Iroquois kinship (also known as bifurcate merging) is a kinship system used to define family. 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).
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The system has both classificatory and descriptive terms. In addition to gender and generation, Iroquois kinship also distinguishes between parental siblings of opposite sexes. Parental siblings of the same sex are considered blood relatives (i.e., 'Parents'). Parental siblings of differing sex are labeled as "Aunt" or "Uncle" as the situation necessitates. Thus, one's mother's sister is also called mother, and one's father's brother is also called father; however, one's mother's brother is called uncle, and one's father's sister is called aunt.
Children of the parental generation (that is, children of parental siblings of the same sex) are considered siblings (parallel cousins). The children of an Aunt or an Uncle are not siblings, they are instead cousins (cross cousins specifically).
Ego (the subject from whose perspective the kinship is based) is encouraged to marry his cross cousins but discouraged from marrying his parallel cousins. New genetic material is constantly brought into the pool via Ego's father's sister's (Aunt's) husband or Ego's mother's brother's (Uncle's) wife. The system also is useful in reaffirming alliances between related lineages or clans.
The term Iroquois comes from the six Iroquois tribes of northeastern North America. Another aspect of their kinship was that the six tribes all had matrilineal systems, in which children were born into the mother's clan and gained status through it. Women controlled some property, and hereditary leadership passed through the maternal line. A woman's eldest brother was more important as a mentor to her children than their father, who was always of a different clan.
Some groups in other countries also happen to be independently organized for kinship by the Iroquois system. It is commonly found in unilineal descent groups. These include:
Other populations found to have the Iroquois system are
The entire Hindu population of South India, numbering in the vicinity of 250 million people, uses the kinship tradition described above. This includes not only the traditional encouragement of wedding ties between cross-cousins, but also the use of kinship terms in the following format:
Parallel cousins are considered siblings. It is forbidden for Ego to wed them. Cross cousins are NOT considered siblings but termed Cousins; Ego may wed them.
Until recently, rural Chinese societies used the same system of kinship.