The meaning of kinship terms
The Meaning of Kinship Terms’
ANTHONY I . C. WALLACE ANI) JOHN A T K I N S
;
Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute and University of Pennsylvania
INTRODUCTION
H E meaning of kinship terms in foreign languages (or in English, for that matter) has traditionally been rendered by English-speaking ethnologists by a simple and direct procedure: each term is matched with a primitive English term (e.g., “mother”), with a relative product of two or more primitive English terms (e.g., “mother’s brother”), or with a group of such primitive and/or relative product terms. Each primitive English term and each English relative product denotes an English “kin-type.” Thus the meaning of the term is given by a list of nonredundant English kin-types, each of which includes one or more individuals in the group of persons to which the foreign term refers, and none of which includes any individual outside the group of persons to which the term refers. The validity of the matching derives, in general, from the prior use of a genealogical method of inquiry and from a general knowledge of the language and culture of the society. Blurdock’s Social Structure (1949) illustrates a convenient notation for such a n analysis of meanings, and there is also a variety of other devices available, ranging from plotting terms on genealogical charts (each of whose points is defined by an English primitive or a relative product) to listing descriptive statements in tabular form. I n Murdock’s notation, the first two letters of eight primitive terms (father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, husband, wife) are used as the primitive symbols (Fa, Mo, Br, Si, So, Da, Hu, Wi); other kinship categories are conceived as relative products of these categories
(e.g., FaBr for father’s brother, SoWi for son’s wife). Additional primitives
(e.g., younger and older) are added as required. Similar notations are commonly used by other ethnologists and we shall call this traditional
ANTHONY I . C. WALLACE ANI) JOHN A T K I N S
;
Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute and University of Pennsylvania
INTRODUCTION
H E meaning of kinship terms in foreign languages (or in English, for that matter) has traditionally been rendered by English-speaking ethnologists by a simple and direct procedure: each term is matched with a primitive English term (e.g., “mother”), with a relative product of two or more primitive English terms (e.g., “mother’s brother”), or with a group of such primitive and/or relative product terms. Each primitive English term and each English relative product denotes an English “kin-type.” Thus the meaning of the term is given by a list of nonredundant English kin-types, each of which includes one or more individuals in the group of persons to which the foreign term refers, and none of which includes any individual outside the group of persons to which the term refers. The validity of the matching derives, in general, from the prior use of a genealogical method of inquiry and from a general knowledge of the language and culture of the society. Blurdock’s Social Structure (1949) illustrates a convenient notation for such a n analysis of meanings, and there is also a variety of other devices available, ranging from plotting terms on genealogical charts (each of whose points is defined by an English primitive or a relative product) to listing descriptive statements in tabular form. I n Murdock’s notation, the first two letters of eight primitive terms (father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, husband, wife) are used as the primitive symbols (Fa, Mo, Br, Si, So, Da, Hu, Wi); other kinship categories are conceived as relative products of these categories
(e.g., FaBr for father’s brother, SoWi for son’s wife). Additional primitives
(e.g., younger and older) are added as required. Similar notations are commonly used by other ethnologists and we shall call this traditional