Fictive kinship
Encyclopedia
Fictive kinship is a term used by anthropologists and ethnographers to distinguish between forms of kinship
or social ties that are based on neither consanguinal
(blood ties) nor affinal
('by marriage') ties. To the extent that consanguinal and affinal kinship ties might be considered real or true kinship, the term fictive kinship would be used to refer to those kinship ties that are fictive in the sense of not-real. Invoking the concept as an cross-culturally valid anthropological category therefore rests on the presumption that the inverse category of '(true) kinship' built around consanguinity and affinity is similarly cross-culturally valid. Use of the term was common until the mid-to-late twentieth century, when anthropology effectively deconstructed and revised many of the concepts and categories around the study of kinship and social ties (see the article on kinship
for more information on the history of kinship studies).
Stemming from anthropology's early connections to legal studies, the term fictive kinship may also be used in a legalistic sense, and this use continues in societies where these categories and definitions regarding kinship and social ties have legal currency; e.g. in matters of inheritance.
As part of the deconstruction of kinship mentioned above, anthropologists now recognize that, cross-culturally, the kinds of social ties and relationships formerly treated under the category of 'kinship' are very often not necessarily predicated on blood ties or marriage ties, and may rather be based on shared residence, shared economic ties, or familiarity via other forms of interaction.
, common membership in a unilineal descent group, and legal adoption
. A noted Gurung
tradition is the institution of "Rodi" where teenagers form fictive kinship bonds and become Rodi members to socialize, perform communal tasks, and find marriage partners. In Western culture
, a person may refer to close friends of one's parents as "aunt" or "uncle" (and their children as "cousin"), or may refer to close friends as "brother" or "sister". In particular, college fraternities and sororities in some North American cultures usually use "brother" and "sister" to refer to members of the organization. Monastic, Masonic and Lodge organisations also use the term "Brother" for members. "Nursing Sister" is used to denote a rank of nurse, and the term "Sisterhood" may be used for feminists. Fictive kinship was discussed by Jenny White in her work on female migrant workers in Istanbul
. In her work she draws on ideas of production and the women she works with being drawn together through 'webs of indebtedness' through which the women refer to each other as kin.
, who described kinship rather as a kind of vague enduring solidarity. In response to this insight Janet Carsten developed the idea of "relatedness" . Carsten developed her initial ideas from studies with the Malays in looking at what was socialized and biological. Here she uses the idea of relatedness to move away from a pre-constructed analytics opposition which exists in anthropological thought between the biological and the social. Carsten argued that relatedness should be described in terms of indigenous statements and practices, some of which fall outside what anthropologists have conventionally understood as kinship.
(otherwise known as inclusive fitness
theory), which is a treatment of the evolutionary selective pressures on the emergence of certain forms of social behaviour.
Some biologists propose that mutual relationships of 'fictive kinship' between members of a species are formed in such a way that the benefits of 'actual kinship' may be reaped although the relationship is lacking genetic ties. Often, fictive kin relationships can result in acts that are costly to the actor and provide some benefit to the recipient, but they can also be a form of mutualism
. When the relationships demonstrate actions that are not mutualistic in nature, they may appear as a form of kin selection
. However, in accordance with Hamilton’s rule, fictive kin relationships do not. Hamilton’s rule (rB>C) is a model for kin selection and states that the product of the relatedness between the recipient to the actor (r) and the benefit gained by the recipient (B) must be greater than the cost to the actor (C) in order for the genetic material to propagate, Many of these fictive kin relationships instill a cost to the actor, but considering the genetic relatedness is merely perceived, the relationship does not adhere to Hamilton’s rule. The relationships instead trigger a “naturally selected disposition for kin altruism” (Atran, 2009). There are dispositions in place that encourage us to cooperate with our family members. By inventing fictive kin, we create a situation that promotes universal cooperation.
Kinship
Kinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through either biological, cultural, or historical descent. And descent groups, lineages, etc. are treated in their own subsections....
or social ties that are based on neither consanguinal
Consanguinity
Consanguinity refers to the property of being from the same kinship as another person. In that respect, consanguinity is the quality of being descended from the same ancestor as another person...
(blood ties) nor affinal
Affinity (law)
In law and in cultural anthropology, affinity, as distinguished from consanguinity, is kinship by marriage. It is the relation which each party to a marriage bears to the kindred of the other. In English, affinity is usually signified by adding "-in-law" to the degree of kinship...
('by marriage') ties. To the extent that consanguinal and affinal kinship ties might be considered real or true kinship, the term fictive kinship would be used to refer to those kinship ties that are fictive in the sense of not-real. Invoking the concept as an cross-culturally valid anthropological category therefore rests on the presumption that the inverse category of '(true) kinship' built around consanguinity and affinity is similarly cross-culturally valid. Use of the term was common until the mid-to-late twentieth century, when anthropology effectively deconstructed and revised many of the concepts and categories around the study of kinship and social ties (see the article on kinship
Kinship
Kinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through either biological, cultural, or historical descent. And descent groups, lineages, etc. are treated in their own subsections....
for more information on the history of kinship studies).
Stemming from anthropology's early connections to legal studies, the term fictive kinship may also be used in a legalistic sense, and this use continues in societies where these categories and definitions regarding kinship and social ties have legal currency; e.g. in matters of inheritance.
As part of the deconstruction of kinship mentioned above, anthropologists now recognize that, cross-culturally, the kinds of social ties and relationships formerly treated under the category of 'kinship' are very often not necessarily predicated on blood ties or marriage ties, and may rather be based on shared residence, shared economic ties, or familiarity via other forms of interaction.
Examples
Types of relations often described by anthropologists as fictive kinship include compadrazgo relations, foster careFoster care
Foster care is the term used for a system in which a minor who has been made a ward is placed in the private home of a state certified caregiver referred to as a "foster parent"....
, common membership in a unilineal descent group, and legal adoption
Adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
. A noted Gurung
Gurung
The Gurung people, also called Tamu, are an ethnic group that migrated from Mongolia in the 6th century to the central region of Nepal. Gurungs, like other east Asian featured peoples of Nepal such as Sherpa, Tamang, Thakali, Magar, Manaaggi, Mustaaggi, and Walunggi, are the indigenous people of...
tradition is the institution of "Rodi" where teenagers form fictive kinship bonds and become Rodi members to socialize, perform communal tasks, and find marriage partners. In Western culture
Western culture
Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin and is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and...
, a person may refer to close friends of one's parents as "aunt" or "uncle" (and their children as "cousin"), or may refer to close friends as "brother" or "sister". In particular, college fraternities and sororities in some North American cultures usually use "brother" and "sister" to refer to members of the organization. Monastic, Masonic and Lodge organisations also use the term "Brother" for members. "Nursing Sister" is used to denote a rank of nurse, and the term "Sisterhood" may be used for feminists. Fictive kinship was discussed by Jenny White in her work on female migrant workers in Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
. In her work she draws on ideas of production and the women she works with being drawn together through 'webs of indebtedness' through which the women refer to each other as kin.
- Compadrazgo is a form of fictive kinship that is rooted in Central Mexico history for many years. Literally meaning “co-parenthood”, compadrazgo is a term to describe the set of relationships between a child, their parents, and their godparents. It has been hypothesized that these relationships evolved after the Spanish conquest in 1521 to help deal with stressful situations. These fictive kinships still exist in modern day Mexican societies, and are established by providing some form of aid throughout the child’s life.
- Illegal immigrants have also demonstrated fictive kin relationships. Undocumented restaurant workers are known to form pseudo families in which they cooperate within living and working situations. These relationships benefit the workers by creating a support system that would otherwise be unavailable to those living far from home.
- Some fictive kin relationships have been discovered in Israel in relation to organ transplants. Hospital committees are formed to assess whether the organ donation is from a true family member or from a friend. In order to obtain organ transplants, some individuals are forced to find strangers and pay them compensation for the procedure. However, the relationship between the donor and recipient must be invented as a familial relationship in order to pass through the hospital committee. In this case, fictive kinship is created knowingly to both parties in order to achieve their goals, and is mutualistic in nature.
- Adoption and foster care have always been grouped into the fictive kinship category, in cases where the child shares no genetic relatedness to the caregivers. The children are normally treated as one’s biological kin, receiving a lot of parental investment despite not having family ties. This view has been chastised by some whom claim that notions of kinship are not always based on biological determinants.
- The military has also been an avenue to propagate fictive kinship, such as the sense of brotherhood felt by the soldiers. Fictive kinship has been demonstrated among the spouses of military men and women as well. These relationships may facilitate close bonds that are beneficial during times of hardship.
- Other times, relationships can appear fictive on the outside, but when analyzed more in depth, it becomes clear that it is just a matter of kinship terminology. In India, members of the Shanti Nagar village in Northern India refer to everyone, even strangers, in familial terms. A man would address another similar in age as ‘brother’, and one older as ‘uncle’. Although these terms used in addressing one another appear fictive in nature, they do not suggest the existence of ritual kin relationships.
Critiques
Recently many anthropologists have abandoned a distinction between "real" and "fictive" kin because many cultures do not base their notion of kinship on genealogical relations as demonstrated by David M. SchneiderDavid M. Schneider
David Murray Schneider was an American cultural anthropologist, best known for his studies of kinship and as a major proponent of the symbolic anthropology approach to cultural anthropology. He received his B.S. in 1940 and his M.S. from Cornell University in 1941...
, who described kinship rather as a kind of vague enduring solidarity. In response to this insight Janet Carsten developed the idea of "relatedness" . Carsten developed her initial ideas from studies with the Malays in looking at what was socialized and biological. Here she uses the idea of relatedness to move away from a pre-constructed analytics opposition which exists in anthropological thought between the biological and the social. Carsten argued that relatedness should be described in terms of indigenous statements and practices, some of which fall outside what anthropologists have conventionally understood as kinship.
Use in Sociobiology
In the biological and animal behavioural sciences, the term 'kinship' has a different meaning from the anthropological term. It is commonly used as a short hand for 'the regression coefficient of relationship', which is a metric denoting the proportion of shared genetic material between any two individuals in contrast to the background or average amount of shared genetic material between average members of the population under study. This coefficient of relationship is an important component of the theory of kin selectionKin selection
Kin selection refers to apparent strategies in evolution that favor the reproductive success of an organism's relatives, even at a cost to the organism's own survival and reproduction. Charles Darwin was the first to discuss the concept of group/kin selection...
(otherwise known as inclusive fitness
Inclusive fitness
In evolutionary biology and evolutionary psychology, the inclusive fitness of an organism is the sum of its classical fitness and the number of equivalents of its own offspring it can add to the population by supporting others...
theory), which is a treatment of the evolutionary selective pressures on the emergence of certain forms of social behaviour.
Some biologists propose that mutual relationships of 'fictive kinship' between members of a species are formed in such a way that the benefits of 'actual kinship' may be reaped although the relationship is lacking genetic ties. Often, fictive kin relationships can result in acts that are costly to the actor and provide some benefit to the recipient, but they can also be a form of mutualism
Mutualism
Mutualism is the way two organisms of different species biologically interact in a relationship in which each individual derives a fitness benefit . Similar interactions within a species are known as co-operation...
. When the relationships demonstrate actions that are not mutualistic in nature, they may appear as a form of kin selection
Kin selection
Kin selection refers to apparent strategies in evolution that favor the reproductive success of an organism's relatives, even at a cost to the organism's own survival and reproduction. Charles Darwin was the first to discuss the concept of group/kin selection...
. However, in accordance with Hamilton’s rule, fictive kin relationships do not. Hamilton’s rule (rB>C) is a model for kin selection and states that the product of the relatedness between the recipient to the actor (r) and the benefit gained by the recipient (B) must be greater than the cost to the actor (C) in order for the genetic material to propagate, Many of these fictive kin relationships instill a cost to the actor, but considering the genetic relatedness is merely perceived, the relationship does not adhere to Hamilton’s rule. The relationships instead trigger a “naturally selected disposition for kin altruism” (Atran, 2009). There are dispositions in place that encourage us to cooperate with our family members. By inventing fictive kin, we create a situation that promotes universal cooperation.
See also
- KinshipKinshipKinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through either biological, cultural, or historical descent. And descent groups, lineages, etc. are treated in their own subsections....
- FamilyFamilyIn human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...
- FiliationFiliationFiliation is the legal term that refers to the recognized legal status of the relationship between family members, or more specifically the legal relationship between parent and child. As described by the Government of Quebec:...
- GodparentGodparentA godparent, in many denominations of Christianity, is someone who sponsors a child's baptism. A male godparent is a godfather, and a female godparent is a godmother...
- Milk kinshipMilk kinshipMilk kinship, formed during nursing by a non-biological mother, was a form of fostering allegiance with fellow community members. This particular form of kinship did not exclude particular groups, such that class and other hierarchal systems did not matter in terms of milk kinship...
- Kinship terminologyKinship terminologyKinship terminology refers to the various systems used in languages to refer to the persons to whom an individual is related through kinship. Different societies classify kinship relations differently and therefore use different systems of kinship terminology - for example some languages...
- Body of ChristBody of ChristIn Christian theology, the term Body of Christ has two separate connotations: it may refer to Jesus's statement about the Eucharist at the Last Supper that "This is my body" in , or the explicit usage of the term by the Apostle Paul in to refer to the Christian Church.Although in general usage the...