Kurtatchi - Kinship



Kin Groups and Descent. The basic kin group is the matrilineage, traditionally occupying a single hamlet, to which the lineage claimed ultimate rights in land. Matrilineages were grouped into exogamous clans which, being dispersed, did not normally act as corporate units. Like other Bougainvilleans, Tinputz were uninterested in genealogy in a Western sense.

Kinship Terminology. Tinputz terminology was a variant of the Iroquois system, in which siblings are equated with parallel cousins and terminologically distinguished from cross cousins.

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