Even siblings do not share all the same kin relations, especially after one is married.
On this topic we draw on the structures as practised by the Ese Eja in Amazonia (on the border of Bolivia and Peru)
Women play the most important role in kinship identification
- they ratify the relations between children and fathers
- they make the decision regarding the adoption of a child
Patrilineage dictates patrimoeity
- the lineage a person is born into dictates their specialties and expected traits
- icha: hunter, more hair..
- kaka: better lover, fisherman..
Predominantly matrilocal/uxorilocal
- the married unit lives with the wife's family at first but eventually move to create their own household within the locality of this home
FBD marriage preference
Partible paternity/secondary fatherhood - pan-Amazonian belief
- uterus contains accumulation of sperm from multiple sexual partners
- women keep track of proportion of lovers' sperm, all of which contribute to the making of the child
Dichotomy between spontaneous growth (e.g. of trees, hair, rivers) and intentional/controlled growth (e.g. of crops and children)
Cuvade - dietary followed by parents to benefit children's health
Adoption: first child should go to mother's family and second to father's..
Children bring happiness to a household, so they may be given to an elder to keep them company and keep them busy
Worst insult is to be known as being stingy
- a pregnant lady was asked for her child and could not decline for fear of being called stingy, but waited until the child was a year old because the adopter did not have any breast milk to give to the baby
Reasons for adopting out
- reciprocity towards "parents"
- social sharing ethic
- single motherhood
- re-marriage - in case new husband would prefer not to raise another man's child;the new spouse is not obliged to allow the children that are not his to add strain to the resources he provides
- indiscreet partible paternity may bring shame
- children should not be born too close together - considered damaging, esp as the children are expected to wean themselves off, thus they may have to compete for breast milk
There is a world that is entered when a person takes hallucinogens, dreams or is in the forest alone
- this is where the newborn come from, they are powerful whilst in the womb and able to harm their siblings (an additional reason as to the avoidance of siblings being born close in age)
Plantain is believed to have a jealous spirit so it is not grown near the village, and it must only be harvested by a virgin or person that has not sexual relations in a long time otherwise the fruit will make the people ill.
Children's play is productive
- collecting leaves for thatch
- finding worms for fishing and fishing
- catching birds
- accompanying a person to harvest plantain
When a person's parent dies, their biological parent will come out to console them and tell them of the adoption
- there is then an expectation for the parent and child to become closer
- knowing that they are connected to another family further limits who one is allowed to marry
(exogamy rules are explained to children around age 10 when they begin to become sexual, i.e. have a crush on someone, develop, experiment)
Adoption as pseudo-kinship
- there has been a theory that mass adoption exists to compensate for high mortality rate (but that does not apply here)
- adoption may bring outsiders into the community (but that does not apply here)
Kinship is about the invisible as well as the visible, the connections as well as the separations.
The death of individuals and groups
- levirate - man inherits his brother's widow
- sororate - women's kin have an obligation to her spouse
- the last of a clan or society
- the end of a surname
The continuity and immortality of kinship
- social groups that continue to exist altho individual members cease to: MacQuarrie clan, your last name, the royal family
- honouring the dead, memorials
- endocannibalism: grind the bones of the dead to dust and relatives would take some with a drink so that they could always be together
- Mexican Day of the Dead celebrations: people gather to celebrate the lives of those deceased by feasting and saying prayers in homes and cemetaries
- seances
- social bereavement
- pecari are believed by the Ese Eja to be ancestors (which a shaman can recognise) that are bringing themselves to the village as food
Divorce
- change of status
- change of asset- sharing: varies between societies, dependent on the separation circumstances
- men and women impacted differently: women tend to come off worse
- there is emphasis on blood, so the mother is more likely to have custody of the children
Remarriage is dependent on economic factors.
Temne - between Guinea and Liberia
- polygyny, patrilineal, large households and fields
- it used to be the case that a woman must beg for divorce, and publicly humiliate herself in order to get a good divorce (separate with a share of the wealth and custody of children)
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