Ayoreo - Kinship and Domestic Unit

With the expression ogasúi (pl., ogasuóde ), which is derived from the word ogadí ("place where one sleeps or lies down"), the Ayoreo indicate kinship ties, which are established according to more effective and realistic norms than agnatic or cognatic ones. Ogasúi is normally translated as "relative," independently of the clan relationship, which is called diosí . The definition of the ogasúi relationship takes into consideration kin ties and spatial proximity within the gidái. In terms that are no more than a schematization of a much more complex reality, ogasuóde, from the point of view of kinship, are all the members of an extended family consisting of several nuclear families that live with the wife's parents (in the case of an uxorilocal residence) or with the husband's parents (in the alternate case) and who may be termed "central couples." It is also made up of unmarried children who maintain with the members of the nuclear families a relationship of siblings-in-law (kin's spouses) or that of maternal or paternal uncles. The parents of a central couple are also considered to be ogasuóde if they live together in the same house or in the vicinity. The other aspect that defines the ogasuí relationship is, as mentioned earlier, spatial proximity, with ogasuóde living together in a single dwelling or in contiguous dwellings within the village. It is this spatial aspect of the ogasuóde complex that the Ayoreo translate with the word "neighbor," whereas kin relationship is expressed by the word "relative." Technonymy prevails throughout the kinship system. Kinship terminology is bifurcate generational in kind.