SUDANESE KINSHIP

Sudanese Kinship

Sudanese Kinship

Introduction

The Sudanese kinship system is a descriptive system; it is one of the six major types of kinship systems that are used to define the family of a person and affiliation to a group of people or relatives. Sudanese kinship system is the most complex of all kinship systems. It maintains a separate self-designation for every family member according to his distance from the self, contact, and gender (Lounsbury, 1964). This system is so named because it is used by the peoples of southern Sudan, in Africa. The Sudanese system was used by ancient Romans and Anglo-Saxon societies. Today, it is possible to be found in society Arabic, Bulgarian, Turkish and Chinese.

Discussion

Sudanese Kinship systems are sets of norms used in specific cultures and languages ??to describe or name the specific relationships between relatives. Societies in different parts of the world use more or less the same patterns as they exist in terminological kinship. Sometimes systems are translatable from one language to another, but the connotations can vary from language to language. However, the general rule is that the translation usually cannot be done word for word, especially in cases where companies use different terminology systems characteristics (Pasternak, 1976).

The archaeologist Lewis Henry Morgan (1818-1881) made the first survey of the different kinship terminologies used throughout the world. Although much of his work has now passed subsequent studies, he argued that kinship terminologies reflect different sets of distinctions. For example, most kinship terminologies make a differentiation between the sexes, as, for example, the difference between a brother and sister-and between generations- for example ones that exist between a child and a parent (Pasternak, 1976).

In addition, he argued, available literature on kinship terminologies that distinguish family by blood or affinity, as given in studies of many anthropologists, argues that ...