Premium
Cognitive Aspects of Step‐ Terms in American Kinship
Author(s) -
Widmer Eric,
Romney A. Klmball
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1999.101.2.374
Subject(s) - kinship , fictive kinship , representation (politics) , ethnic group , similarity (geometry) , componential analysis , linguistics , cognition , psychology , stepfamily , sociology , genealogy , social psychology , anthropology , history , computer science , artificial intelligence , neuroscience , philosophy , politics , political science , law , image (mathematics)
In this article we extend the study of judged similarity among kinship terms from consanguineal to stepterms. Based on a sample of college students, we present a Euclidean representation of American kinship terms that shows that the distinction between consanguineal terms and step‐ terms is crucial. This representation matches predictions from the componential analysis paradigm and is shared by respondents of both genders with different ethnicities and first languages spoken. [American kinship, stepfamilies, correspondence analysis, consanguinity]