Fox (Mesquakie) Kinship Terminology IVES GODDARD Smithsonian Institution A. Basic Terms (Conventional List) The Fox kinship system has drawn a fair amount of attention in the ethno­ graphic literature (Tax 1937; Michelson 1932, 1938; Callender 1962, 1978; Lounsbury 1964). The terminology that has been discussed consists of the basic terms listed in §A, with a few minor inconsistencies and errors in some cases. Basically these are the terms given by Callender (1962:113-121), who credits the terminology given by Tax (1937:247-254) as phonemicized by CF. Hockett. Callender's terms include, however, silent corrections of Tax from Michelson (1938) or fieldwork, or both. (The abbreviations are those used in Table l.)1 Consanguines Grandparents' Generation (1) nemesoha 'my grandfather' (GrFa) (2) no hkomesa 'my grandmother' (GrMo) Parents' Generation (3) nosa 'my father' (Fa) (4) nekya 'my mother' (Mo [if Ego's female parent]) (5) nesekwisa 'my father's sister' (Pat-Aunt) (6) nes'iseha 'my mother's brother' (Mat-Unc) (7) nekiha 'my mother's sister' (Mo [if not Ego's female parent]) 'Other abbreviations used are: AI = animate intransitive; AI + O = tran- sitivized AI; Ch = child; ex. = example; incl. = inclusive; m = male; obv. = obviative; pi. = plural; prox. = proximate; sg. = singular; TA = transitive ani­ mate; TI-0 = objectless transitive inanimate; voc. = vocative; w = female; Wi = wife. Some citations from unpublished editions of texts by Alfred Kiyana use abbreviations: B = Buffalo; O = Owl (for these, see Goddard 1990a:340). 244 FOX (MESQUAKIE) KINSHIP TERMINOLOGY 245 Ego's Generation (relative-age set) (8) nesese-ha 'my older brother' (Br) (9) nemiseha 'my older sister' (Si) (10) nesima 'my younger brother or sister' (Br, Si) (relative-sex set) (11) netehkwema 'my sister (man speaking)' (Si) (12) netawemawa 'my brother (woman speaking)' (Br) (13) netotema 'my brother (man speaking); my sister (woman speaking)' (Br, Si) Children's Generation (14) nekwisa 'my son' (So) (15) neta-nesa 'my daughter' (Da) (16) nenicanesa 'my child' (17) nenekwaha 'my nephew' (Neph) (18) nesemiha 'my niece' (Niece) Grandchildren's Generation (19) nosisema 'my grandchild' (GrCh) Affines (20) nemesoma 'my father-in-law' (21) nohkoma 'my mother-in-law' (22) nihta-wa 'my brother-in-law (man speaking)' (23) netakwa 'my sister-in-law (woman speaking)'2 (24) ninemwa 'my sister-in-law (man speaking); my brother-in-law (woman speaking)' (25) nenekwana 'my son-in-law' (26) nesemya 'my daughter-in-law' (27) nenapema 'my husband'3 (28) niwa 'my wife' 2Miswritten with (ni-) in the sources. 3 From Tax; omitted by Callender. 246 IVES GODDARD (29) nt hkana 'my friend'4 The brief glosses conventionally presented with these terms are not to be taken as generally applicable English translations; they are mnemonic la­ bels that must be interpreted with reference to the structural principles of the system. The application of these terms to (male) Ego's consanguineal relatives is indicated in Figure 1 (from Callender 1978:612; a diagram for female Ego is in Tax 1937:250 and Callender 1962:15). Certain features of this set of terms are worth noting at the outset. There is no separate term for the father's brother, the term 'father' being used instead. There are separate but historically related terms for 'mother' and 'mother's sister', but although earlier descriptions kept these separate, Callender's diagram collapses them as "Mo." This curious case of the ana­ lysis becoming more real than the data is further discussed below. There are two sets of sibling terms, a relative-age set (8-10) and a relative-sex set (11-13), which provide two possible terms for every relative referred to as a sibling, but the diagram substitutes the abbrevations "Br" and "Si" for this complexity.* B. Structural Principles The Fox kinship system is of a type called Omaha by social anthropologists. Such systems are often found in societies like the traditional Mesquakie that have strongly defined patrilineal descent groups. Lounsbury (1964:359-366) has given an elegant formulation of the principles by which the basic kinship terms (in Tax 1937) are extended from nearer to more distant relatives in such a system. His rules have the effect of reducing or converting the specifications of more distant kin to briefer designations for which there are basic terms. The central distinctive principle of Omaha Type I systems, like that of Fox, is summarized by the skewing rule (I) and its reciprocal corollary (II):6 Principle (I) Skewing rule: FaSi . —• Si . (Read: father's sister's whatever is rewritten as sister's whatever.) M follow Callender (1962:121) in listing this term with the kinship terms, while conceding that it may not be possible to defend its inclusion. The dual sets of sibling terms are an old Algonquian feature, discussed in Goddard (1973:40-43). The abbreviations in these formulas refer to primary kintypes. Hence "Fa" means 'father, male parent', uSi" means 'sister, female sibling', etc. This contrasts with the use of the same abbreviations in Figure 1, where, for example, "Fa" means: the term nosa, conventionally glossed 'father'. The author takes no responsibility for this ambiguity, which seems endemic to the kinship literature. Â=• --A A=• i 1=• Â=• :I 1=.------.---Â=• 0 '"rj 0 ~;1: ~ .......;r. ·;1:· A ~ ... ~.. ~ :·1~: :>< Neph NI- Fa Pet-Aunt Fa Pet-Aunt Grfa GrMo Br SI MaWne Mo Mat-Une Mo Grfa GrMo ~ M (/) .0 }.}.}.}. }.}.}.}.}.}.}.}. }.}.}.}-. q GrCh GrCh Br SI Ne NI Br SI Ne NI GF GM Fa Pat- 5o Da Ne N1 Met· Mo Br SI Mat· Mo Br SI GF GM Mat- Mo > Aunt Une Une Une ......~ ... - ..__,M =• ~ ~~: !1;. z...... I~~~ ..~ :I: (/) ~ J.. • ...-----L--. ::Il...... Ne ph Nlece Br SI Br ego SI Br SI Met-Une Mo '"0 ~ M ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ s::....... z 0 t-' ~~~AÀ~À~ÀhÀhh~ÀÀh~~ÂÀ~ 0 GrCh Mat- Mo Br SI 5o Da Ne NI 0 Une -< Figure 1: Callender's (1978:612) chart of Fox kinship terminology (male Ego), based on Tax (1937). ~ ""'--l 248 IVES GODDARD Principle (II) Reciprocal corollary of skewing rule: . (w)BrSo — . (w)Br . (w)BrDa - . (w)Si (Read: a female relative's brother's son is rewritten as her brother, ana a female relative's brother's daughter is rewritten as her sister.) The skewing rules have the effect of equating certain pairs (and sets) of rel­ atives in different generations in the same patrilineal lineage. For example, mother's brother's son is equated with mother's brother, and therefore is called by the same term (6). The rule applies iteratively, and hence the mother's brother's son's son, and his son, and his son, etc., are all equated to mother's brother. The effect of this is that all the males in one's mother's patrilineage from one's uncle or uncles on down are called by the same 'ma­ ternal uncle' term. Another rule (III) equates siblings of the same sex: Principle (III) Merging rule and its corollary: (m)Br ... — (m). (w)Si . - (w). (m)Br — . (m) . (w)Si - . • (w) (Read: Male's brother's whatever is rewritten as male's whatever. Female's sister's whatever is rewritten as female's whatever. A male relative's brother is rewritten as the male relative. A female relative's sister is rewritten as the female relative.) Lounsbury also formulates a half-sibling rule (IV), but this does not affect the overall structure. Principle (IV) Half-sibling rule: FaSo — Br; MoSo — Br; FaDa — Si; MoDa — Si (Read: One's parent's child is rewritten as one's sibling.) A few examples of the extensional use of the basic terms will illustrate the operation of these principles (these can be traced on Figure 1). (30) A man's brother's children and a woman's sister's children are 'son' (14) and 'daughter' (15) (by Principle III). In other words, brothers call each other's children 'son' and 'daughter', as do sisters. (31) Father's sister's children are called the same as sister's children (Princi­ ple I). A man therefore calls them 'nephew' (17) and 'niece' (18), but a woman (by Principle III) calls them 'son' (14) and 'daughter' (15), since this is what she calls her sister's children. Note, however, that the equa­ tion of father's sister and sister operates only as a link; the father's sister herself is called by a distinct term from the sister. (The three suspension dots in the formulas indicate this obligatory linkage.) FOX (MESQUAKIE) KINSHIP TERMINOLOGY 249 (32) Mother's brother's children are called the same as mother's siblings (Prin­ ciple II); hence mother's brother's son is also called mother's brother (6), as is his son, and his son, and so on down within the same patrilineal lineage. (33) Grandparent's siblings' are called grandparents (partly Principle III, part­ ly by definition; but see §G). (34) Mother's mother's brother's son is called grandfather (Principle II), as is his son, and his son, and so on down in the mother's mother's patrilineal lineage. A daughter of any of these men is called a grandmother. (35) Father's brother is called father, in accordance with Principle III. Paralleling the equation in (35), Principle III also specifies that mother's sister is called mother, but this is not the case. The term for mother's sister (7) is, in fact, distinct from that for mother (4). Lounsbury (1964:364-366) discusses at some length the implications of this fact for his analysis. He ar­ gues that the equivalence rules determine a superclass "MOTHER," which has the subclasses "lineal mother" (4) and "collateral mother" (7).