Hawaiian kinship facts for kids
Hawaiian kinship is a way of describing family relationships. It's also called the generational system. It helps people understand who is who in their family, especially in different languages and cultures. A researcher named Lewis H. Morgan first described this system in 1871. It's one of six main ways societies around the world organize family terms. The other systems are called Eskimo, Iroquois, Crow, Omaha, and Sudanese.
How Family is Described
The Hawaiian system is the simplest way to classify family members. It groups relatives based only on their generation and gender. This means there's a generation for parents and a generation for children.
In this system, if you are the person (called Ego in anthropology), you call all women in your parents' generation "Mother." This includes your birth mother, your aunts, and the wives of your uncles. You call all men in your parents' generation "Father." This includes your birth father, your uncles, and the husbands of your aunts.
In your own generation, all your brothers and male cousins are called "Brother." All your sisters and female cousins are called "Sister." This means that even your cousins are seen as your brothers and sisters.
Because of this, a "cross-cousin" (the child of your mother's brother or your father's sister) is also called a "sibling." People have noticed that societies using the Hawaiian system often do not allow marriage between cousins.
Where is it Used?
The Hawaiian system gets its name from the way Native Hawaiian people described their families before European contact. Today, this system is most common among cultures that speak Malayo-Polynesian languages. The Hawaiian language itself is part of this language family.
This family system is often found in groups where both men and women share equally in earning money and raising children. About one-third of the world's societies use the Hawaiian system, though these societies are usually smaller in size.
See also
In Spanish: Sistema hawaiano de parentesco para niños
