Montserratians - Kinship

Kin Groups and Descent. Kinship is bilateral and descent cognatic, even though such simple descriptions do not do justice to behavioral and ideological complexity. Since the Caribbean was the first part of the world to be modernized by a rigid industrial labor regime and a land and economic system dedicated wholly to capitalized commodity production, the development and morphology of kinship, family, and marriage are relevant to a general anthropological understanding of kin processes in the modern world. Kinship practices and ideologies in Montserrat and throughout the Caribbean are linked with labor and land systems, class, gender, and law, but these connections are yet to be investigated in Montserrat.

Kinship Terminology. Kinship terminology separates the elementary family from other kin. Outside of the elementary family it is generational, without distinguishing matrilateral and patrilateral relatives. It would be a serious error, however, to draw any conclusions about family organization from the kinship terminology.