Hawaiian kinship terminology, also called the generational system, is the simplest of the six major kinship-terminology systems Lewis Henry Morgan classified in his 1871 Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family. Relatives are distinguished only by generation and by gender: a person (Ego) calls every woman of the parents' generation, mother, aunts, and the wives of the men in that generation, 'Mother,' and every man of that generation 'Father,' while all siblings and same-generation cousins are called 'Brother' or 'Sister.' It is most common among Malayo-Polynesian-speaking cultures and is found in roughly a third of the world's documented societies, predominantly smaller-scale ones where nuclear families depend on wider kin for support; researchers have also found a correlation between the Hawaiian system and societies that prohibit cross-cousin marriage, since the terminology's own semantics already classify cross-cousins as siblings.
Facts
Descent RuleSourced to the subject's own accountNot a descent rule but a terminology and classification system: kin are sorted only by generation and gender, with no distinction drawn between lineal and collateral relatives, since a parent's own siblings are called by the same term as the parent; this is why the system correlates with societies lacking corporate unilineal descent groups. 1 Typical RegionSourced to the subject's own accountMost common among Malayo-Polynesian-speaking Pacific Island cultures; documented in roughly one-third of the world's societies, predominantly smaller-scale ones. 1 Sources
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