Palikur - Kinship

Kinship Groups and Descent. The Palikur are organized into patri-clans designated by composite names of animals, plants, and natural phenomena, and the suffix wenê (or yunê), people. In the remote past, there were around eighteen clans, possibly endogamous, with some of their members originating in other ethnic groups. Nowadays, there are six exogamous clans whose members, contrary to tradition, live among other people in the same villages. Marriage and funeral ceremonies are maintained as cooperative events of each clan, but clans do not function as distinct economic units, and no differences in traditional feasts are observable. Although only patrilineally related clan members are considered to be true Palikur, their recognition amounts to nothing more than a nominal distinction because even those who do not have a Palikur father can now be buried in a place reserved for the members of their Palikur mother's clan.

Kinship Terminology. The kinship terminology is bifurcate merging for the first ascending generation and of the Iroquois type in Ego's generation.