Dravidian kinship terminology is a proposed seventh kinship-terminology type, identified by Floyd Lounsbury, distinguished by an even/odd distinction that tracks the gender of every linking relative to sort kin into marriageable cross-cousins versus sibling-equivalent parallel-cousins. Anthropologists still debate whether Dravidian terminology is a genuinely distinct system or a sub-type of Iroquois terminology that Lewis Henry Morgan's original typology conflated with it. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Descent RuleSourced to the subject's own accountNot a single descent rule: Dravidian kinship terminology is documented under both a patrilineal modulo-2 counting system, in which marriage is prohibited with an even-count relative and permitted with an odd-count one, and a version of the same counting logic carrying a matrilineal bias instead. 1 Typical RegionSourced to the subject's own accountDocumented in South Asia and Australia among other parts of the world where the same modulo-2 kin-counting logic recurs; the type itself is named for the Dravidian languages of South India, where it was first identified. 1 Descent Rule
Descent Rule (category)Sourced to the subject's own account Descent Rule (category)Sourced to the subject's own account Connections
Associated With
Tamil, Social Groups Dravidian kinship terminology is documented among Dravidian-language-speaking peoples of South Asia, the Tamil among the most extensively studied.
Source Wikipedia: Dravidian Kinship Terminology
In Rule Category
Entity-backed identity for the descent-rule category this kinship system already carries as an enum fact, resolved to a kinship-system entity by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The enum fact itself stays on the entity unchanged.
Entity-backed identity for the descent-rule category this kinship system already carries as an enum fact, resolved to a kinship-system entity by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The enum fact itself stays on the entity unchanged.
Studied By
Dravidian kinship terminology, with its systematic distinction between parallel and cross relatives, was central evidence for Claude Levi-Strauss structuralist analysis of cross-cousin marriage and alliance systems.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Dravidian Kinship Terminology
WikipediaDravidian section, modulo-2 counting paragraph
In a Dravidian system with a patrilineal modulo-2 counting system, marriage is prohibited with this relative, and a marriageable relative must be modulo-2 odd. There exists also a version of this logic with a matrilineal bias.
Dravidian section, modulo-2 logic distribution sentence
Discoveries of systems that use modulo-2 logic, as in South Asia, Australia, and many other parts of the world, marked a major advance in the understanding of kinship terminologies that differ from kin relations and terminologies employed by Europeans.
View the Source Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.