W. Shapiro Secondary unions and kinship terminology: The case of avuncular marriage

In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 122 (1966), no: 1, Leiden, 82-89

This PDF-file was downloaded from http://www.kitlv-journals.nl SECONDARY UNIONS AND KINSHIP TERMINOLOGY: THE CASE OF AVUNCULAR MARRIAGE •

his paper is divided into two parts. The first is a purely ethnographic statement of the indications and influences of Tavuncular marriage (marriage of a man with his sister's daughter, a woman with her mother's brother) in the kinship terminologies of various societies. The second part is a theoretical discussion of certain issues concerning the relation between marriage patterns and kinship terminology.

I

A terminological equation of two (or more) kin-types can be said to be indicative of, or "due to", a certain genealogically defined type of marriage if two conditions are satisfied: (1) the kin-types occupy a single position in an ideal marriage network defined solely by the marriage-type in question; (2) no other marriage-type yields an ideal network in which these kin-types occupy a single position.2 Thus the equation FZ = MBW indicates sister-exchange marriage, since father's

1 This paper has grown out of a larger comparative study of avuncular marriage. I should Hke to express my thanks to those who have read and commented upon this study in its various manuscript forms: Ann Chowning, Meivin Ember, Robert F. Murphy, and W. E. H. Stanner. 2 These propositions are put forward merely as guiding principles for what follows. I am well aware that there are many societies with positive marriage rules in which considerations of genealogical connection are entirely outweighed by those of descent group and/or kinship category, and that the uneven character of sociocultural change often makes for situations in which kinship equations reveal nothing about, and cannot be ascribed to, current marriage patterns. Further, there is probably no marriage-type which is always in a simple relationship with a particular kinship equation; hence the attribution of an equation to a marriage-type should be supported by additional evidence, preferably direct information that the marriage-type exists in the society or societies under consideration.