In thelineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, aniece ornephew is a child of an individual'ssibling orsibling-in-law. A niece is female and a nephew is male, and they would call their parents' siblingsaunt oruncle. The gender-neutral termnibling has been used in place of the common terms, especially in specialist literature.[1]
As aunt/uncle and niece/nephew are separated by one generation, they are an example of asecond-degree relationship. Unless related by marriage, they are 25% or morerelated by blood if the aunt/uncle is a fullsibling of one of the parents, or 12.5% if they are ahalf-sibling.
The word nephew is derived from theFrench wordneveu which is derived from theLatinnepos.[2] The termnepotism, meaning familial loyalty, is derived from this Latin term.[3]Niece enteredMiddle English from theOld French wordnece, which also derives from Latinnepotem.[4] The wordnibling, derived fromsibling, is aneologism suggested bySamuel Martin in 1951 as a cover term for "nephew or niece"; it is not common outside of specialist literature.[1] Sometimes in discussions involving analytic material or in abstract literature, terms such asmale nibling andfemale nibling are preferred to describe nephews and nieces respectively.[5] Terms such asnibling are also sometimes viewed as agender-neutral alternative to terms which may be viewed as perpetuating the overgenderization of the English language;[6] it can also be used likewise to refer tonon-binary relatives.[7]
Traditionally, a nephew was the logical recipient of his uncle'sinheritance if the latter did not have a successor. A nephew might have more rights of inheritance than the uncle's daughter.[12][13]
In social environments that lacked a stable home or environments such as refugee situations, uncles and fathers would equally be assigned responsibility for their sons and nephews.[14]
Among parents, some cultures have assigned equal status in their social status to daughters and nieces. This is, for instance, the case in Indian communities inMauritius,[15] and the ThaiNakhon Phanom Province, where the transfer of cultural knowledge such as weaving was distributed equally among daughters, nieces and nieces-in-law by the Tai So community,[16] and someGarifuna people that would transmit languages to their nieces.[17] In some proselytizing communities the termniece was informally extended to include non-related younger female community members as a form of endearment.[18] Among some tribes in Manus Province of Papua New Guinea, women's roles as sisters, daughters and nieces may have taken precedence over their marital status in social importance.[19]
Agrandnephew orgrandniece is the grandson or granddaughter of one's sibling.[20] Also calledgreat-nephew /great-niece.[21]
Ahalf-niece orhalf-nephew is the child of one's half-sibling,related by 12.5%.[22][23]
In some cultures and family traditions, it is common to refer tocousins with one or more removals to a newer generation using some form of the word niece or nephew. For more information seecousin.
^abConklin, Harold C. (1964)."Ethnogenealogical method". In Ward Hunt Goodenough (ed.).Explorations in Cultural Anthropology: Essays in Honor of George Peter Murdock. McGraw-Hill. p. 35.
^Atlani, Laàtitia; Rousseau, C…Cile (2000). "The Politics of Culture in Humanitarian Aid to Women Refugees Who Have Experienced Sexual Violence".Transcultural Psychiatry.37 (3). McGill University:435–449.doi:10.1177/136346150003700309.S2CID146534532.
^Gustaffson, Berit (1999).Traditions and Modernities in Gender Roles: Transformations in Kinship and Marriage Among the M'Buke from Manus Province. p. 7.
