Semantic Distinctions in Huichol (Uto‐Aztecan) Kinship

Abstract

TERMINOLOGICAL systems group the kin types defined by links of procreation and cohabitation and by differences of sex into a relatively small number of kin classes according to culturally prescribed semantic features. These semantic features are in themselves of interest to the ethnolinguist, and, insofar as they provide a framework for understanding differences in nonverbal behavior, to the anthropologist. The study of culturally defined kin classes in terms of common features in a semantic field owes its stimulus to the methodological work of Lounsbury (1956) and Goodenough (1956). Romney and Epling's paper on Kariera (1958) is also valuable; in it not only are kin classes distinguished by common semantic features, following Lounsbury, but larger semantic groupings of kin classes are also recognized. It seems premature, however, to assume that the principles of kinship organization uncovered in the relatively few structural studies that have been made to date are the only ones that could prove fruitful. This study accordingly attempts to explore the notion of distance (Murdock 1949) as a useful structural dimension.1 Furthermore, this study attempts to operate without assuming that sharp boundary-setting criteria are a priori necessary (Wallace and Atkins 1960: 60). Though there is a cover term for kinsmen as opposed to nonkinsmen that was useful in blocking out the field of study, the final analysis does not deal directly with all terms within that boundary; only those that are amenable to simple structural treatment within the boundary need be analyzed, while the residue (all of which contain the suffix -wari) can be treated as semantically shifted forms of terms in the analyzable set.