Kinship & Family Structures
Kin terms, descent, marriage rules, cousins and the structures families build, explained with diagrams and the notation anthropologists use.
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.