Ye ye (FF) naimi (FM) gong gong (MF) popo (MM)
FZ FB FZ FZ F M MZ MB MZ MZ MB
fzs fbd fbs fzs fzd fzs fzs fzd ego z mzd mzs mzs mzs
The following is a list of symbols used in the above chart and their meanings
FF-Grandfather from my father’s side (ye ye)
FM- Grandmother from my father’s side (naimi)
MF- Grandfather from my mother’s side (gong gong)
MM- Grandmother from my mother’s side (po po)
F- Father (ba ba)
M-Mother (ma ma)
FZ- aunts from my father’s side (gu ma),
FB- My father’s brother (xiooshiski)
MZ- Aunts from my mother’s side (ah yi)
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MB- My mother’s brothers (jiu jiu)
FZS, FBD, FBS, FZD- Cousins from my father’s side
Z-Sister
MZD, MZS- Cousins from my mother’s side
Introduction
Kinship is actually a concept that has a number of meanings depending on the context. In anthropology, it essentially refers to social relationships web, which form an imperative part of most human lives in most societies. In the other disciplines, this term may have a dissimilar meaning. For instance, in Biology, kinship is degree of the genetic relatedness or simply the coefficient of the relationship between the individual members of a given species. This essay describes the above kinship chart in my extended family including the process that I followed to produce it.
The kinship chart in the above page portrays the relationship between members of my extended family. As clearly illustrated, the chart is composed of three generations that is, my grandparent’s generation, my parents’ generation, and lastly my generation. Before developing this kinship chart I had to gather the necessary information from my family members. Thus, I collected the information about the adoptive and biological relationship in my extended family.
As depicted in the kinship chart, my family is patrilineal. In my extended family, men hold highest status. When a woman is married, her children automatically become descendent of her husband’s family. Women are thus considered to be daughter that will actually be given or lost in the Chinese culture. Therefore, the elders value a man more than a woman in my family. It is worth noting that in my extended family, men have the right to bring in extra women through marriage. The offspring (s) of this marriage (s) become descendent of the paternal lineage. After marriage, women are actually considered as the daughters of their husband’s family. Thus, they no longer belong to their birth families according to our norms. In addition, they do not have contributions to lineage line in their families.
The naming system of my cultural background is actually different from that of Eskimo. It therefore corresponds to the Sudanese or description naming system. The father of my mother that is, my grandfather from my mother’s side is referred to as “gong gong” while the grandfather from the father’s side is referred to as “ye ye.” Nevertheless, we also refer the two kins as “grandfather”. In addition, my mother’s sisters are called “ah yi” whereas my father’s sisters are called “gu ma.” These are simply my aunts. Each “jiu jiu,” “ah yi,” and “gu ma” is in real sense referred in a different way based on their age.
For example, my father’s eldest sister is actually referred as “da gu ma” where “da” indicates that she is eldest among my aunts from the father side. On the other hand, “xiao gu ma” is the youngest “gu ma” and “xiao” specifies that she is the youngest aunt. The father’s sisters who are neither eldest nor youngest are named through putting numbers, which represent their seniority. For instance, second eldest “gu ma” is referred as “er gu ma” where “er” means two.
In terms of seniority, the eldest son in my family has got the highest status. He is followed by eldest daughter and so on. Nevertheless, age doesn’t affect the seniority in the family; it is affected by one’s parent’s status. For instance, although the eldest offspring of eldest son of “gong gong” or “ye ye” might not be eldest individual in his or her seniority, he or she essentially holds highest status among his or her cousins and siblings.
There is a difference between the western culture and eastern culture. The eastern cultures have 2 central areas of influence that is, Chinese and Indian. The Chinese culture was actually influenced by Confucius and Khans. The Indian culture is essentially based on the Hindu teachings and those of Gautama (Buddha). On the other hand, Western culture is essentially based on Roman and Greek societies. Nonetheless, the outside influences have really changed this. For instance, Japan in recent times has a more western style culture than Eastern style culture.
Cultural patterns and Migration forms the important events in my family. “er gu ma” is married by an Italian New Yorker hence she migrated to the New York city in U.S. She was therefore assimilated into the New York culture. She also converted her Christian husband into Buddhism since she is a true Buddhist. “San gu ma” is married by a Japanese man hence they migrated to Tokyo in Japan. She was therefore assimilated into Japanese culture that is different from the Chinese culture in terms of manners and norms. Additionally, she converted from Buddhism to a certain stream of Daoism as a result of the influence of her husband and the Japanese culture.
Lastly, “er ah yi” is married by an Australian and they migrated to Australia where she has actually been westernized. Nonetheless, she is different from “er gu ma” although they both migrated to the western society. In the western culture, “er ah yi” picked Suburban housewife characteristics while “er gu ma” picked urban working housewife characteristics.
In developing this chart I faced various challenges. For instance, my family members are in various countries hence I was not even familiar with the others. I also had difficult in constructing a chart, which involves all my grandparents’ siblings as most of them have actually passed away. Moreover, it was hard to know my lineages and family when all my grandparents were alive.
Parents were also not that resourceful to provide all the information I required to complete the chart since in my family they don’t like to talk about it as my grandparents have already passed away. In addition, the naming system is actually different from the Euro-Canadian culture. I was therefore confused in constructing the above chart since I had to incorporate Mandarin pronunciation and characters instead of the Roman alphabets.
References
Ernest L. Schusky. 1983. Manual for Kinship Analysis, 2nd ed. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, Pp. 1-25. KPU Library: GN 487 S38 1983
W.H.R. Rivers, 1910. The Genealogical Method of Anthropological Inquiry. The Sociological Review III (1):1-12
