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This presentation is his called ...
and in this presentation we're going to answer three questions
So the key to an Iroquois kin terminology
are the distinctions among cousins
and we've said that we have four kinds of cousins
we have cousins on the father's side that we call patri-lateral cousins
and cousins on the mother's side that we call matri-lateral cousins
We can further distinguish between cross and parallel cousins, and this distinction is critical to understanding an Iroquois terminology
So a cross cousin - for example on the mother's side
- those are the offspring of the mother's brother's children
The cross occurs in gender between mother and her brother
A parallel cousins- for example on the father's side -
would be the father's brother's children
father and his brother are the same gender and so we speak of them as parallel siblings
So fathers sister's children are cross cousins fathers brother's children are parallel cousins
and that's because father's sister is his cross sibling
and father's brother
is father's parallel sibling
Similarly mother's brother is her cross sibling
and that means that mother's brother's children
are cross cousins to Ego
And mother's sister is her parallel sibling because they're the same gender
which means that mothers sister's children
are the matrilateral parallel cousins
So these cousin distinctions are critical to understanding an Iroquois kin terminology
So let's explore this and first we're going to give Ego a brother and a sister
So let's now take Ego with his (or her) mother and father and brother and sister
and because I don't have enough room to look at both sides we're just going to look at mother's side or the matrilateral side
So we're gonna give mother a sister
and that's her parallel sibling
and in an Iroquois kin terminology mother's sister is also called mother
so the same kin term is applied to mother and to mother's sister they are both called mother
so this is the first thing to note
The parallel siblings
are called by the same terms as the parent
Now let's give mother's sister some offspring
and we're gonna give her a son and a daughter
that from the perspective of Ego - who calls mother's sisters mother
he's going to call mother's sister's children
- his matrilateral parallel cousins - brother and sister
so the parallel cousins are called by sibling terms
and the term for the parent is applied to the parallel siblings of the parent
And these are the keys to an Iroquois kin terminology
Now let's say "Well, what about the cross cousins?"
So we'll give mother a brother out ther - that will be her cross sibling
- and we're just gonna throw the word uncle on there, because it's familiar to us
But that cross sibling of mother - the mother's brother - is called by the term different than the term applied to Ego's father
so he is not called father
And similarly his offspring are not called brother and sister. We could just say that they're called cousins
So cross siblings of the parent
and cross cousins, are distinguished from the parallel siblings of the parents and the parallel cousins
and that cross parallel distinction is critical to what's called an Iroquois kin terminology
Parallel cousins are your siblings, your cross cousins are not your siblings
So here's a standard diagram of an Iroquois kin terminology showing both sides of the family
this is from the Manitoba Kin Tutorial
so on the standard diagram only one marriage is shown - although we can assume marriages are the there for the siblings of mother and father
And similarly one sibling of each gender is shown, and that is simply to allow us to make the key terminological distinctions
So let's focus on the parents' generation
and that cross parallel distinction. So we want to mark
that distinction between the parallel siblings of our parents and their cross siblings
and the parental parallel siblings are all called mother or father
So mother and her sister
and however many sisters she might have - are all called mother
and father and his brothers are all called father
and that then carries down to Ego's generation
So, parallel cousins are called brother and sister
So sibling terms embrace parallel cousins and parental terms embrace the parallel siblings of the parents
and that then is an Iroquois terminology
and again this doesn't extend to the cross siblings of Ego's parents
we'll just throw on uncle and aunt
to show they're not called by the same term
and similarly the cross cousins are not considered to be siblings
so that parents cross siblings are not called by parental terms
and the cross cousins are not called by sibling terms
So that's an Iroquois kin terminology.
and that's both patrilineal descent
and matrilineal descent
and in that area of the world social anthropologists tend to see a strong relationship
between kin terminologies and systems of ancestry
and what's important to us is that at the level of first cousins
both of these terminologies are identical
So in Australia the pattern that we called an Iroquois terminology is called a Kariera terminology
They're the same pattern of terms
In one tradition of social anthropology they're strongly related with unilineal descent
in other traditions they're strongly related to bilateral cross cousin marriage
and that's not just the arbitrary decision of the social anthropologists
Its differences in the kinship systems in those two parts of the world
in South America there's also an association between
Iroquois type systems and bilateral cross cousin marriage