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The kinship system is one ofthe oldest and most importantelements in the study of socialorganisation. It includes sociallyrecognised relationships based ongenealogical ties. These ties orbonds are of three kinds: relationof affinity (relation betweenspouses), relation of consanguinity(relation between siblings), andrelation of descent (relationbetween parent and child). Theprimitive and irreducible characterof the basic unit of kinship isactually a direct result of theuniversal presence of incest taboo.(Levi-Strauss, 1973: 46). In humansociety, a man must obtain a womanfrom another man, who gives hima daughter or sister. Thus, in akinship structure, a kind of role isassociated with his or her status.(Levi-Strauss: ibid). Each person isreckoned by a particular term andhas a particular place in the kinshipstructure. And each one has to docertain duties or obligations to therelated members of that society.This study tries to understand therole and the nature of relationshipbetween the primary kins 1 such ashusband-wife and brother-sister, inone of the Scheduled Tribalcommunities of Kerala, thePathinaicken.Folklore in any society reflects theway of life of the people in thatsociety. “Tribal ways of life lie inthe state of verbal communicationand here, the folklore reflects theirecological and cultural setting morefaithfully” (Vidhyarthi, 1976: 311).The folklore of tribal people reflectsthe unwritten record of their socioculturallife. It explains people’ssocio-cultural system, values,beliefs and attitude through itsvarious genres viz., riddles,proverbs, legends, myths etc.Myths are often tales dealing withthe supernatural and explainingKinship and Tribal LoreSeetha Kakkoth is Research Officer (Anthropology),Kerala Institute for Research, Training andDevelopment Studies of Scheduled Castes &Scheduled Tribes (KIRTADS), Chevayur, Kozhikode.Email: ammusagarika@sancharnet.inphenomena such as seasonalchange, day and night, life anddeath (Kesseler, 1974: 152). Theyoften have some serious underlyingpurpose beyond that of telling astory (Kirk, 1970: 41). Thus, thisstudy examines the nature of therelationship between the primarykins both in society as well as inmythical life by studying the mythof the Pathinaicken community. Itplaces the informant as Ego (aperson who is the basic point ofreference) for drawing agenealogical tree, including theascending and descendinggenerations.The Pathinaicken myth of lunareclipse collected from secondarysources is analysed in this study inLevi-Straussian terms. Though thismyth might contain severalinterpretations, this study focusesonly on the relationship betweenconsanguineal and the affinal kinsin the myth.The Pathinaicken tribeThe Pathinaicken is a diminutivetribal community numbering 440persons, living in the semideciduousforest areas of NilamburValley, Malappuram district, Kerala.This community is considered to bean offshoot of the major tribe calledKattunaicken and is not listedseparately in Census records. Theylive in settlements and eachsettlement consists of 30-60 people,who are related to each other eitherthrough marriage or by blood. Eachsettlement has a headman knownas Chemmakkaran, who acts as thesocio-political head. A nuclearfamily is the basic economic unit.The people subsist on foodgathering,hunting, small-scalehunting, non-wood forest producecollection, forest labour and wagelabour.Kin relationship in social lifeThe kinship system of thePathinaicken community allows aman (see Figure-1) to marry hisfather’s sister’s daughter i.e.,parallel cousin (A), mother’sbrother’s daughter i.e., cross cousin(B), brother’s widow (C), hisdeceased wife’s sister i.e., levirate(D) and marriage by exchange (E).Among the Pathinaicken, the samekinship term, Chinnappan, is usedby Ego to denote his father’s youngerbrother, mother’s younger sister’shusband and step-father andsimilarly Chinnaive is used to denotehis mother’s younger sister, father’syounger brother’s wife and stepmother.A man is allowed to havemore than one wife, but a womanis prohibited to marry more thanone man at a time. Marriage tiesare very fragile: a man can deserthis wife if she is a barren andremarry another. Frequentdesertions and remarriages arecommon and a kind of serialmonogamy is the result. A man orwoman in his/her life-time can maketwo or three alliances.The brother has an important rolein his sister’s life. He is supposedto look after his sister if she becomea widow or divorcee. He also takescare of his sister’s children if shedies earlier. He takes the initiativein conducting the marriage of hissister’s son. He also names thechild of his sister’s son/daughter.In turn, the sister plays animportant role in the life-cycle ritesof her brother’s daughter. She givesa helping hand to her brother’sdaughter at the time ofmenstruation and confinement. Atthe rice feeding ceremony, it is thesister who first feeds her brother’sdaughter’s child. A girl at the timeof marriage wears the new dressgiven by her father’s sister. Sevendays after marriage, the bride’sfather visits the groom’s house andtakes both of them to the bride’snatal home. The couple spends anight there and before leaving, thegroom puts some money under thepillow. This amount belongs to thebride’s father’s sister.22 INDIAN FOLKLIFE VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 JANUARY - MARCH 2003
Kin relationship in mythThe myth of the Pathinaicken relatedto lunar eclipse is as follows:Once upon a time there lived sevenPathinaicken brothers and theirwives. The brothers had a youngsister. One day, the sister asked thewives of her brothers for a handfulof water to drink. One woman said.“Oh, dear, the water is spoilt becauseI put my hand in.” Another womansaid, “See, the water is full of mucusthat fell from the children’s nose.”And, finally, none of them gave herwater. The girl went to the water tankwith a vessel to drink water. Whenshe dipped the vessel into the water,she heard a voice say, “Do not takethe water.” She again dipped thevessel. Again the voice was heard.Dejected and disgusted, she dippedthe vessel in the water a third time.This time she saw a huge serpent,which asked her, “What will you callme?” She said, “I’ll call you anna,elder brother.” The serpent refusedto give her water. He again asked herthe same question. She answered thatshe would call him maamma, thematernal uncle. The serpent did notgive her water. She said, “I’ll call youtintapaa, father’s younger brother. Theserpent did not agree again. Finally,frustrated and helpless, she askedhim, “Tell me, what should I callyou?” The serpent answered “Callme aalen, the husband. She had toagree because her tongue and throatwere parched with thirst. Theserpent allowed her to drink thewater. After drinking, he asked herto sit on top of him. They crossedthe seven hills and he took her to abig stone cave. When they reachedthe cave, the snake remembered thatthere was nothing for his wife to eat.Then, he brought a sack of rice andasked her what else she wanted. Shewanted copper vessels and ladles.Whatever she asked was brought toher. Like any ideal husband, helooked after her properly with careand love.After a week, not seeing the sister,the brothers went in search of her.After a long search, they found herin a serpent’s cave. When the serpentwas away, they took the sister backhome. The brothers planted sicklesall over the seven paths to preventthe serpent from coming in search ofthe girl.The girl was pregnant. As soon asthey reached home, the brothersmade a fire and she gave birth to herchildren into the fire. The young oneswere multi-coloured little serpents.Among them, one serpent childescaped from the fire and climbed upa jack fruit tree, waited to grow upand join his mother.In the meantime, the serpent cameback and found that his wife was notin the cave. At once he set out insearch of her. On the way his bodywas being cut into pieces by thesickles that the brothers had plantedon the way. The lovelorn husband,longing to see his wife, never realisedthat his body was being cut. Finally,his whole body was cut into shredsand his head fell into his wife’s lap.Time passed. The serpent child grewup on the jack fruit tree. The brotherscame to know that the young snakewas waiting there to get his motherback. They thought of a plan to cheatthe serpent. They brought a rabbitand dressed it up like a woman. Theserpent child thought that the rabbitwas its mother. As the rabbit hopped,the serpent child followed it. Therabbit climbed a tree and jumpedfrom branch to branch until it reachedthe feet of the moon. The serpentcaught hold of the rabbit. Since therabbit was at the feet of the moon,the serpent bit the moon too. This isthe lunar eclipse.As pointed out earlier, this studyfocuses only on the relationshipbetween the consanguineal andaffinal kins in this myth.1. Sisters- in-lawrefused to give water - AffinalFig: 1F M=== ==FZ FBMB MZFZD MBDZHZ ZH Z B== W WB WZEgoSDF - Father FB - Father’s brotherFZ - Father’s sister FZD - Father’s sister’s daughterM - Mother MB - Mother’s brotherMZ - Mother’s sister MBD - Mother’s brother’s daughterB - Brother BW - Brother’s wifeZ - Sister ZH - Sister’s husbandWZ - Wife’s sister ZH - Sister’s husband sisterW - Wife WB - Wife’s brotherS - Son D - DaughterMale Female Male dead descend== Marital bondMarital ties allowed by the kinship system to EgoKINSHIP AND TRIBAL LORE23
Page 1 and 2: IndianFolklifeA QUARTERLY NEWSLETTE
Page 4 and 5: (UNIDO) committing funds. Other all
Page 6 and 7: Can oral literature inform us about
Page 8 and 9: This is called jan baha “to make
Page 10 and 11: Internal metaphors like“humans ar
Page 12 and 13: ‘A Spear Hurts Its Maker’:Thoug
Page 14 and 15: AnnouncementTHE MUSIC OF SOUTH INDI
Page 16 and 17: are primarily responsible for the c
Page 18 and 19: Tribal Cultures and theProblems of
Page 20 and 21: Courtesy: http://rosswarner.comrega
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