Genealogical Relations and Kinship Practice in a Village in Kyrgyzstan

Genealogical Relations and Kinship Practice in a Village in Kyrgyzstan

Louise Bechtold’s research describes and analyses the role of women in the Kyrgyz kinship system, which implies patrilocal residence and patrilineal descent. The statistical analysis of the genealogies of women collected with the help of the KNQ shows that on average their husband’s relatives comprise about the same amount of relatives entered into the genealogy (53%) as the women’s own kin (47%). When comparing the patrilateral and matrilateral relatives from the womens’ own relatives and their husband’s patrilateral and matrilateral relatives a striking result emerges. On average their genealogies contained significantly more maternal relatives (75) than paternal (46), while from their husband’s relatives the women had mainly knew paternal relatives (109), and only very few maternal (23). Using both quantitative and qualitative ethnographic data the research looks at how local concepts of kinship and relatedness and the interaction of kin and important non-kin go together.