Ata Sikka - Kinship

Kin Groups and Descent. In central Sikka, a child belongs to his or her father's descent group. The mother's descent group maintains certain ritual rights and obligations over the children of their women who have married men of other groups. A child's mother's brother must, however, receive a prestation of ceremonial goods from his sister's husband's people at the birth of each child, a payment that dissolves any claim to the child as a member of the mother's group, a claim that group might otherwise make. Communities are divided into large, nonlocalized, nonexogamous, named descent groups ( ku'at or ku'at wungung ), each recognizing its own founding ancestor, possessing its own "history," and sharing a limited number of ritual prohibitions. In Sikka Natar (the village of Sikka) on the south coast, ku'at wungung are associated with wards within the village.

Kin Terminology. According to Calon and Arndt, there are two published lists of kin terms for western Sikka. Father and father's brother ( ama ) are distinguished from mother's brother ( pulamé or tiu ) ; mother and mother's sister ( ina ) are distinguished from father's sister (' a'a ); cross cousins are distinguished from parallel cousins and according to the sex of the speaker; cross cousins who are potential marriage partners (classificatory as mother's brother's daughter and father's sister's son; however, they address each other as ipar or ipar tu'ang). There are minor variations of relationship terminologies and the classification of kin among the peoples of central Sikka.