Triqui - Kinship

Kin Groups and Descent. The Triqui have endogamous patrilineal clans and exogamous lineages within the clans. The latter are corporate, and lineages hold land scattered within clan territory. Clan endogamy promotes alliances between lineages through marriage, joining kin outside the third degree of consanguinity. Within the elite/noble group belonging to a lineage head's ascendant line, a man may take a wife from the head of another clan. Breaking the pattern of endogamy and hypergamy is one of their prerogatives.

This specific type of lineage is a consequence of the contradictions resulting from the relationship between the heads of descent groups and the common people. Lines of descent do not conform to a totally patrilineal pattern, owing to the establishment of two lines of ascendancy, one for the nobility and one for the commoners. The nobility, which is in the minority, has bilateral ascent, that is to say, their lineage is traced through the father's and the mother's father's lineage. The commoners, who are in the majority, trace their lineage solely through the patrilineal line. The intertwining of both types of ascendancy hinders the imposition of unilineality and produces a global type of descent, which, for lack of a better term, can be called "quasi-patrilineal," as George P. Murdock did for a society in southeast Asia.

Kinship Terminology. The basic kinship terminology is generational; terms for brother and sister extend to sons and daughters of the father's and mother's brothers and sisters, which is typical of the Hawaiian type. The norm for Ego's parents' generation is nonfusion among collaterals. Criteria of sex and the speaker's sex are recognized, but no distinction is made between cross and parallel cousins.