Non Biological Families

Kinship is defined through your descent group/ people who you are related to. In the film, Dadi’s family is shown to be related through an affine kinship. The relationships that are discussed in the film are all based on marriage. Dada, Dadi, the sons and her daughters-in-law are part of the family through marriage. The family is patrilocal extended family.

The kinship system is a defining feature of Aboriginal social organisation and family relationships1. This ‘kinship’ system establishes how all members of a community are related and what their position is2.It is a complex system that determines how people relate to each other, and what their roles, responsibilities and obligations in relation to one another are. It also plays an important role in ceremonies and relationships to the land. As such, the kinship system dictates who can marry who, ceremonial relationships, funeral roles and how kinfolk should behave towards one another1.

Kinship is a unique and complex system of belonging and responsibility in Indigenous culture that incorporates not only the family but also relationships surrounding a totem. This represents personal and group connection to ancestral beings of the land.

Native Americans established principal relationships either through a clan system, descent from a common ancestor, or through a friendship system, much like tribal societies in other parts of the world. In the Choctaw nation, “Moieties were subdivided into several nontotemic, exogamous, matrilineal 'kindred' clans, called iksa" (Faiman-Silva, 1997, p.8). The Cheyenne tribe also traced their ancestry through the woman's lineage, Moore (1996, p. 154). shows this when he says "Such marriages, where the groom comes to live in the bride's band, are called 'matrilocal'." Leacock (1971, p. 21) reveals that "...prevailing opinion is that hunting societies would be patrilocal.... Matrilineality, it is assumed, followed the emergence of agriculture...." Leacock (p. 21) then stated that she had found the Montagnais-Naskapi, a hunting society, had been matrilocal until Europeans stepped in. "The Tanoan Pueblos kinship system is bilateral. The household either is of the nuclear type or is extended to include relatives of one or both parents...." (Dozier, 1971, p. 237).

Family is not through blood but rather through personal connections and trust. Family are the people that surround others with positivity, family can be chosen. An example of family being chosen or accepted that is not blood related from the play ODACTTT is when Tonto and Janice were talking about her biological family and how important true family really is, and how her name is Grace Wabung. contreversely, Janice has a different opinion on family and says, “... my name is Wirth”(Taylor 57). In particular, Janice feels her family is her adopted family more so than her birth family because of personal connection, as well as who cared for her over her childhood years and what became accustomed to her. Another example from the play ODACTTT is when Rodney, Tonto and Janice are talking about Amelia Earhart. They are talking about how she is family within the reserve. They continue talking about Amelia Earhart and how her being alive is a secret kept among the community for her safety and protection from the rest of the world. The topic of discussion was Amelia Earhart, a little old lady that lives on the reserve when Rodney says, “Yeah the village. Because we’re her family now, it’s her secret but it’s also ours”(Taylor 44). Which is very significant and important because Rodney, Barb, and Tonto continuously keep telling Janice that blood relatives are family and how it is more important than

They are not just her brothers/sister, but they are her best friends as well. Her mother is one of the most important influences in her life, who she loves very much. They have a small family, but close family ties. They know they can trust each other, and always come together as a family untied when times get tough.

The family is a complex topic that can change drastically on a case by case basis. In the first portion of this sociological analysis of families, I will be looking into Carol B. Stack’s book All Our Kin. This case study focuses on a neighborhood known as Jackson Harbor, a place where being blood related to someone does not necessarily make you family. In addition, I will be analyzing the family situation of my friend Lauren Lynch. Through participant observation and an interview, I was able to uncover some useful details about her family that allowed me to analyze them through a sociological lens.

Bilateral- (biological kin) both mom and dad kin are related equally to children. Names—ppl have same name as a kin relation, will also be treated as family. Names come from ancestors.

societies use kinship as a basis for forming social groups and for classifying people. However,

The idea the authors, Naomi Gerstel and Natalia Sarkisian, are communicating to the audience is that the minority families do not have weaker ties to its extended family relationships compared to the white families. Rather, the ties to kinship depends on racial or ethnic differences.

The kinship system is based on the concept of "equivalence of same-sex siblings". Two siblings of the same sex are considered essentially the same and thus interchangeable. For example, if a man has

Kinship is the cornerstone for how people within a society relate to others and race lineages. Many societies trace their lineage through the father, which is called patrilineal, or through the mother which is called matrilineal. The Iroquois nation traced their kinship through the matrilineal decent lines. Kinship directly relates to how family groups think, act and live along side each other. The culture of the Iroquois can also be compared to how many American families relate to one another as well.

Naomi Gerstel and Natalia Sarksian have shed new light on the subject of minority families and their differences to the traditional nuclear families in their essay, “The Color of Family Ties.” According to their work, those of White descent make up most of all nuclear families which can be described as a father, mother and children all living in one household. Gerstel and Sarkasian point out that it is not always the case that, “Black and Latino/a, especially Puerto Rican families are more disorganized than White families, and that their families ties are weaker,” as they are often thought of by those in politics or the media (62). In fact Gerstel and Sarkasian write, “Blacks and Latinos/as, are as likely as

Additionally, the family of choice consists of people one feels as obligated to as if one was of blood relation. These self-constructed families are no less real or less meaningful than conventional families. In fact, they are known as one’s fictive kin. The bond of this type of family can be formed through several ways. Natalie writes, “for some people, voluntary kinship filled a void left by death or estrangement from biological family, while for others the relationships were supplemental or temporary.” It can be a friendship that turns into a family or a group that one relates to as a family. Either way, the fictive kin family is a blossoming family type. Increasingly, people refer to this as their second family. Some choose it to be their first family when they feel

The word family has changed so much in the past century. A family back in the 1950’s was probably considered a husband, wife, and one or more children. Times have changed and families have become much different. The Interpersonal Communication: Relating to Others book defines family as a, “Unit made up of any number of persons who live in relationship with one another over time in a common living space who are usually, but not always, united by marriage and kinship” (Beebe, Beebe & Redmond, 243). Families can be broken up into five different types. The first is the traditional family, which includes a mother, father, and their biological children. Next, is the blended family which includes