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Concept
Parallel and cross cousins
Summary
In discussing consanguineal kinship in anthropology, a parallel cousin or ortho-cousin is a cousin from a parent's same-sex sibling, while a cross-cousin is from a parent's opposite-sex sibling. Thus, a parallel cousin is the child of the father's brother (paternal uncle's child) or of the mother's sister (maternal aunt's child), while a cross-cousin is the child of the mother's brother (maternal uncle's child) or of the father's sister (paternal aunt's child). Where there are unilineal descent groups in a society (i.e. matrilineal and/or patrilineal), one's parallel cousins on one or both sides will belong to one's own descent group, while cross-cousins will not (assuming descent group exogamy).
The role of cross-cousins is especially important in some cultures. For example, marriage is promoted between them in the Iroquois system. Parallel cousins are occasionally the subject of promoted marriage, such as the preferential marriage of a male to his father's brother's daughter, common among some pastoral peoples. Such a marriage helps keep property within a lineage. On the other hand, parallel cousin unions in some cultures would fall under an incest taboo, since parallel cousins are part of the subject's unilineage whereas cross-cousins are not.
In many "classificatory" systems of kinship terminology, relatives far beyond genealogical first cousins are referred to using the terms for parallel and cross-cousins. And in many societies, parallel cousins (but not cross-cousins) are also referred to by the same terms that are used for siblings. For instance, it is characteristic of the "Iroquois" system of kinship terminology, its variants the "Crow" and "Omaha", and most Australian Aboriginal systems, that a male parallel cousin is referred to as "brother", and a female parallel cousin is "sister". In an Iroquois type of terminology, if the terms used to refer to cross-cousins are assimilated to those for other relatives, it is generally in-laws (since marriage with cross-cousins is often preferentially favored), so that the terms for "male cross-cousin" and "brother-in-law" are the same, as are the terms for "female cross-cousin" and "sister-in-law".
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Related concepts (8)
Cousin marriage
A cousin marriage is a marriage where the spouses are cousins (i.e. people with common grandparents or people who share other fairly recent ancestors). The practice was common in earlier times and continues to be common in some societies today, though in some jurisdictions such marriages are prohibited. Worldwide, more than 10% of marriages are between first or second cousins. Cousin marriage is an important topic in anthropology and alliance theory.
Consanguinity
Consanguinity ("blood relation", from Latin consanguinitas) is the characteristic of having a kinship with a relative who is descended from a common ancestor. Many jurisdictions have laws prohibiting people who are related by blood from marrying or having sexual relations with each other. The degree of consanguinity that gives rise to this prohibition varies from place to place. Such rules are also used to determine heirs of an estate according to statutes that govern intestate succession, which also vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
Iroquois kinship
Iroquois kinship (also known as bifurcate merging) is a kinship system named after the Haudenosaunee people, also known as the Iroquois, whose kinship system was the first one described to use this particular type of system. Identified by Lewis Henry Morgan in his 1871 work Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family, the Iroquois system is one of the six major kinship systems (Eskimo, Hawaiian, Iroquois, Crow, Omaha, and Sudanese). The system has both classificatory and descriptive terms.