ABSTRACT
The Assamese recognize two categories of kin comprehended in the term mitir-kuṭumba, i.e. affines and agnates. The kuṭumb is usually identified with the agnatic line or house (baṁśa) and baṁśa connected by marriage become affines (mitir) of one another. From the point of view of the individual, however, his matrilateral kin may be his father’s affines and the affines of his baṁśa, but they lack the sense of distance associated with affinity. He considers his mother’s brothers and sisters to belong to his kutumb, which is used in this context to mean close cognates including, on the mother’s side, the mother’s father and mother’s mother, if alive, the mother’s brothers and sisters (but not their spouses who are affines), and the mother’s brothers’ and mother’s sisters’ children, who are termed elder or younger brother and elder or younger sister in the same way as patrilateral cousins. 1 The first classification is oriented to groups and the second to individuals and corresponds to the distinction made by Evans-Pritchard between ‘lineage relations’ and ‘kin relations’ (Evans-Pritchard 1960: 4ff.). There are two agnatic groups, the descent group (baṁśa) and the family.
