ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the structure of kin knowledge among the Lingayats of Kalyan and the Brahmans of Gokul. The patrinominal principle of kin grouping wherein a wife takes the surname of her husband and the children take the surname of their father gives a frame of reference to the formation of distinct kin groups. The women may be described as the pivotal kin and they knew both consanguines and affines of the husband's family besides being the sole expert on the genealogy of their parental families. Traditionally legal rights of inheritance of property and rules of descent are associated with partilineage. There has been a major emphasis on jural aspects of relationships among patrikin. The genealogical material indicates the tendency toward more knowledge of paternal kin than maternal kin, but there is greater intimacy and sentimental attachment with maternal kin. When children go to their mother's parental family they are geneologically merged with the mother's father's kin group.
