Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 Bu- Ali Sina university
2 Bu-Ali Sina university
Abstract
All societies use kinship terms to address and to refer to one’s kin. Most studies that have investigated kin terms, have been done based on consanguineal and affinal kin criteria. In some societies, kin relations are established by other criteria. Therefore, cultural differences must be taken into account but genealogical paths cannot represent this cultural knowledge. In this research, kin terms are considered as cultural elements. Using kin term maps, it is possible to formally represent how kin relations are calculated without reference to genealogical relations and to recognize primary kin terms. So, cultural differences can be represented as well. The framework used in this research provides a comprehensive basis for comparative studies of kin terms. In this article, kin term maps of Old Persian, Middle Persian and New Persian are investigated diachronically. The starting point is “self” in the maps and is located in the center. Primary kin terms are recognized according to their position relative to the “self”. A comparison of the maps shows that in Middle Persian grammatical gender has disappeared, but biological gender was still important in this period. Some kin terms were added and some were dropped in this period. According to the results, in New Persian the number of kin terms has increased, there are some loan kin terms, two-syllable kin terms are more frequently used, and biological gender has lost its importance in expressing kinship relations.
Keywords
- Key words: Persian kinship terminology
- genealogical space
- kin term space
- kinship space
- Persian kinship maps
Main Subjects
)
Send comment about this article