Extended Kin Research Articles

“She Has a Village”: The Intergenerational Benefits of Social Support Networks for Black Mothers and Daughters

In the current qualitative study, we explored the perceived benefits of Black mothers’ villages as cultural resource systems of social support. We used consensual qualitative research methods to analyze semi-structured interview data from 28 Black mothers (25–60 years, Mage = 46) in the United States. We identified seven main themes. For Black daughters, village support offered: (a) models of positive relationships, (b) access to social and enriching activities, (c) natural mentorship, and (d) gendered racial identity affirmation. For Black mothers, village support offered the necessary time and space to: (e) engage in personal restorative practices, (f) find joy in Black mama sister circles, and (g) experience support for educational and occupational opportunities. In addition to appreciation for the various ways village members showed up, mothers valued village members’ contributions to daughters’ self-esteem and gendered racial pride. Narratives highlighted Black mothers’ intentional village-making, underscoring fictive and extended kin networks’ enduring importance in Black girls’ identity development and well-being. Our findings hold implications for culturally relevant socialization frameworks for Black girls and stimulate new discussions on supporting Black mothers and daughters more effectively.

The Influence of Extended Kin on Educational Achievement: An Examination of Cousin Order and Cousin Group Size

The Influence of Extended Kin on Educational Achievement: An Examination of Cousin Order and Cousin Group Size

Exploring the effect of kin caregivers' family functioning on child survival in South Africa: An application of the Family Systems Theory

AbstractThe survival of children who are raised in kinship care is largely influenced by the way their primary caregivers manage their family dynamics. Although research has focused on the effects of family structure and other extended kin effects on various child health outcomes, it remains largely unknown how kin caregivers' family functioning influences child survival, particularly in the South African context where the practice of kinship care is widely spread. An inductive thematic approach was employed, and data were collected from 24 kin caregivers who were providing care to under‐five children. Analysis of the data resulted in the development of three superordinate themes, namely, (1) relationship with family members, (2) poor relationships and (3) family attachment and communication. Each superordinate theme was linked to subthemes that helped explain the phenomenon under study. Overall, the kin caregivers' family environments serve as both protective barriers and risk factors for child survival depending on the state of familial relationships, collaboration and involvement of other kin within the households of primary kin caregivers. This translates into the survival of children being greatly determined by the family environment in which they live and the quality of care that they receive in that family environment.

Seeking One’s Fortune Elsewhere: The Social Breakdown of a Smallholder Settlement in the Brazilian Eastern Amazon and the Consequences for Its Rainforest Reserve

Using two cases, Anapu and São Manoel, located in the Brazilian Amazonian, this paper discusses the relationships between smallholders’ capacity for collective action, smallholders’ potential to unite and defend their territories, and the role of the state. In November 2017 a forest reserve of the settlement in Anapu was invaded by near 200 armed illegal squatters. We show how this event resulted from a gradual increase in internal tensions and loss of trust, thereby undermining attempts for collective action. A large reason for the lack of a functioning social network, reciprocal interactions and social trust is the migratory background of the settlers, which hinder the creation of extended kin networks, intermarriages between kin groups, as well as other forms of long-term networks of cooperation. This becomes clear when comparing Anapu to the social organization of the settlement of São Manoel in central Maranhão, which has been strong and functional for several decades. The reasons for the latter’s social coherence and trust is that it formed around interlinked extended kin groups. Collective resistance against a predatory large landowner in the 1980s contributed to forging trust and cohesion that could effectively be used to acquire and maintain collectively owned fields and cattle, to formalize an association and a cooperative and to negotiate social tensions within the community. The reciprocal network of São Manoel has made it possible for its settlers to use its more restricted natural resources to a sustainable extent, without negatively affecting the eco-system of their habitat.

Royal women and intra-familial diplomacy in late thirteenth-century Anglo-French relations

ABSTRACT This article examines the diplomatic activities of four royal women related to the kings of England and France in the late thirteenth century, during a period of heightened tension in Anglo-French relations. Elite medieval women probably regularly worked in diplomacy between their natal, marital and extended kin, but it is rare that it can be demonstrated in detail. In this example, substantial evidence shows how Marguerite of Provence, Marie of Brabant, Jeanne of Navarre and Blanche of Artois, worked in close collaboration with their male relations and took initiative in negotiating treaties, sharing intelligence, and acting as brokers of favour. That these efforts failed with dramatic consequences probably explains both the richness of extant evidence about the case, and its dismissive treatment by contemporaries and modern historians alike. Instead, it is argued that women's intra-familial diplomacy remained valued by kings and popes, and, indeed, reflected standard diplomatic practice of the time.

Transnational Practices and Migrant Capital: The Case of Filipino Women in Iceland

Filipinos have been moving to Iceland in increasing numbers since the 1990s, primarily for employment opportunities and to reunite with relatives. They are the third largest group of immigrants in Iceland and the largest group from Asia. The majority of them work in low-income jobs in the service and production sectors where they do not utilize their education. Many arrived with the help of relatives already living in Iceland. Based on multi-sited ethnographic research, this article examines the diverse mobilization of migrant capital in Iceland and in the Philippines. The analysis draws on Bourdieu’s concepts of capital and transnational theories to highlight how Filipinos draw on formal and informal resources in Iceland and their transnational social field in mobilizing their capital. Their extended kin groups in Iceland and networks back in the Philippines are important in building migrant capital in Iceland and in the Philippines. The study shows that this mobilization is not only affected by structural factors in Iceland, such as racialization, but also by economic position and cultural capital in the Philippines.

Status, kinship, and place of burial at Early Bronze Age Bab adh-Dhra': A biogeochemical comparison of charnel house human remains.

The Early Bronze Age (EBA; ca. 3,600-2000 BCE) of the southern Levant underwent considerable transformation as agro-pastoral communities began to utilize their land more intensively, constructing larger, fortified towns prior to site abandonment at the end of the third millennium. At the site of Bab adh-Dhra' in Jordan, the dead of the Early Bronze (EB) II-III (ca. 3,100-2,500 BCE) period were communally interred within charnel houses, but important disparities between these structures and their contents may be reflective of ownership and use by particular extended kin groups whose activity patterns, subsistence strategies, and even social status may have differed from one another. Subsequently, we hypothesized that differences in mobility and dietary intake may differentiate tomb groups from one another. Dental enamel from 31 individuals interred in three different Early Bronze Age charnel houses (A56, A22, A55) at Bab adh-Dhra', Jordan were analyzed for strontium, oxygen, and carbon isotope values. Strontium isotope ratios (range: 0.70793-0.70842) possessed medians that did not differ statistically from one another, but had ranges that exhibited significant differences in variance. Carbon isotope values ( = -13.2 ± 0.5‰, 1σ) were not significantly different. General similarities in human isotopic signatures between EB II-III charnel houses A22 and A55 suggest that their activities were likely similar to one another and agree with findings from excavated domestic spaces with little archaeological evidence for economic, social, or political differentiation. More variable strontium isotope ratios and lower carbon isotope values from A22 could reflect a greater involvement with pastoralist practices or regional trade, including the consumption of more 13 C-depleted foods, while those in A55 may have led a more sedentary lifestyle with greater involvement in cultivating orchard crops. All charnel houses contained nonlocal individuals likely originating from other Dead Sea Plain sites with no EB II-III cemeteries of their own, supporting the idea that extended kin groups throughout the region returned to Bab adh-Dhra' to bury their dead.

Beyond household walls: the spatial structure of American extended kinship networks

ABSTRACT How far do Americans live from their close and extended kin? The answer is likely to structure the types of social, instrumental, and financial support that they are able to provide to one another. Based on the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, kin pairs vary widely in odds of household co-residence, co-residence in the same administrative units, and inter-tract distances if they do not live in the same census tract. Multivariate regression tests show that family structure, educational attainment, and age are closely associated with kin proximity. Fixed-effects models demonstrate that family formation shapes spatial relations between kin.

Father Absence, Social Networks, and Maternal Ratings of Child Health: Evidence from the 2013 Social Networks and Health Information Survey in Mexico.

Objectives To bridge the literature on the effect of father absence, international migration, and social networks on child health, we assess the association between father absence and maternal ratings of child poor health (MCPH). Next we test whether social networks of immediate and extended kin mediate the relationship between fathers' absence and MCPH. Methods Nested logistic regression models predicting MCPH are estimated using the 2013 Social Networks and Health Information Survey, collected in a migrant-sending community in Guanajuato, Mexico. These unique data distinguish among father absence due to migration versus other reasons and between immediate and extended kin ties. Results Descriptive results indicate that 25% of children with migrant fathers are assessed as having poor health, more often than children with present (15.5%) or otherwise absent fathers (17.5%). In the multivariate models, fathers' absence is not predictive of MCPH. However, the presence of extended kin ties for the mother was associated with approximately a 50% reduction in the odds of MCPH. Additionally, mother's poor self-assessed health was associated with increased odds of MCPH while the presence of a co-resident adult lowered the odds of MCPH. In sensitivity analysis among children with migrant fathers, the receipt of paternal remittances lowered the odds of MCPH. Conclusions for Practice Social networks have a direct and positive association with MCPH rather than mediating the father absence-MCPH relationship. The presence of extended kin ties in the local community is salient for more favorable child healthand should be considered in public health interventions aimed at improving child health.

Extended kin and children's behavioral functioning: Family structure and parental immigrant status

Using the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A. FANS), this paper examines the association between the presence of co-resident extended kin and children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors. The paper demonstrates the differential role of extended kin by family structure, as well as across parental immigrant status – specifically, nativity and documentation status. Children in the sample were found to be disadvantaged in extended family households, especially with regard to internalizing behaviors. This disadvantageous association was found mostly among married-parent extended family households, whereas there was no association between the presence of extended kin and behavior problems in children from single-parent families. This pattern emerged more clearly among children of documented immigrants, compared to those with native-born parents and those whose parents were unauthorized immigrants. These findings suggest a need to modify previous theories on extended family living arrangements; they also provide policy implications for immigrant families.

Negotiating eldercare in Akuapem, Ghana: care-scripts and the role of non-kin

AbstractIn contemporary Ghana, adult children are considered responsible for the care of aged parents. Within this idealized framework, two aspects of eldercare are overlooked. Firstly, such a narrative obscures the role of non-kin and extended kin in providing eldercare in southern Ghana historically and in the present. Secondly, it hides the negotiations over obligations and commitments between those who manage eldercare and those who help with an ageing person's daily activities. It is in this latter role that non-kin and extended kin are significant in eldercare, while closer kin maintain their kin roles through the management, financial support and recruitment of others. This article examines recruitment to eldercare and the role of kin and non-kin in eldercare in three historical periods: the 1860s, the 1990s and the 2000s, centred on Akuapem, in southern Ghana. In particular, I show that helping an aged person relies on previous and expected entrustments, in which more vulnerable, dependent and indebted persons are most likely to be recruited to provide care.

Who would you like to be like? Family, village, and national role models among Black youth in rural South Africa.

In this paper, we examine how Black youth in rural South Africa construct role models and connect them to their own life aspirations. We pay particular attention to individual and group identity development in shaping these perceptions. Based on analysis of qualitative data from 99 Black male and female youth aged 14-22, we find that 1) the choice of role models reflects a balancing strategy to reconcile individual and group identity development; 2) while the reasons they give for choosing role models are aligned with dominant models of upward mobility in the new South Africa (and globally), our respondents are also attuned to the difficulty of attaining such success and 3) the choices underscore the continued importance of close and extended kin amidst an increasingly ego focused life strategy aimed at individual status attainment. These findings can contribute to strengthening the effectiveness of intervention programs aimed at strengthening positive influences in the lives of Black youth in South Africa.

Coresident Extended Kin and Time Allocation Among Employed Mothers in Mexico

The proportion of mothers living without male partners is growing fast in Mexico, and time is a valuable resource determining their quality of life. Using the 2002 Mexican Family Life Survey ( N = 1,818), the author examined the effects of coresident extended household members on time allocation by employed mothers. Results indicate that female extended kin have greater influence than male kin on the time allocation of single mothers in Mexico. Female extended household members also play more important roles in making activity time available for single mothers than for mothers with partners. This study supports the hypothesis that household extension functions as a safety net for employed single mothers facing time and material constraints in Mexico.

Gendering Industrial Subcontracting Work

The result of the implementation of export-oriented industrialization strategies has been the impressive growth of garment production in Turkey. Supported by flexible production and subcontracting relations, family-owned garment ateliers have become the prominent location of production and have opened up the doors of the global markets. As family-owned businesses, ateliers draw on inexpensive and often unpaid, flexible, and loyal immediate and extended kin to provide labour. Garment ateliers operate informally on the outskirts of big cities, such as Istanbul, where rural migrant families comprise a cheap labour pool for enterprising migrant business owners. The role of women’s unpaid and underpaid labour involvement in garment ateliers in Istanbul is a reflection of how these ateliers manage to integrate the social networks of extended kin relations into garment production. This study-through two case-studies-focuses on family labour and extended kin social networks to analyze the role of women’s unpaid and underpaid labour in these garment ateliers.

Social and spatial networks: Kinship distance and dwelling unit proximity in rural Thailand

We address a long hypothesized relationship between the proximity of individuals’ dwelling units and their kinship association. Better understanding this relationship is important because of its implications for contact and association among members of a society. In this paper, we use a unique dataset from Nang Rong, Thailand which contains dwelling unit locations (GPS) and saturated kinship networks of all individuals living in 51 agricultural villages. After presenting arguments for a relationship between individuals’ dwelling unit locations and their kinship relations as well as the particulars of our case study, we introduce the data and describe our analytic approach. We analyze how kinship – considered as both a system linking collections of individuals in an extended kinship network and as dyadic links between pairs of individuals – patterns the proximity of dwelling units in rural villages. The results show that in general, extended kin live closer to one another than do unrelated individuals. Further, the degree of relatedness between kin correlates with the distance between their dwelling units. Close kin are more likely to co-reside, a fact which drives much of the relationship between kinship relatedness and dwelling unit proximity within villages. There is nevertheless suggestive evidence of a relationship between kinship association and dwelling unit proximity among kin who do not live together.

Child Fostering Chains Among Ovambo Families in Namibia, Southern Africa

Childcare across sub-Saharan Africa is often socially distributed among adults, with care by the biological mother being one of several options available for children. Children typically move within and outside of large extended kin networks. Based on an ethnographic study of four Ovambo families in Namibia, this article seeks to understand the cultural logic of fostering. Several themes that emerged from the study are discussed here, including the varied motivations of fostering, the cultural scripts of equality, and the rules of reciprocity in exchange, which are involved. Education shapes a mother's choices of care-giving and creates both a supply of children and a demand on households. The implications for HIV/AIDS orphans are discussed.

Rethinking Families and Community: The Color, Class, and Centrality of Extended Kin Ties1

Although a focus on marriage and the nuclear family characterizes much sociological research and social commentary, this article suggests that this focus ignores the familial experiences of many Americans, particularly those on the lower end of the economic spectrum for whom extended kin are central. African Americans and Latinos/as are more involved with kin than whites, but class trumps race in this regard: African Americans, Latinos/as, and whites with fewer economic resources rely more on extended kin than do those more affluent. The emphasis on marriage and the nuclear family may actually promulgate a vision of family life that dismisses the very social resources and community ties that are critical to the survival strategies of those in need. In contrast to those who have argued that marriage is the foundation of the community or even, in that overused phrase, the “basic unit of society,” this article suggests that marriage actually detracts from social ties to broader communities just as an emphasis on marriage and the nuclear family, to the exclusion of the extended family, distorts and reduces the power and reach of social policy.

Moving beyond Stereotypes of Men's Foraging Goals

We concur with the title of the Hawkes, O’Connell, and Coxworth discussion, “Family provisioning is not the only reason men hunt” (Hawkes et al. 2010). We said so explicitly in our paper, and we advocated a similar conclusion to theirs, which is that “explaining the variability should be the task at hand.” We repeat that the major point of our essay was to highlight the complexity of evaluating why men hunt and share food and to suggest that multiple motivations transcend the dichotomy of provisioning versus signaling. Hawkes, on the other hand, has consistently argued for 20 years that hunted prey are nondefendable public goods whose acquisition can only be explained by showing off or costly signaling and that the sexual division of labor arises not from intrafamilial cooperation but instead as a consequence of male mating strategies (Hawkes 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993; Hawkes and Bliege Bird 2002; Hawkes et al. 1997, 2001a). She and her colleagues have never proposed that any other factor can account for men’s subsistence decisions. They have explicitly argued that human pair bonding has little to do with spousal cooperation, where “subsistence benefits . . . [may be] absent altogether” (Hawkes et al. 2001b:695). We instead suggested that the benefits of withinand between-family cooperation are critical to understanding why men hunt and share their kills and why wives and children encourage rather than discourage husbands and fathers to hunt. We also suggested that human societies are more complex than Hawkes et al. (2010) assume, with food sharing and divisions of labor as cultural institutions driven by social norms that promote cooperation. These features of human social life are integrated with the evolved human life history. While we see hunting as designed mainly to promote extended kin group welfare (with signaling as a portion of the benefit to hunters), direct “provisioning” of wife and children is far too narrow an interpretation of our position. Food is a currency that is used for multiple purposes, and these extend beyond familial “provisioning” and “signaling.” Hawkes et al. (2010) identify three main problems with our essay: (1) they argue that our use of caloric return rates

Development of infants and toddlers in ethnoracial families.

Culture is often defined as the shared language, values, norms, traditions, customs, history, arts, folklore, and institutions of a group of people. Despite what is shared, every ethnoracial and cultural group in the United States is itself richly diverse. A number of analyses of the literature on child development have drawn attention to the lack of focused consideration to the study of child development in cultural context. During the past two decades, many important volumes on African American, Latino American, and Asian American families have been published, but few of these volumes have specifically addressed issues related to the earliest years (Fitzgerald et al., 1999; Ramsey, 2008). Findings on how within-group variation exerts its influence on early development (Garcia-Coll et al., 1996) are even more poorly represented in the core knowledge base of human development (Fitzgerald, 1999). In contemporary American society, increasing numbers of children are reared in multicultural, multiracial, and multiethnic families. In such families, does one cultural tradition prevail, or are efforts made to blend cultural traditions? Race and culture are linked at macro levels, but within a particular ethnic group there is rich cultural diversity. What effects do racially and culturally diverse family structures and processes have on child development during the earliest years (Hill & Tyson, 2008)? What role do grandparents and other extended kin play in the promotion and maintenance of respective cultural traditions? How do conflicts linked to grandparental ethnoracial diversity influence the quality of parent–child relationships and the

MEDIATING KINSHIP: Country, Family, and Radio in Northern Australia

In Aboriginal Northern Australia, request programs are a ubiquitous, marked format for Indigenous radio broadcasting. Emerging from the activist drive of Indigenous media producers, and often instrumentally geared toward connecting prison inmates with their families and communities, such request programs invariably involve performative “shout-outs” to close and extended kin. These programs bring together a lengthy history of Aboriginal incarceration and the geographic dispersal of kin networks with country and rock musics, the charged meaning of family in contemporary Indigenous Australia, and the emergent expressive idioms of radio requests. The essay discusses the performative, mediated interweaving of speech and country song in such request programs, analyzing their significance as recursive forms of an emergent, Indigenous public culture.