Yangoru Boiken - Kinship

Kin Groups and Descent. The principal kin groups, known as hring, are patrilineagelike segments averaging about ten to fourteen members. Hring are usually linked by stipulated patrilineal descent into totemic, quasisubclan and quasiclan groups (also known as hring), and they sustain alliances to yet other hring based on affinal links, legendary connections, friendship, or common political interests. Recruitment to a hring is by birth to the wife of a male member or by use of its resources, the latter way being legitimized by assisting the group in its wealth, food, and pig exchange obligations. Wives become members of their husbands' hring at marriage. It is not uncommon for a man to belong to two or even three different hring; accordingly, kinship relations are often multiplex.

Kinship Terminology. There are two kinship terminologies. The first and more salient is employed principally in public and formal discourse and is essentially of the Omaha type. The second is used in private, informal discourse and, with due regard to age and sex, extends nuclear kin terms bilaterally, with the exception that maternal brothers are called "mother" and paternal sisters "father."