yoruba systems. However,
widespread evidence can be cited to support the existence of structural
bilateral institutions
within several traditions, especially European ones, in the form of rules
and understandings that
define standard ranges of cognatic kin and assign rights and duties to
them.
Formally, bilaterally kinship systems involve two separate forms:
- Bilateral descent groups , also
know as
stocks, a relatively rare institution, according to which a society is
organized on the basis of bilateral descent from recognized ancestors.
- Kindreds,
which are
ego focused networks that extend through both of an individual's parents
and their bilateral kin.
© Brian Schwimmer
University of Manitoba
Created: Sept. 1997
Last Updated: August 1998