Kinship Analysis

I choose to interview my grandfather, Jim Tanner, for the kinship analysis essay. My grandfather was born in Sterling, Colorado in 1934. Since then, he has moved out to California and has lived in Santa Clarita for over 40 years.  He comes from Swedish and English descent and considers himself a middle class citizen. He has retired from the education sector and has taken maintained a great relationship with his family. I knew he would be a great choice for an interview in order to fulfill this assignment.

As far as the interview goes, I felt very comfortable throughout the entire interview. I even asked my grandfather how it went afterwards, and he said it was very pressure-free and relaxed. Conversing in a calm tone helped maintain a nice atmosphere to get a solid interview done. Also, the interview was conducted in my grandfather’s home, which added a more comfortable setting for him to answer some questions. There were not any specific times I could think of throughout the entire interview that created awkwardness. This helped me get all the information I needed for the interview without making anybody uncomfortable. On the other hand, I think it would have been much more difficult if I was interviewing someone that was unrelated to me. The fact that I would not have as much knowledge with the person, it would make it more difficult to talk to this person about important information. Also, I think there would be many more awkward instances throughout the interview that would create some uneasiness for both of us.

When analyzing my family’s kinship chart, I found some patterns dealing with family size, closeness, and socialization levels. The size of my family is very large and continues throughout the entire chart. Most sections of my family have at least three to five kids. This is higher than the average amount of kids. My grandfather had four other siblings, with each of them having an average of four kids. I think this large family size was an idea passed on from generation to generation and has continued today. My grandfather was closer to his children rather than his nieces and nephews, which is what I expected going into the interview. I think this is the same for most families today. My grandfather knew everybody in his family and knew a lot of information about them. He knew more about his children and grandchildren that lived very close to him, which is expected because he communicated with them more than others farther from him. Throughout the kinship chart, I saw a pattern of socialization patterns. All of the members were apart of the middle class level and believed in the same cultural values. The attitude towards younger members and older members remains the same in my family. Each age group is represented equally, and they are treated equally. My family is very ethnically similar, which creates no social impact on the family’s relationship with one another. My kinship chart follows a pattern of patrilocal residence. This means the residence pattern of the married couple lives in the husband’s father’s place of residence. I did not see any emphasis on a maternal or a paternal line of descent on the kinship chart.

I learned a lot of information after interviewing my grandfather for this kinship assignment. I know the relatives on both sides of my family, but I would say I am much closer to the relatives on my mother’s side of the family. I socialize and visit with them more as well. This is due to ethnic reasons that have created more relationships with the family on my mom’s side. I think my grandfather and my grandmother have the most influence on decisions made in the family. I think this is because they are the most vocal about many decisions and our family trusts them to make the right decision. Also, they are the eldest in the family and have experience making difficult decisions. They also know the most about each of their family members, which helps them make educated decisions. I think that family members are treated differently when they are married into our family. There is more scrutiny on their actions and decisions. I can remember some specific examples where the member married into the family was treated differently than if they were born into the family. I don’t believe there is any attitude that changes based on the gender of the family member. I think each gender is treated equally in my family. I have learned how big my family really is, and that I did not even know about some of my distant relatives at all. It was really interesting to here that they had some common themes that I had. In addition, getting to interview someone about kinship patterns was a new way of practicing my interviewing skills and getting more information about my family. I had a lot of fun learning many new things about kinship and my family.