Kinship, or relatedness, is understood by evolutionary psychologists to be directly linked to genetics, and therefore, people who share more genes are generally closer to each other, whether in location, emotion, or interest. Susan McKinnon refutes this claim, saying that kinship and human relationships are much more complex than just genetics, and that scientists must broaden their views to include more than just biology. In her studies, she discusses the roles of gender and family in different cultures.
For example, McKinnon discusses evolutionary psychology’s idea of gendered asymmetry, in which men are concerned with the reproductive resources of women, while women are concerned with the productive resources of men. This links gender roles to biological sex. However, men are understood to also look for productiveness in finding their potential mates as well, since in many societies, women are tasked with certain jobs such as gathering food. There is no perfect division between all of the roles of the male from those of the female, as gender roles vary from culture to culture. One question may be raised: if not from biology, where do these gender roles stem from?
Many societies consider a family to be a mother, father, and their children. However, this is not always the case. In some cases, there are multiple mothers, including an egg donor, a child carrier, and the person who adopts the child. In addition, some cultures link kinship of children with their birth parents, those who raise the children, and those who feed and educate them. Warren Shapiro argues that all other relationships always stem from the biological ones, and proposes that in Western culture, although people have many “mothers,” such as godmothers and grandmothers, they all derive from the biological mother. However, if this were true, it would discount the idea that any person who cares enough could take on the role of adoptive mother in a manner just as loving as a biological mother. This is, seemingly, untrue, and one of the issues in choosing to look at kinship through either a genetic or a cultural lens is that it is easy to follow the guidelines of your means of analysis and forget to think outside the box.
One of the main issues concerning kinship and culture is the way in which raising non-biological children is viewed. Martin Daly and Margo Wilson explain that raising non-biological children is different from raising biological children, because the parent does not have a genetic reason to love them. They even cite the high rates of violence in stepparent-stepchild relationships, compared to their biological counterparts. However, is clear that this cannot be understood as a general rule, and that love is not defined by genetics. In house societies, children are allocated to families, and are loved in by their adoptive parents just as they would be by biological parents. In the United States, many older adopted children try to find their “real” parents and are disappointed in the lack of commonalities found. This is because it seems that the environment that a child is brought up in is what shapes him/her for the future. Some argue that “being” is what makes kinship legitimate, but it seems that “creating/doing,” or the work that is put into a relationship, is what makes a “real” family. It should be recognized that it takes more than giving birth or providing sperm for people to form bonds. One of the main forms of kinship is the spousal relationship, which is not (typically) formed through a genetic bond. It is formed through any sort of cultural traditions, such as a religion that allows a man to take multiple wives, or a society that forbids certain genetic relatives from being sexual partners. The spousal relationship is not defined solely by genetics, but rather on the spouses’ preferences and cultures.
Every culture and society has different views on what is considered a family. In some societies, adoption and gamete donation are seen as legitimate forms of parenting, but in other cultures, the act of raising a non-biological child is frowned upon. This is especially common in the Muslim Middle East, since mainstream Islam prohibits adoption and gamete donation. The religion stresses the importance of the purity of a biological lineage, and links inheritance to biological children. Adoption and bringing up orphans are seen as haram, or illicit, due to the strict moral codes set by the Quran. Many Muslims do not want to partake in these acts, since the child would be seen as either a bastard, or an illegitimate orphan. In the case of adoption or egg donation, the mother must cover herself in front of a non-biological son. Many Muslim men would feel uncomfortable if a daughter of different sperm lived among them, as they have unofficial daughter status, but are legally able to marry him. In the Muslim Middle East, ideas of kinship are fairly set in stone. However, there are always people who challenge the norms and set their own moral codes.
It is easy for Western onlookers to say that the Islamic views on adoption are immoral, yet this is when compared to their own cultures, from their own biases. Things that are considered moral in one culture, such as adoption and gamete donation, are considered immoral in another. This shows that there is truly a broad spectrum of thought, and that although humans are made up of the same materials, people adapt to their surroundings and cultures to create their own opinions and morals. In her article, Marcia Inhorn explains the way in which Muslims in Lebanon interpret their religion to accept the idea of IVF. Although it is forbidden, many of the men whose wives had received/were considering IVF justified their actions by love for their wives, and desires to make them happy. Even within Islam, religious laws differ, like in the way that the Shiite ruler Shaikh Fadallah issued a fatwa (ruling) that permitted egg through a loophole of a temporary marriage, in which a man would temporarily marry an unmarried woman, in order to provide a child that would be his.
Susan McKinnon’s main argument is that of soft cultural relativism. There may be genetics and values that are universal, but there is much more diversity in humanity well above the genetic level. Much of the criticism of her work is that she tries to delegitimize biology as the building blocks for kinship and the family. However, although there are certain factors that seem fairly universal after many studies, such as distaste towards incest, the idea of kin and family is extraordinarily different from culture to culture. But who is it that gets to decide what is legitimate and what is not? Is it the people in the society? Or their leaders? Is it ultimately a higher power? Or based on science?
One of the biggest issues in many scientific fields that contain classification is when people rank things in a hierarchical manner. In the 19th century, the field of anthropology consisted of scientists comparing races and collecting data about technology from different societies, and ranking them based on “primitiveness.” This is a fallacy, as a society with less advanced technology does not indicate lack of knowledge, it simply reflects the needs of the group in the area. One cannot compare kin structures in a judgmental manner, and scientists cannot simply call a group that considers adoption a sin immoral or backwards.
All humans tend to look down upon the “other,” and criticize those who are different from them. However, in a field like anthropology, in which the goal is to understand truths, people should put aside their superiority complexes and accept that different cultures work differently, despite the fact that all people are made of the same genetic material.
