Studying Kinship Relations of the Tai Ahom Community in Ethnolinguistic Perspective: Family Structure and Code of Conduct

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the kinship relationship among the Tai Ahoms of Assam and thereby to understand the community’s family structure and the code of conduct. Another purpose of this study is to look at the present cultural context of the uses of kinship terminologies where a particular kinship term may have different connotations. To carry out the research, the participant observation method was used. A set of questionnaires and a semi-structured group interview were used as a tool to collect data. Both the emic and etic understandings were used to investigate the inner cultural knot of the community. The study finds out that the Tai Ahom kinship relationship could be summarised into three categories: agnatic, matrilateral, and affinal. Family is central to kinship relations, where a relationship is given more importance than the interlocutor’s age and gender. An ethnolinguistic analysis of the Tai Ahom kinship terms would help the researchers to locate the human bonding and the cultural affinities and thereby to locate the basic structure of the society. This study can be useful in the identity research areas and the present scenario of the identity assertion movement in Assam. The study of the kinship terminologies from an ethnolinguistic perspective has not been discussed yet. Therefore, the study of kinship patterns is new and original to this study.