Cross-cousins are a key category in kinship anthropology, distinguished from parallel cousins by the sex of the linking siblings. They are central to marriage rules, alliance theory, and the comparative study of kinship systems.
🌍 Definition
- Cross-Cousins: The children of a parent’s opposite-sex sibling.
- Mother’s brother’s children (MB’s children)
- Father’s sister’s children (FZ’s children)
- Parallel Cousins: By contrast, the children of a parent’s same-sex sibling (mother’s sister’s children, father’s brother’s children).
🔑 Characteristics
- Alliance-Oriented: Cross-cousins often serve as preferred marriage partners in many societies.
- Reciprocity: Their category reflects exchange between lineages—your mother’s brother gives his daughter, your father’s sister receives a son.
- Structural Role: Distinguishes kin groups and regulates marriage alliances.
- Terminological Systems: In Dravidian kinship, cross-cousins are linguistically marked as potential spouses, while parallel cousins are siblings.
📚 Anthropological Significance
- Claude Lévi-Strauss: Saw cross-cousin marriage as the foundation of alliance theory, binding groups through reciprocal exchange.
- South India: Dravidian kinship systems institutionalize marriage with the mother’s brother’s daughter (MBD).
- Amazonian & African Societies: Cross-cousin marriage reinforces inter-clan ties and balances lineage exchange.
- Comparative Kinship: The distinction between cross- and parallel cousins reveals how societies conceptualize kinship, marriage, and descent.
🛠 Examples
- Symmetrical Exchange: Two lineages intermarry daughters and sons equally, reinforcing equality.
- Asymmetrical Exchange: One lineage consistently gives brides, the other receives, creating hierarchy.
- Ethnographic Cases:
- Dravidian kinship (India) → marriage with MBD.
- Yanomami (Amazonia) → cross-cousin marriage strengthens alliances.
- Some patrilineal African groups → cross-cousin unions maintain lineage reciprocity.
✨ Summary
Cross-cousins are the children of a parent’s opposite-sex sibling, often serving as preferred marriage partners in kinship systems worldwide. They embody the principle of alliance, reciprocity, and social cohesion, contrasting sharply with parallel cousins, who are treated as siblings.
