Kinship & Family Structures
Kin terms, descent, marriage rules, cousins and the structures families build, explained with diagrams and the notation anthropologists use.
Second cousin once removed and twice removed, explained with a chart
A second cousin once removed is your parent's second cousin or your second cousin's child; twice removed adds one more generation. A chart and DNA figures.
The Iroquois kinship system, with a chart of who is called what
The Iroquois kinship system explained: a chart of bifurcate merging terms, parallel and cross cousins, the generation below, and how Dravidian systems differ.
Descent rules on one family tree, from patrilineal to bilateral
Patrilineal, matrilineal, double, bilateral and ambilineal descent worked on one family tree, with lineages, clans and kindreds defined and residence rules.
AncestryDNA vs 23andMe for finding relatives: which match list does more
AncestryDNA vs 23andMe for finding relatives: database size, how matches and shared cM are shown, trees, segment tools, privacy and when to test both.
The Eskimo kinship system explained with a diagram and examples
The Eskimo or lineal kinship system explained: a diagram of who is called what, examples from English and Europe, and how it differs from the other five types.
Kinship terms in sociology: primary, secondary and tertiary relatives with examples
Primary, secondary and tertiary relatives, terms of address and reference, and descriptive vs classificatory terms, with a table of examples and the arithmetic.
First cousin once removed vs second cousin: the difference, with a chart
A first cousin once removed is your parent's first cousin or your first cousin's child. A second cousin shares your great-grandparents. Chart, DNA, degrees.
Section systems, and how the Kariera and Aranda rules work
How four-section (Kariera) and eight-subsection (Aranda) systems work: marriage and descent rules worked by hand, abstract labels, and what the model leaves out.
André Weil and the first algebra of kinship
How André Weil turned Australian marriage rules into permutations in 1949, with a four-class system worked by hand and the algebra of cousin marriage.
Cross and parallel cousins, and why the difference matters
Cross and parallel cousins explained: the linking-sibling test, why Iroquois and Dravidian terms split them, and what cross-cousin marriage does to alliances.
The coefficient of relationship, worked out by hand
Sewall Wright's path method for the coefficient of relationship, worked step by step for siblings, uncles, cousins and double cousins, with what DNA adds.
How to draw a kinship diagram, step by step
The symbols of a kinship diagram, a three-generation example drawn from a hypothetical interview, kin-type strings, and the mistakes beginners make most.
The six classic kinship systems on one family tree
Inuit, Hawaiian, Sudanese, Iroquois, Crow and Omaha terms on one family tree: who gets called what, what each merges, and where the labels came from.