Ritual and Fictive Kinship

Abstract

Kinship relationships beyond descent and affinity are commonly defined as ritual and fictive kinship. In a context of general empirical and theoretical neglect, the importance of ritual and fictive kinship for the study of society and power has been shown in research on its classical examples of godparenthood, fosterage, adoption, milk kinship, and blood brotherhood next to locally specific forms. Besides the function of establishing alliances even across class, ethnic, or religious boundaries, and an astonishing flexibility in adapting to specific interests and cultural contexts, the potential to render power for fictive and ritual kin became evident. Schneider's critique of the anthropology of kinship leads the way both to study fictive and ritual kinship in its own right and to chance a unified analysis of kinship that recognizes the significance that the people themselves attribute to such ties.