Kewa - Kinship

Kin Groups and Descent. The kin groups are loosely defined according to the ruru and repaa. The former is a collection of at least two generations of collateral male kin, their wives and children. The latter consists of a family (i.e., a husband and wife/wives) and their children, which has the potential of becoming a ruru. All land is allocated and claimed along these kinship lines, sometimes linked across widely separated areas due to the movements of the ancestors. Descent is reckoned through the male lineage with priority to the eldest male if there are brothers.

Kinship Terminology. The system is bifurcate collateral in the first ascending generation. In one's own generation, Iroquois-type cousin terms are used and all cross cousins are called by the same term but are terminologically different from siblings. Parallel cousins are classed as siblings. Siblings of the same sex have one term for the male and a different one for the female, whereas a single reciprocal term is used for siblings of the opposite sex. Males and females who are two generations removed use reciprocal terms.