Btsisi - Critical Thinking

1082 Words5 Pages
The cultural definition of kinship is stated as “A relation between two or more persons that is based on common ancestry (descent) or marriage (affinity)” (Dictionary.com. n.d.). Our text describes kinship as involving how people classify each other, people’s behavior that are affected by rules, and their actual behavior (Nowak & Laird, 2010). I will discuss kinship among the Btsisi’ tribe and whether there are similarities or not to my society, if any. Horticulturalists live in permanent residences but the Btsisi is a society that is viewed as a semi-sedentary society, which means they will temporarily reside near their swiddens during planting and harvesting time although the swiddens are not their priority. The Btsisi’ do have homes that they return to from time to time, but will spend more time away from it. They will then return to their boats or to the forests to continue collecting and hunting. For the horticultural community, the most common and adaptive family type is the nuclear and the extended family. Their nuclear family is made up of at least three generations that include grandparents, parents, and children. The extended family will extend to the married siblings, their spouses, and their children. The larger the family could mean more adults which in turn means more adult labor to accomplish their domestic and subsistence work. Also, as in the Btsisi’ tribe, mobility is not necessary so they tend to have more children that are beneficial for farm labor. “Married couples are the basic units of Btsisi’ society” (Cultural Survival, March 5, 2010). The Btsisi’ do not practice polygyny, but traditionally practice village exogamy which is a rule that specifies that they must marry outside of their own group where the bride and groom are from different villages. In the Btsisi’ tribe, “The husband and wife form a cooperative, self-sufficient

More about Btsisi - Critical Thinking

Open Document