Linear and Collateral Relationships

Linear relationship ( Latin linea "line") denotes all ancestors of a person from whom he or she is directly descended in a " straight line " , as well as all their own descendants - all siblings belong to the collateral relationship ( con "together", lateralis "side") or side relationship the person as well as all siblings of their direct ancestors (e.g. all aunts ), including their descendants. Example: Your mother's father is a linear relative because you are descended from him; the brother of one's own mother ( uncle ) is a side relative because one is not descended from him.

The following diagram shows in the middle the straight ancestors and descendants of a person (in green, connected with solid lines), while all the others are indirectly related to the person because they are not descended from them (arranged in yellow on the side):

Great aunts / uncles = page related

Grandparents

Grandparents

Great aunts / uncles = page related

Uncle, aunts = related

mother

father

Uncle, aunts = related

Cousins, cousins = related

Sisters = related

Person  ( ego ,  test person )

Brothers = related

Cousins, cousins = related

Nephews, nieces = related

Children Children's children … = linear

Nephews, nieces = related

The direct line can also include people who are adopted or recognized as a father . All brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, great uncles, great aunts and so on, including their children and grandchildren ( grandchildren ), i.e. all cousins, cousins , nephews, nieces and so on, both father and mother side ( patriotic and grandchildren ) are related matrilateral ).

There is always a linear relationship to one's own children and their offspring , as they all descend from one person (see parenting ). Lateral relationship exists between all blood relatives who do not descend from one another in either an ascending or descending line, also known as indirect consanguinity. A special case occurs when side relatives have children because they create new linear relationships in a straight line (see great-grandparents as an example of 30  linear ancestors and an explanation of ancestral loss due to relatives marriages , example: cousin and uncle-niece marriages in the Spanish royal family ) .

Meaning of the types of relationship

The distinction between straight and lateral lines plays an important role in German marriage and inheritance law .

Each person maintains their own social network for linear and lateral relatives they have chosen themselves , according to their own preferences and social expectations. This mixed family group (ethnologically: Kindred ) comes together at births , marriages , funerals or other rituals of transition .

Some of the 1300 ethnic groups and indigenous peoples recorded worldwide  do not distinguish between linear and collateral relatives. The fact that such a division was assumed by earlier ethnologists to be "natural" is criticized by modern ethnology as a "Euro-centrist view": Europeans and Americans see this as "human nature", but there is "nothing natural" in the distinction between direct and lateral relatives.

Within the side relationship , ethnology also distinguishes between cross and parallel relationship in its investigation of different societies , especially in relation to the parents' brothers. For example, the father's brother (in parallel , because of the same sex ) can have an important social significance for many peoples, as can his children ( parallel cousins ). In other cultures, the mother's brother (opposite sex) plays an important role, along with his children ( cross cousins ).

Single line descent

The linearity of relationship, even Linea formality called ethnological plays an important role in unilinear descent rules (unilinear descent) for the hereditary succession:

• Patri- linearity : only over the father line (46% of all ethnic groups; see also main lines )
• Matri- linearity : only over the maternal line (13%)
• Bi- linearity : double, across both lines, one depending on the social context (4%)
• Ambi- linearity : a self-chosen,mixed line adoptedby the mother or father (4%)
• Parallel linearity : the mother transfers her line to daughters, the father transfers his to sons (1%)

In most of the western world and in 28% of the 1300 ethnic groups worldwide, the descent and hereditary succession of both parents and their lines apply ( bilateral-cognatic ).

See also

• Straight line - sideline; Degree of kinship (German kinship relationships)
• Sisterhood ( affinity by marriage)
• Relatives selection (strengthening of overall fitness)

fList of topics: Ethnosociology  - Overview in the portal: Ethnology

Web links

• Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: Differentiation into linear and collateral relatives. (PDF: 1 MB, 32 pages). (No longer available online.) In: Introduction to the forms of social organization (part 1/5). Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, 2011, pp. 25–26 , archived from the original on October 21, 2013 (documents from her lecture in the 2011 summer semester). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans-Rudolf Wicker: Deszendenz / Linearität. In: Guide to Introductory Lecture in Social Anthropology (1995–2012). (PDF: 387 kB, 47 pages). Institute for Social Anthropology, University of Bern, July 31, 2012, p. 3 , accessed on March 13, 2020 (documents for your lecture in the summer semester 2011): “Linear kinship: relationship between two people from whom one is derived from the other. Collateral kinship: Relationship between two people who are descended from common ancestors but not from one another. " 
2. ^ Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: Differentiation into linear and collateral relatives. In: Introduction to the forms of social organization (part 1/5). (PDF: 1 MB, 32 pages). (No longer available online.) Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, 2011, p. 25 , archived from the original on October 21, 2013 ; Retrieved on March 13, 2020 : "Definition of linear relationships according to HIRSCHBERG:" Linear relatives are the parents and their parents in a power chain, that is, the ancestors and also the descendants. […] Collateral relatives are the siblings of the ancestors and their descendants «. (HIRSCHBERG 1988: p. 257) "  .
3. ↑ ^{a b} BGB: § 1589 relationship. Quote: “People, one of which is descended from the other, are related in a straight line. Individuals who are not directly related but are descended from the same third person are related in the sideline. The degree of relationship is determined by the number of births they switched. "
   Note: Siblings are legally pages related second degree because two" mediating births "between them.
4. ^ ^{A b} J. Patrick Gray: Ethnographic Atlas Codebook. (PDF file: 2.4 MB, without page numbers.) In: World Cultures. Volume 10, No. 1, 1998, pp. 86–136, here p. 104: Table 43 Descent: Major Type (English; one of the few evaluations of all ethnicities recorded at that time in 1267), quote: “584  Patrilineal […] 160  Matrilineal […] 52  Duolateral […] 49  Ambilineal […] 11  Quasi-lineages […] 349  bilateral […] 45 Mixed […] 17 Missing data “.
   Percentages of the 1267 ethnic groups (1998): 46.1% patrilinear (from father) - 12.6% matrilinear (from mother) - 4.1% duolateral (bilinear: different from father and mother) - 3.9% ambilinear ( optional) - 0.9% parallel (quasi-lines) - 27.6% bilateral, cognatic (Western model: origin from both parents) - 3.6% mixed - 1.6% missing data.
   The Ethnographic Atlas by George P. Murdock now contains data sets on 1,300 ethnic groups (as of 2015 in InterSciWiki ), of which often only samples were evaluated, for example in the HRAF project , a large-scale database for holistic cultural comparisons of 400 recorded peoples.
5. ↑ Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: Critique of the differentiation into linear and collateral relatives. In: Introduction to Ethnosociology (Part 1/2). (PDF: 250 kB, 82 pages). (No longer available online.) Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, 2006, p. 32 , archived from the original on October 1, 2008 ; retrieved on March 13, 2020 : “In connection with the differentiation into linear and collateral relatives, u. a. to point to the criticism made by SCHUSKY of this differentiation, which was attacked as a Eurocentric adoption of Euro-American kinship classifications on other societies. I.a. he notes: “Many kinship systems fail to dinstinguish between lineal and collateral relatives and initially they may be confusing. It must be emphasized, there is nothing natural about separating lineal from collateral relatives either in terminology or behavior. It is simply that Americans and Europeans are accustomed to only this system and assume it is part of human nature. "(SCHUSKY 1983: p. 14, 4th paragraph)"  .