Fictive Kinship - Examples

Examples

Types of relations often described by anthropologists as fictive kinship include compadrazgo relations, foster care, common membership in a unilineal descent group, and legal adoption. A noted Gurung tradition is the institution of "Rodi" where teenagers form fictive kinship bonds and become Rodi members to socialize, perform communal tasks, and find marriage partners. In Western culture, a person may refer to close friends of one's parents as "aunt" or "uncle" (and their children as "cousin"), or may refer to close friends as "brother" or "sister". In particular, college fraternities and sororities in some North American cultures usually use "brother" and "sister" to refer to members of the organization. Monastic, Masonic and Lodge organisations also use the term "Brother" for members. "Nursing Sister" is used to denote a rank of nurse, and the term "Sisterhood" may be used for feminists. Fictive kinship was discussed by Jenny White in her work on female migrant workers in Istanbul. In her work she draws on ideas of production and the women she works with being drawn together through 'webs of indebtedness' through which the women refer to each other as kin.

• Compadrazgo is a form of fictive kinship that is rooted in Central Mexico history for many years. Literally meaning “co-parenthood”, compadrazgo is a term to describe the set of relationships between a child, their parents, and their godparents. It has been hypothesized that these relationships evolved after the Spanish conquest in 1521 to help deal with stressful situations. These fictive kinships still exist in modern day Mexican societies, and are established by providing some form of aid throughout the child’s life.
• Undocumented immigrants have also demonstrated fictive kin relationships. Undocumented restaurant workers are known to form pseudo families in which they cooperate within living and working situations. These relationships benefit the workers by creating a support system that would otherwise be unavailable to those living far from home.
• Some fictive kin relationships have been discovered in Israel in relation to organ transplants. Hospital committees are formed to assess whether the organ donation is from a true family member or from a friend. In order to obtain organ transplants, some individuals are forced to find strangers and pay them compensation for the procedure. However, the relationship between the donor and recipient must be invented as a familial relationship in order to pass through the hospital committee. In this case, fictive kinship is created knowingly to both parties in order to achieve their goals, and is mutualistic in nature.
• Adoption and foster care have always been grouped into the fictive kinship category, in cases where the child shares no genetic relatedness to the caregivers. The children are normally treated as one’s biological kin, receiving a lot of parental investment despite not having family ties. This view has been chastised by some who claim that notions of kinship are not always based on biological determinants.
• The military has also been an avenue to propagate fictive kinship, such as the sense of brotherhood felt by the soldiers. Fictive kinship has been demonstrated among the spouses of military men and women as well. These relationships may facilitate close bonds that are beneficial during times of hardship.
• Other times, relationships can appear fictive on the outside, but when analyzed more in depth, it becomes clear that it is just a matter of kinship terminology. In India, members of the Shanti Nagar village in Northern India refer to everyone, even strangers, in familial terms. A man would address another similar in age as ‘brother’, and one older as ‘uncle’. Although these terms used in addressing one another appear fictive in nature, they do not suggest the existence of ritual kin relationships.