Kinship

**Family Structure, Kinship, and Marriage**


The Tarascan kinship system is a bilateral system meaning that it is quite similar to our own and traces ancestry through both the maternal and paternal sides. But, the Tarascan system does put slight emphasis on the paternal lineage. Similarly, the Tarascan system also distinguishes between the nuclear and extended family. The Tarascan system uses highly familiar terms for the nuclear family and uses more formal terms to refer to relations in the rest of the family. This shows that like our own system there is emphasis on the importance of the nuclear family. This system of kinship is integrated into other aspects of Tarascan culture. Because it is a bilateral system inheritance is often an issue as both sides of the family are important and both mother and father have property rights as the between two families. Their kinship system is also reflected in their adopted Catholic religion where godparents are used. This is a good example of European influence on Tarascan culture. Their kinship system unites families together, which is also a focal point of their culture tying aspects of their culture together. Post-marital residence is typically with the husbands family, and even though marriage is seen as a union between the mother's and father's relations, the daughter in law is subordinate to her in-laws, especially her mother in-law. Tarascans typically live in compounds with their extended family emphasizing the importance of family relations in Tarascan culture. Marriage and parenthood is what establishes members of Tarascan communities as adults. Newly weds are called acháti or warhíti sapichu, which means "little mister and misses" until the birth of their first born child.