Endenese - Kinship



Kin Groups and Descent. Descent is traced patrilineally. The Endenese ideological framework for kin groups consists of only one word, waja, which means, literally, "an old one." When used in the context of kin grouping, it means "patrilineal descendants of an old one (named)." Thus "waja Juma," for example, means patrilineal descendants of Juma. The generational depth is, at the deepest, four to five. A waja is supposed to possess a characteristic ritual ( nggua ) attached to their ritually owned parcel of land.

Kinship Terminology. The Endenese kinship terminology can be said to represent roughly the ideology of unilineality and asymmetric alliance (matrilateral cross-cousin marriage). In other words, the terminology does not contradict the ideology much. Unilineality is expressed in such equations as that between (1) father and father's brothers ('ema) and (2) mother and mother's sisters ( 'iné ) and in such distinctions as that between father's sisters ( noö ) and mother's sisters ('iné). Asymmetry is expressed in such equations as that between wife's father and mother's brother ( mamé ), and such distinctions as those between (1) mother's brothers ( mame ) and father's sister's husband ( aki noö ) and (2) mother's brother's daughters (' ari or kaë ) and father's sister's daughters ( weta ). The term ' éja is an exception in that it can denote both wife's brother and sister's husband.


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