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Iroquois kinship (also known asbifurcate merging) is akinship system named after theHaudenosaunee people, also known as theIroquois, whose kinship system was the first one described to use this particular type of system. Identified byLewis Henry Morgan in his 1871 workSystems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family, the Iroquois system is one of the six major kinship systems (Eskimo,Hawaiian, Iroquois,Crow,Omaha, andSudanese).[1]
The system has bothclassificatory anddescriptive terms. In addition to gender and generation, Iroquois kinship also distinguishes 'same-sex' and 'cross-sex' parental siblings: the brothers of Ego's (the subject from whose perspective the kinship is based) father, and the sisters of Ego's mother, are referred to by the same parental kinship terms used for Ego's Father and Mother. The sisters of Ego's father, and the brothers of Ego's mother, on the other hand, are referred to by non-parental kinship terms, commonly translated into English as "Aunt" and "Uncle".
The children of one's parents' same-sex siblings, i.e.parallel cousins, are referred to by sibling kinship terms. The children of Aunts or Uncles, i.e.cross cousins, are not considered siblings, and are referred to by kinship terms commonly translated into English as "cousin". In some systems, the kinship terms applied to cross-cousins are the same as those applied to brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, due to preferential marriage practices (see below).
Ego (the subject from whose perspective the kinship is based) is encouraged to marry hiscross-cousins but discouraged or prohibited from marrying hisparallel cousins. In many societies with Iroquois kinship terminologies, the preferred marriage partners include not only first cousins (mother's brother's children and father's sister's children), but more remote relatives who are also classified as cross-cousins by the logic of the kinship system. Preferential cross-cousin marriage can be useful in reaffirming alliances between unilineallineages orclans.
The term Iroquois comes from the sixIroquois tribes of northeastern North America. Another aspect of their kinship was that the six tribes all hadmatrilineal systems, in which children were born into the mother'sclan and gained status through it. Women controlled some property, and hereditary leadership passed through the maternal line. A woman's eldest brother was more important as a mentor to her children than their father, who was always of a different clan.
"Iroquois tradition had the lineage of the clan or tribe traced through the mother's side. However, the amount of power women held in the tribe decreased with time due to the American revolution."[2] (Lappas, Thomas).
Some groups in other countries also happen to be independently organized for kinship by the Iroquois system. It is commonly found inunilineal descent groups. These include:
Other populations found to have the Iroquois system are
Some communities inSouth India use the kinship tradition described above.[3]
Many of the cultures ofVanuatu use this type of kinship system. InBislama (Vanuatu pidgin), paternal uncles and maternal aunts are referred to assmol papa "small father" andsmol mama "small mother" respectively.