Assignment of relationship terms in Binumarien

Kinship systems have a perennial fascination. From Morgan's day to the present, a long succession of authors have produced their diagrams and algebraic explanations . . . Kinship terminology and its diagramatic arrangements provide, ready made, a delightful series of mathematical abstractions and it is all too easy to develop their analysis into a 'system' having little relation to sociological facts. This paper considers four propositions about the meaning of kinship terms in relation to a pertinent set of sociological facts about the actual assignment of relationship terms in a community. Its purpose is to shed quantitative empirical light on what has been largely a theoretical debate.