Gahuku-Gama - Kinship

Kin Groups and Descent. Gahuku reproduction beliefs allocate only a secondary role to women, who are viewed as mere receptacles for a man's semen, and a closer spiritual tie is held to obtain between a father and his child than that Between a child and its mother. Descent is, accordingly, traced through males. The male members of patrilineages, tracing their descent through about four generations to a shared ancestor, usually reside together in the same village, where they exercise rights to specific areas of land and undertake communal labor tasks. Their identity is stressed further through ownership of pairs of sacred flutes and through the pooling and sharing of resources in bride-wealth transactions. Lineages are also joined into subclans and clans, which are named despite the lack of precise knowledge of all genealogical links that unite them. Clans are exogamous, are predominantly localized with their own plots of land, and act as corporate groups in a wide range of activities, including warfare.

Kinship Terminology. Gahuku distinguish between older and younger siblings, reflecting a general concern with seniority, but sibling terms are extended widely to all of the same generation within both the lineage and clan. The use of kin terms is modified by real age differences and for males by agemate relationships, which usually come about through coinitiation and are marked by close bonds.