GLOSSARY
Affinal: Relationships created through marriage or other social ties (in-laws, adopted children, domestic partners).
Avunculocal: married individuals live with or near an uncle.
Bilateral: descent is recognized through both the father and the mother’s sides of the family.
Bridewealth: payments made to the bride’s family by the groom’s family before marriage.
Clan: a group of people who have a general notion of common descent that is not attached to a specific biological ancestor.
Consanguineal: Relationships formed through blood connections (parents and children).
Descent groups: relationships that provide members with a sense of identity and social support based on ties of shared ancestry.
Dowry: payments made to the groom’s family by the bride’s family before marriage.
Ego: A person who is the starting point of a kinship chart.
Endogamy: a term describing expectations that individuals must marry within a particular group.
Exogamy: a term describing expectations that individuals must marry outside a particular group.
Extended family: a family of at least three-generations sharing a household.
Family: the smallest group of individuals who see themselves as connected to one another.
Family of orientation: the family in which an individual is raised.
Family of procreation: a new household formed for the purpose of conceiving and raising children.
Household: family members who reside together.
Joint family: a very large extended family that includes multiple generations.
Kinship: term used to describe culturally recognized ties between members of a family, the social statuses used to define family members, and the expected behaviors associated with these statuses; blood ties, common ancestry, and social relationships that form families within human groups.
Kinship system: the pattern of culturally recognized relationships between family members.
Kinship terminology: the terms used in a language to describe relatives.
Lineage: term used to describe any form of descent from a common ancestor.
Marriage: A cultural, social, and legal process that brings two or more individuals together to create a new family unit.
Matriarchal: a society in which women have authority to make decisions.
Matrilineal: a kinship group created through the maternal line (mothers and their children).
Matrilocal residence: married individuals live with or near the wife’s mother’s family.
Neolocal residence: newly married individuals establish a household separate from other family members.
Nuclear family: a parent or parents who are in a culturally-recognized relationship, such as marriage, along with minor or dependent children.
Patrilateral cousin marriage: the practice of marrying a male or female cousin on the father’s side of the family.
Patrilineal: a kinship group created through the paternal line (fathers and their children).
Patrilocal residence: married individuals live with or near the husband’s father’s family.
Polygamy: Marriage with multiple spouses.
Polyandry: marriages with one wife and multiple husbands.
Polygyny: marriages in which there is one husband and multiple wives.
Role: the set of behaviors expected of an individual who occupies a particular status.
Serial monogamy: marriage to a succession of spouses one after the other.
Status: any culturally-designated position a person occupies in a particular setting.
Unilineal: descent is recognized through only one line or side of the family.