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Iroquois

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A kinship system is the system of social relationships that constitute kinship in a particular culture. I have chosen to write on the kinship system of the Iroquois. The kinship system of the Iroquois is also known as bifurcate merging. The Iroquois trace their kinship relationship through one sex which is called unilineal descent groups. The Iroquois go through the female line. In this culture the marital partners is determined by kinship, since people must marry outside their lineage and clan. This specific kinship recognizes two groupings: Parents and siblings who are too closely related to marry, and potential spouses and in laws. While they cannot marry their parallel cousin (someone born of a sister, brother, mother, or father) they are allowed to marry their cross cousins (someone born outside of the immediate family). This process is sometimes called a sibling-exchange system. It keeps the wealth in the family and also reasserts alliances between lineages. This culture as I said before is matrilineal which means that the blood line is traced through the mother, which means that the child is the same clan or tribe as the mother no matter who the father is. They also have clans or family groupings; it affects behavior because you are not allowed to marry someone in your own clan. When marrying someone they are considered to be outsiders since when they marry they move to the clan they are married into and become a part of it. Another way this culture is affected is we stay with our clans, and each clan has a different responsibility. Also even though married, a woman’s eldest brother was more important as a mentor to the children then the own father since he was of outside the clan. In conclusion the Iroquois tribe was mostly based on women and always based inside their own clan. Even though men would come in and go, the resulting behavior was the same,

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