I believe most people in the class would have had a different kinship chart if we didn’t have to do it by blood. I have not met anyone who has a friend that they consider family. I believe our culture values blood ties to identify who we are and where we came from, but in everyday life our culture needs other ties than just blood to survive. This reminded me of a book I read in my Intro to Sociology class called “All Our Kin” by Carol Stack. Their family would have starved to death without help from friends around them. The support structure that this family living in poverty had did not just come from the blood tie of the family unit itself. I think family is a support structure, and I know many “families” that don’t support each other, they just live under the same roof. It was really depressing looking at my kinship chart because it was so small. The new version is full of people that support me and do love me. I don’t think blood kinship charts are a good representation of the family at all.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
My Real Kinship Chart
After making my kinship charts in class I thought about who I actually consider my family. My charts are very small, and I don’t even know my mom’s brothers. If I were to draw another kinship chart of who I really considered family it would look like:
I believe most people in the class would have had a different kinship chart if we didn’t have to do it by blood. I have not met anyone who has a friend that they consider family. I believe our culture values blood ties to identify who we are and where we came from, but in everyday life our culture needs other ties than just blood to survive. This reminded me of a book I read in my Intro to Sociology class called “All Our Kin” by Carol Stack. Their family would have starved to death without help from friends around them. The support structure that this family living in poverty had did not just come from the blood tie of the family unit itself. I think family is a support structure, and I know many “families” that don’t support each other, they just live under the same roof. It was really depressing looking at my kinship chart because it was so small. The new version is full of people that support me and do love me. I don’t think blood kinship charts are a good representation of the family at all.
I believe most people in the class would have had a different kinship chart if we didn’t have to do it by blood. I have not met anyone who has a friend that they consider family. I believe our culture values blood ties to identify who we are and where we came from, but in everyday life our culture needs other ties than just blood to survive. This reminded me of a book I read in my Intro to Sociology class called “All Our Kin” by Carol Stack. Their family would have starved to death without help from friends around them. The support structure that this family living in poverty had did not just come from the blood tie of the family unit itself. I think family is a support structure, and I know many “families” that don’t support each other, they just live under the same roof. It was really depressing looking at my kinship chart because it was so small. The new version is full of people that support me and do love me. I don’t think blood kinship charts are a good representation of the family at all.
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nice -- yes, what other social bonds (fictive kin; or kin-like people) do we create in societies that are highly mobile or have structures which have allowed families to fracture?
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