Much of the work that has been in kinship terminologies has been an attempt to describe systems of kin terms on their own terms, without reference to direct translation. Componential analysis is one such example. Most of the work you read on kinship terminology will involve arguments about either how to describe the terms or the relationship of the terminology to behaviour within the society. Kinship Terminologies Kinship is one of these more complex systems of culture. All human groups have a kinship terminology, a set of terms used to refer to kin.
Kinship terminologies vary in different societies from as few as twelve to more than fifty terms.
Anthropologists have learned many interesting things about kinship terminologies. In terms of our topic today, how cultural ideas are organised, kinship terminologies are organised in at least two important ways. Firstly, they provide a means of classifying relationships with other people, for every person in the society. Thus genealogical relationships are different from kinship relationships. There are a large number of genealogical relationships.