Strauss discusses kinship in its different aspects. He says that in all societies of the world there are four fundamental kin relationships:
(1) Brother-sister,
(2) Husband-wife,
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(3) Father-son, and
(4) Mother’s brother-sister’s son.
Before we analyze these four fundamental kin relations, let us very boldly say that Strauss does not regard descent as being central to kinship. Instead, he says that “the development of alliances between groups through the exchange of women is the fundamental fact of kinship”.
In other words, Strauss rejects shared descent as a part of kinship relations. For him marriage is central to kinship relation. He makes his point clear when he says:
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The very formation of society occurs when a man gives his sisters away to another man, thereby, creating ties of affinity.
As stated earlier, the descent group consists of the members born in a genealogy. This is the family. The members of this family are the procreation of the family. Strauss says that the society begins to be built when one family makes an alliance by marriage or affinity with another family.
Thus, the affinal or marital relations count in the structure of kinship. Strauss’ definition of elementary family is based on structures from structural linguistics. Commenting on the elementary structure of kinship, Eriksen observes:
Levi-Strauss regarded this ‘elementary structure’, or ‘kinship atom’, inspired by similar structures from structural linguistics, as fundamental to kinship and to human society as such.
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Some societies are constructed directly on the ‘elementary structure’, including societies based on classificatory cross-cousin marriage as well as societies based on asymmetrical alliances.