Delaware - Kinship

Kin Groups and Descent. The Lenape bands were matrilineally related clusters of nuclear families, but with high interband mobility. The "clans" of the Delaware described after 1750, sometimes referred to as "phratries," reflected the three cultures living in the Delaware valley prior to 1700. By the early nineteenth century, these cultures had become identified as being of three "totemic clans," still reflecting their traditional cultural borders.

Kinship Terminology. Both the Lenape and Jerseys seem to have used Hawaiian cousin terminology by the early nineteenth century and semibifurcate terminology for the first ascending generation. This had evolved from the earlier aboriginal system, which remains to be clarified.