Examples Of Kinship In The Yanomamo
Kinships in the Yanomamo
Ashley Jones
ANT 101
Adrienne Stafford
May 21, 2012
A kinship system is a system of social relationships that constitute kinship in a particular culture. Among many cultures kinship is greatly valued among the Yanomamo society. Their way of life centers around these kinships. Their kinships impact the way they think and how they live their lives. While in today’s society our families also known as our kin “kinships” are typically blood related or through marriage. These factors also exist in the Yanomamo society however their kinship system is composed of a more complex group of people which we will later discuss. The Yanomamo are from the Amazon rainforest in South Africa. They are known as hunters, fishers, …show more content…
For an example in families today, we don’t have guidelines on who can marry who. In the Yanomamo tribes the have a set a traditions like the women are not to marry distant cousins. While in American society it is incest to do anything with anyone blood related. Also today we do not arrange marriages or exchange our women to be married to men of other nationalities for things like an alliance. We do not decide who we are kin to except through marriage of course. What I mean by that is in some societies kinships are determined by people who they exchange goods through what is also known as balanced reciprocity. Another difference is marriages today do not focus of the unity of two families for the purposes of bigger kinship systems as it did in the Yanomamo society. When people get married today that couple usually wants to start a family of their own. They do no usually stay in a community with all their close and distant relatives. The way of life in the Yanomamo society may differ from our way of life today, but their values, cultures, and traditions worked for them through the development of their kinships for many years. One source says, “The overall ideology in the Yanomamo society is the belief that the natural and spiritual world is a unified force and nature is sacred in its power in creating all that is this world. This has prevented modern man discoveries from their way of
Ashley Jones
ANT 101
Adrienne Stafford
May 21, 2012
A kinship system is a system of social relationships that constitute kinship in a particular culture. Among many cultures kinship is greatly valued among the Yanomamo society. Their way of life centers around these kinships. Their kinships impact the way they think and how they live their lives. While in today’s society our families also known as our kin “kinships” are typically blood related or through marriage. These factors also exist in the Yanomamo society however their kinship system is composed of a more complex group of people which we will later discuss. The Yanomamo are from the Amazon rainforest in South Africa. They are known as hunters, fishers, …show more content…
For an example in families today, we don’t have guidelines on who can marry who. In the Yanomamo tribes the have a set a traditions like the women are not to marry distant cousins. While in American society it is incest to do anything with anyone blood related. Also today we do not arrange marriages or exchange our women to be married to men of other nationalities for things like an alliance. We do not decide who we are kin to except through marriage of course. What I mean by that is in some societies kinships are determined by people who they exchange goods through what is also known as balanced reciprocity. Another difference is marriages today do not focus of the unity of two families for the purposes of bigger kinship systems as it did in the Yanomamo society. When people get married today that couple usually wants to start a family of their own. They do no usually stay in a community with all their close and distant relatives. The way of life in the Yanomamo society may differ from our way of life today, but their values, cultures, and traditions worked for them through the development of their kinships for many years. One source says, “The overall ideology in the Yanomamo society is the belief that the natural and spiritual world is a unified force and nature is sacred in its power in creating all that is this world. This has prevented modern man discoveries from their way of