Akawaio - Kinship

Kinship and Descent. The system is a cognatic one with self-focused symmetrical reference to both paternal and maternal kin. There is a concept of interlinked, three-generation cycles, each generation of grandchildren replicating the grandparental one. The spirit of a deceased grandparent may sometimes dwell in a grandchild. There is a strong notion of complementary lines of same-sex kin, a man being considered a replica of his father and grandfather, and a woman of her mother and grandmother.

Kinship Terminology. Most kinship terms indicate sex difference; sibling terms indicate relative age. Terminology is of the bifurcate-merging Iroquois type. A father and his brothers are addressed as father; a mother and her sisters as mother. They address each other's children as their own and the latter refer to each other as siblings. Opposite-sex cross cousins use terms inferring marriageability. One extends the kinship terminology to all genealogically traceable relatives and may incorporate strangers. The notion of a family ( tomba ) is elastic, with recognition that, ultimately, all Akawaio are relatives ( tombadong).