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.
Cross-Tradition 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.
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
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