Kinship and the Lineage System

The method of analysis we have followed in this study has required, for purposes of description, the isolation of the lineage system from the domestic organization of the Tallensi. The lineage system is the structural basis of Tale political, jural, and ritual institutions, whereas the domestic organization is the structural basis of person-to-person relations in the sphere of kinship in the narrow sense. The Tallensi apply the concepts of kinship to describe and define domestic relations and the person-to-person ties that are derived from them. They use the same concepts in dealing with lineage relations. It is essential to distinguish two kinds of genealogical ties among the Tallensi. They are Cognatic kinship and agnatic kinship. Among the Tallensi the generic concept of kinship, dɔɣam, subsumes all kinds and degrees of genealogical relationship, however remote, through one or more progenitors or progenetrices.

Biology · Evolutionary biology · Genealogy · Kinship · Lineage (genetic) · Sociology · Anthropology · Genetics · History · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving