ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the material infrastructure of that kinship system and the role it plays in the actual maintenance of lower-class households. It shows that how cycles of commitment and estrangement, as well as the shifting composition of kin groups themselves, are often reflections of the economic mapping of kinship roles. The chapter also shows that the type of kinship is itself a source of social uncertainty in Potter Addition. It analyses the domestic domain of kinship or the external system of kinship. Kinship systems are usually organized around one of two descent rules: unilineal or bilateral. Bilateral and unilineal systems also differ in how they actually organize kinsmen into concrete groupings. The sociological significance of these two types of kinship ideologies resides both in their propensity to create either segregated or homogeneous domains of kinship, and in the way that these spaces effect the social interaction and integration of persons and groups in society.
