Abstract: This chapter begins by summarizing the preceding discussions about kinship in Ireland and Wales. It then argues that early Irish and Welsh kinship may reasonably be termed Celtic. Both inherited major elements from the Common Celtic period, above all the shallow lineage of four generations. Both remained, in very general terms, similar: there is the distinction between the shallow lineage which segments regularly and the deep lineage which segments rarely; these lineages are agnatic; in both a significant role is played by cognatic kin. The differences between the two may sometimes be ascribed to the later date of the Welsh sources: for example, the presence of adoption in Irish, but not in Welsh, law may be part of a general European trend. Irish and Welsh kinship seem to go through similar phases in the growth of one layer of deep lineages only to be replaced by a new layer. The kinship of the Irish and the Welsh was also probably different from that of their non-Celtic neighbours. It is not yet possible, unfortunately, to define such differences. Scholars have often assumed that a society will have one, and only one, form of kinship. If, therefore, one aspect of kinship is cognatic, the whole kinship system is thought to be cognatic. It has been one of the principal purposes of this book to refute such an assumption.
Publication Year: 1993
Publication Date: 1993-03-25
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 1
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