Thursday, August 29, 2019
Culture Comparison Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words
Culture Comparison - Essay Example Kinship is determined in different ways within different societies but relates to two underlying principles of descent ââ¬â unilineal and cognatic. Societies that are concerned with unilineal descent trace either their fatherââ¬â¢s (patrilineal) or their motherââ¬â¢s (matrilineal) group; those concerned with both their matrilineal and patrilineal descent are said to be concerned with cognative descent. Cognative traces can involve any of four variations including bilineal (matrilineal and patrilineal), ambilineal (both recognized, but individuals can choose which one they accept), parallel (females follow their matrilineal descent and males follow their patrilineal descent groups) and bilateral (descent is traced from all biological ancestors) (Oââ¬â¢Neil, 2006). ... Individual people are recognized in accordance with their real family and ancestors or their membership of a particular set (Bavin, 1991, p.323). They also focus on matrilineal, patrilineal and generational moieties, semi-moieties, and subsections. The subsection system disseminates the people into eight categories that distinguish between male and female members in each (everyculture.com). The Navajo, on the other hand, function within a matrilineal system and is thus unilineal. Every Navajo belongs to one of the sixty-four clans (everyculture.com), wherein membership is passed via the motherââ¬â¢s family. In the same way that clan membership is inherited in the female line of kinship, property is also inherited from the female side but advantage and property however, are passed from male to male, but the motherââ¬â¢s brother passes both to her (his sisterââ¬â¢s) children. Although operating within a matrilineal system the Navajo also believe they are born for the clan of t heir father (everyculture.com). Two to six matrilineal clans can form a clan group if they consider themselves to be affiliated but they are not given a clan group name (Aberle, 1961). Within Warlpiri, as in other indigenous Australian systems, the ââ¬Ëcollaterals and lineals are mergedââ¬â¢ (Frey, 2008), meaning that the system is extended to all people in the society and even further to those outside and beyond the society. The following diagram provides a way of illustrating Warlpiri genealogy, wherein it shows that an aunt is only found in reference to the fatherââ¬â¢s sister ââ¬â no aunt is so named on the motherââ¬â¢s side ââ¬â and the term uncle is only found on the motherââ¬â¢s side in reference to the motherââ¬â¢s brother. The
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