Iroquois Kinship System

Iroquois Kinship System Anthony Sifuentes ANT 101 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology instructor Mario Tovar March 5, 2012 The Iroquois is the group I have decided to do my question of kinship systems on. This will come on from what I have found in the text of chapters three and four of the text. The Iroquois is a unilineal line group. This means that twilight is traced back finished sensation sex or side of the family. They traced their billet done the female side of the family, meaning they were a lineal dusk group.These groups argon not as common as direct descent groups, which trace their bloodlines through the male side of the family. Horticultural societies used the matrilineal descent group because of women having a key part of the food producing role. They withal owned land. The likelihood of a participation existence or stay a matrilineal society depends upon how much food is obtained from capture and herding. The more than meat and food gathered by men as a result of this will drive down the role of women as study food producers.The fact that descent groups extend beyond any one individual because it goes beyond any one someones lifetime allows things to remain in a group for a long time. This includes property, land, hunting and fishing territories, animals, and even knowledge. Iroquois matrilineage gave women the right to fields and tools, since they were a horticultural society, this made sense. Women did most of the cultivating of the crops and they should have the rights to both the land and tools to reap what is sown. They to a fault hold outd in longhouses.These were long structures in which nuclear families lived in different compartments at bottom the house. After pairing, the Iroquois were matrilocal, meaning the husband lived in the wifes alliance or longhouse. The eldest wo small-arm of a matrilineage was the most prestigious in decision making, including the allocation of resources and property. (Nowak & Laird, 2010, Chapter 4) This greatly differs from todays society in that most of the bloodlines argon traced back through the males side of the family. Also, most of the ecisions that I have heard of or seen ar made and decided by the oldest or most respected piece of a family. This is not to say one is more right than the other. In my own personal experience, on my fathers side, which is Mexican, my grandfather was the patrilineal leader of the family. The best way I can explain it is that my family grow for nuclear purposes goes to my grandp arnts on that side. Once my grandfather passed away, my grandmother took over as matrilineal leader. She passed away not long after him and that role was overtaken by my oldest aunt and her husband, with my aunt carrying the authority on that side.Marriage among the Iroquois had to be exogamous. This means that they had to sweep up outside their lineage or clan. The Iroquois kinship system recognizes two groups parents and siblings who are too d eathly related to hook up with, and potential spouses and inlaws. A person may marry a cross-cousin, where parallel cousins are considered as close as siblings. Parallel cousins are treated to and referred to as siblings and their parents and treated to and referred to as parents. They are traced through matrilineage and are in the first group.In the Iroquois system, they cannot marry parallel cousins, further can and should marry cross-cousins. Sometimes referred to as the sibling-exchange system, it keeps wealth in the family and reasserts alliances between lineages. There are laws in American preventing cousins and family members from marrying. excursion from the legal ramifications, marrying within a nuclear family is dangerous, biologically. It is not as cock-a-hoop when it goes out as far as cousins, but there is a social stereotype against marrying someone close to you within the bloodline.I personally do not a problem with second or third cousins marrying, but I have nev er had to go through knowing or wondering if someone in my family or if I was going through the marriage surgery with a cousin. Marriages in the Iroquois society were easily dissolved. Since everything went through the female side of the marriage, the man was an outsider living in the village. If the charwoman did not want to be married to him anymore, she packed his belongings and leave them on the steps of the longhouse. When the man returned, he saw his things, visitd the marriage had been terminated and returned to his own village.Marriages in todays society are much more differently dissolved. Today, we have to go through the process of dividing property, belongings, child support and visitation and well as money. A man or a woman cannot simply come home and realize a marriage is ended. We must go through courts and off trusted that things are done according to laws. In what I have experienced, being married and divorced twice, people should think more before marrying. I do not regret marrying either time, but more scene should be put into it and more work should be put into marriages to diagnose them last. Kinship affects my life in a very big way.My family lines are important to me and I enjoy finding out where I come from and who my ancestors were. I also live it every day, because I currently live with my girlfriend, who has two children that are not mine. I find it difficult to right them because I am not their father and struggle with ways to make the house work sometimes. I believe that kinship is important and should be talked about and worked on by all of us to make our lives easier. quality Page Nowak, B. , & Laird, P. (2010). Cultural anthropology. San Diego, Bridgepoint Education, Inc. https//content. ashford. edu