What do you understand by Kinship ? Discuss its importance in social life.
(a) The family is a group consisting of close relatives. These relatives are known as kins or kindred.
(b) Kinship system is also seen as a method of organizing marriage relations between groups. A female is recruited as wife, as daughter-in-law and so on through her marriage into another group and a male through his marriage is recruited as husband, son-in-low of his wife's parents, group. The kinship group's alliances, thus, are transacted through marriage.
(c) The members of the family are linked with one another by kinship bonds based on blood relationship with exception of husband and wife who are bound by marriage. The mutual expectations in the family are based on kinship ties.
(d) A kinship system is not an unorganised aggression of individuals. It is a system of the way relations between the individuals in the family and between families are organised.
(e) Kinship bonds are very strong and considerably expanded in tribal societies and also in rural communities.
II. Importance of Kinships in Social Life : 1. Kinship is an important aspect of a family life. People in the family have definite rights and obligations according to their statuses. A kin is more quickly available for help than any other person or agency. It is because the kin has emotional relationship with another kin.
2. Kins provide assistance in economic affairs or other activities which need co-operation from others. When social functions like marriage ceremonies and religious functions take place in the family, kins are necessarily invited and their presence is expectd. It is also obligatory on their part to provide services as and when needed.
3. In the events of crises also, people depend greatly on their relatives for aid and succour. Blood relatives have greater significance as a person feels much closer to them than those who are related by marriage.
4. Different kins have different obligations to carry out on different occasions in the family. For example, in Hindu family the role of the eldest brother is very important. When a person dies, the eldest son of the deceased is supposed to ligh the funeral pyre. It is customary that
the eldest son would be heir after the death of the father and would get the larger share in case the property is divided among the offsprings.
5. The Kinship system assists in maintaining solidarity in the family. However tensions and conflicts among the kins due to discriminatory rights also did exist and even now exist in the traditional Indian joint families especially of the propertied class.
