Ramla Mohamed
Cultural Anthropology
2:00-3:00
Christopher K. Barrett
10/16/2014
Research: Kinship in Korowai Tribe

Korowai society functions with patriclan as the central unit the unity of the patriclan is emphasized by how women in the tribe categorize their children, they follow Omaha kinship system, when it comes to defining their relations. In the Omaha kinship system relatives are sorted according to their descent and gender, father and his brothers are combined and called by a single phrase, and a similar arrangement is seen for mother and her sisters. When it comes to Parallel and Cross cousins Omaha kinship recognizes the differences between the two, as Parallel cousins are fused by the term and called by the same phrase in which …show more content…
These terms aren’t set in stone, as ‘lambil’ can also translate to ‘friend’, term use is often determined by clanship rather than maternal links. Children in the tribe go by the such terms as salal which translates to niece, and sabul which translates to nephew. These terms stem from the words abul “son” and lal “daughter.” The morpheme ‘sa’ added to these terms has no meaning separate from it’s original use. Although this morpheme is quite empty in a semiotic sense it demonstrates the similarity between these two terms on an phonetic and physical level. The term I translate as “uncle” is mom, and it is used for mother’s brothers but not for father’s brothers, who are called instead by the term for “father”. Reciprocally, a man calls his children and his brother’s children lal “daughter” or abül “son,” but distinguishes sisters’ children by the special terms mom “mother’s brother” and sabül “sister’s son,” or mom “mother’s brother” and salal “sister’s daughter,” The term I translate as “uncle” is mom, and it is used for mother’s brothers but not for father’s brothers, who are called instead by the term for