universals and rule options in kinship terminology: a synthesis of three formal approaches

Abstract

Extension rules, relational analysis, and componential analysis are integrated into a new generative model of kinship terminology focusing on the universal aspects of kin‐term systems. Widely divergent consanguineal systems (Crow‐Omaha, Dravidian, Iroquois, and Eskimo) are shown to share a substantial core of rules and to display virtually identical relationships between superordinate categories. Tax's rule of uniform reciprocals applies without exception at the proper level of abstraction. Primary differences between systems, such as cross! parallel phenomena, follow from the interaction of universal rules with a small number of rule options . [kinship terminology, universals, generative model, extension rules, relational analysis, componential analysis]