Kinship System and Culture - Research Paper Example

Kinship System and Culture Kinship system is one of the important social bonds. The establishment of a proper kinship system influences the behavior of the society members to a large extent. Kinship comprises of blood relationship and affinal or marriage relationship. The social recognition of kinship affects the formation of groups and the regulatory behavior of the people. The study of Kinship system of the San has been done below to study the culture. San - kinship San Bushmen or popularly known as San, are the inhabitants of the Southern parts of Africa for more than a century.

The group is classified to be a foraging group as they travel from one place to another in search of foods and provisions. Anthropologists have taken keen interest in the study of their culture, economy and the kinship system. A study on the kinship system of the San reflects that they belonged to a nuclear family comprising of father, mother and children. The kinship connection in relation to both mother and father is important among the San’s. This particular kinship system is referred to as the bilateral kinship system.

Because of the bilateral kinship system among the San, there is a presence of relative in every band living nearby. The San’s are prohibited to marry their second cousins or marrying someone close in relationship to the person. San girls oppose marriage at an early age. The women in the San culture are highly responsible for the gathering of their foods. Women generally collect fruits, lemons, nuts, while the no vegetarian food is collected by the men. The San families work together as a group.

The kinship system they had helps them to survive in disasters. If one family is unable to collect food for a day, they move to other families and take the foods from them. San people live in large number of groups and a group may consist of more than 30 members. The groups are connected by marriage and kinship and help them in providing safety and comfort. During scarcity of food and other needs they move on to other camps and take their help. Marriage between inter band members strengthens the harmony among the groups.

The kinship system actually affects the thought process of the San. It is because of their necessity to live in dependence of the group, for which the inter-group marriage has become popular. The security and the movement from one group to another are exhibited due to the harmony and the close relationship that they maintain. More or less the lifestyle they follow is full of enjoyment and they have considerable amount of leisure time to do things of their choice, as they share work among each other.

(Nowak & Laird, n. d) Kinship in Israeli culture: Kinship groups based on descendants are not popular among the Israelis. The Israelis system of kinship is based on bilateral and nuclear family. (Countries and their culture, n. d) A common difference between the Israeli culture and that of the San is that San is basically a foraging group and they had to search for the foods on a regular basis as there was no permanent source of income. The Israeli society on the other hand is more civilized and the interdependence of the group does not exist.

Though the nature of kinship is similar but a difference in culture prevails. References Countries and their culture, (n. d), Retrieved on September, 30 2011 from: http://www.everyculture.com/Africa-Middle-East/Jews-of-Israel-Kinship.html Nowak, B, & Peter, L (n. d), Cultural Anthropology, Ashford University: Discovery Series