Kinship: basic concepts and regional variation (Iravati Karve)

Sociology - Indian Society Continuity and Change · Unit III · Topic 11 of 16 · 4 min read

Types, degrees, terms, usages and functions of kinship, and Karve's four kinship zones of India: northern, central, southern and eastern.

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On this page

1. Meaning
2. Types of kinship
3. Degrees of kinship
4. Kinship terms
5. Kinship usages
6. Functions of kinship
7. Regional variation: Iravati Karve
How this is examined

Cases checked to exist. Read the judgment before quoting a holding.

Every case cited here has been checked to exist — the citation resolves and names the right parties. The propositions attributed to each case have not been verified line by line against the judgment. Case names link through to the full judgment: read it before quoting a holding in an examination answer, and never carry a proposition from notes into court on trust.

The examinable core. “Discuss the regional variations in kinship organisation of India” (10 marks, January 2026) and “Regional variation of kinship in India” (10-mark compulsory note, January 2026) both rest on Karve’s four zones. “Consanguinity kinship and affinity kinship” was a 6-mark note in February 2025.

1. Meaning

Kinship is the system of social relationships based on blood (descent) and marriage. Robin Fox defined it simply as the relations between kin, that is, persons related by real, putative or fictive consanguinity. Kinship decides whom one may marry, where one lives, who inherits and whom one must respect or avoid.

2. Types of kinship

Consanguineal kinship: relationship by blood: parents and children, siblings, uncles, cousins. It includes socially recognised ties such as adoption, so it is social, not purely biological.
Affinal kinship: relationship by marriage: husband and wife, and each spouse’s relatives (in-laws).

3. Degrees of kinship

Primary kin: directly related. G.P. Murdock counted eight: father, mother, husband, wife, son, daughter, brother, sister.
Secondary kin: primary kin of primary kin, e.g. father’s brother, wife’s sister. Murdock counted 33.
Tertiary kin: primary kin of secondary kin, e.g. wife’s sister’s husband. Murdock counted 151.

4. Kinship terms

Classificatory (L.H. Morgan): one term covers several relatives, e.g. English “uncle” or “cousin”.
Descriptive: one term for one relationship, e.g. Hindi chacha (father’s younger brother), mama (mother’s brother), tau (father’s elder brother).
Terms of reference (used when speaking of a relative) and of address (used when speaking to one).

5. Kinship usages

Avoidance: restraint between certain relatives, e.g. a daughter-in-law and father-in-law, expressed through veiling or not speaking.
Joking relationship: licensed teasing, e.g. between a man and his wife’s younger sister or brother (sali, sala; devar and bhabhi).
Teknonymy: referring to a person through a child (“Ramu’s father”), common where wives do not name husbands.
Avunculate: special authority and role of the mother’s brother, as in south India where the maternal uncle has duties at a niece’s wedding.
Amitate: special role of the father’s sister.
Couvade: the husband imitates the wife’s confinement, found among some tribes such as the Khasi and Toda.

6. Functions of kinship

Regulates marriage (incest taboo, exogamy, endogamy, preferential cousin marriage).
Decides descent, inheritance and succession.
Provides social security and mutual help.
Defines rights and duties, and rules of residence.
In tribal and village societies, organises economic and political life.

7. Regional variation: Iravati Karve

Iravati Karve (1905–1970) of Deccan College, Pune, in Kinship Organisation in India (1953), used literature, kinship terms and fieldwork to divide India into four kinship zones, each linked to a language family.

Zone	Main features
Northern (Indo-Aryan: Punjab, U.P., Bihar, Bengal, Haryana)	Strict gotra and sapinda exogamy (avoid the gotras of father, mother, often father’s mother and mother’s mother); village exogamy; no cross-cousin marriage; bride from a distant family, often of slightly lower status (hypergamy); patrilineal joint family; separate terms for consanguines and affines; strict avoidance between a daughter-in-law and her husband’s elder male kin.
Central (Rajasthan, Gujarat, M.P., Odisha, Maharashtra)	Mixture of northern and southern patterns. Gotra exogamy as in the north, but cross-cousin marriage allowed among some castes (Marathas of Maharashtra); clan organisation among Rajputs.
Southern (Dravidian: Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Kerala)	Preferential cross-cousin marriage (with mother’s brother’s daughter or father’s sister’s daughter) and, in parts of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, uncle–niece marriage (with elder sister’s daughter); marriage close to home, often in the same village; no strict avoidance between the two families; matrilineal systems such as the Nair tharavad and the Bunts and Nadavas of coastal Karnataka.
Eastern (Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman tribes: Munda, Ho, Santhal, and in the North-East the Khasi and Garo)	Clan (totemic) organisation; bride-price; marriage by capture or service in some groups; matrilineal descent and residence among the Khasi and Garo.

The contrast the examiner wants. The northern rule is “marry far, marry a stranger”, so a daughter becomes a stranger to her natal family. The southern rule is “marry near, marry kin”, so a daughter stays among relatives and the in-laws are already kin. Karve explains much of the difference in women’s position this way.

How this is examined

For the regional variation question, open with Karve, the four zones and their basis in language families, then give each zone’s rules of marriage, descent and family. For a 6-mark note on consanguineal and affinal kinship, define both, give examples, add the three degrees and one usage.

Now try the real questions: Sociology - Indian Society Continuity and Change past question papers.