Dolgan - Kinship



As a rule, a genealogical distance of four generations is thought to be desirable between marriage partners, although occasionally cross-cousin marriages do take place. In practice, almost all Dolgan are more or less distantly related, the kinship links being known to the elder people. The kinship net extends beyond the Dolgan group boundary, involving Yakut, Evenki, and some of the Russian Old Settlers.

Adult baptism in the period of Christian conversion resulted in predominance of a limited number of family names. The bearers of these names are at present so genealogically distant that people of the same surname are permitted to enter into marriage.

Different Dolgan families use different ancestral kinship terms, depending on their origin. The majority use Yakut terms of the descriptive and classificatory type. The elder members of the family are addressed, in most cases, by kinship terms or terms referring to age-group. The marriage systems of various territorial groupings do not dictate observance of intragroup endogamy. Interethnic marriages are common.

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