Kinship
This assignment taught me what a kinship is and how it relates to my life. I learned what roles I play within my own family and what other peoples roles are to me. This taught me a lot about relationships and the different relationships that exist. I also learned what fictive kin is and who is a fictive kin to me and my family and who accepts me as a fictive kin into their family.
Kinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through biological, cultural, or historical descent. With kinship are many different roles that one can play such as mother, son, niece, brother etc. I have many different roles within my family. I am a daughter, sister, granddaughter, niece, and cousin. The expectations, rights, and obligations differ with each role as does the importance.
My first few roles as a daughter, sister and granddaughter would be considered my most important roles. The expectations and obligations are greater in these relationships. As a daughter my obligation is to be a part of and contribute to the family by doing chores to help out my parents and driving my brother and sister places. My role also is there as someone for my parents to care for and take care of. They need me for love and as someone to raise and see grow up into whatever my future will hold.
As a sister I am expected to fulfill this role as a friend and someone to grow up with. Within this role I do things with my siblings like play in the yard or go to movies. I am the oldest child also so I am given a lot more responsibilities as a sister as someone to look up to and help with homework and advice.
Another important role that I play is granddaughter. I visit my grandma in the summer for a week and my rights and obligations as a granddaughter is being there just to love and be spoiled by my grandma.
My lesser roles that I play would be niece and cousin. I seldomly see my cousins or aunts and uncles and rarely talk to them, most I don’t even know but they are there as people that I could possibly live with if I ever needed to.
I would consider my boyfriend a part of my family because he is always here and does things with us as a family and helps my family out a lot with things around the house. My parents and siblings consider him a part of our family also so he would be fictive kin and I would probably be the same to his family for the same reasons.
What is a family?
Writing this essay about the family taught me about people concept of family. Is a family only biological or is a family a group of people who have always and will always be there for you. Everyone’s definition is different but similar in meaning. This taught me about the different family types and family relationships.
“What is a family?” is a question that many may ask themselves but really the definition can mean many different things to different people. The important thing to understand is not everyone is the same therefore their idea of what a family is will differ from the next person.
The first person I talked to was my mother who is married and in her forties. She has been married twenty three years to the same person and had three kids with the same guy. When I asked her to describe for me what a family is she said that it is people living under the same roof doing same sort of things (including the pets). They are a group of people who have fun times and do things together whether it be arguing or just eating dinner together. She also said that family is people who are financially dependent upon each other.
I then asked my little brother who is eleven years old what his idea of a family is and he said that it is a bunch of people who do things together. So I then asked if he considered his friends a part of his family but he said no because they do not live in the same house.
Lastly I asked my boyfriend who is twenty-one and unmarried. To him a family is a group of individuals more concerned about the betterment of the whole than themselves. It is a bond developed over time. It is respect, honor, and love. A family is when you’re not only willing to give your life for others, but to live for them too. Family is never having to think about which way to act; it’s always choosing the path of greatest devotion and service.
After hearing the books definition of a family and the different types and then interviewing people who I would consider my own family I came up with a conclusion of my own. A family to me is people who love and care for one another and is dependent on each other for love and affection. They are people who will be there to help out and spend time with and a place to go where you feel like you belong.
