V Khalapa

42708036

Kinship refers to all the things that tie individuals together, which could be blood-related or people within a community. Kinship is a complex network. I have two nuclear families, the first one consists of my mother, my stepfather, my three little sisters, and one little brother and the second nuclear family consists of my biological father, my stepmother, and four of their children. I am more close to my first nuclear family as I live with them. Every month my stepfather sends me money for needs such as cosmetics and food, whilst my biological father occasionally sends money for my wants such as going out to a concert and more. It is in this manner that shows that both my parents provide economic capital for me.

Whilst my parents provide economic capital for me and my siblings, our job as the children of the household is to tend to the domestic chores like cleaning the household, cooking, doing the laundry, and many more. It is the emotional bond we have created amongst ourselves as a family, the blood that runs in our system, our surname, and the shared experience we have that puts us in kinship. As stated, kinship is a complex network, it is "Generalized''. It shows that there can never be a balance between the things that my parents provide and the things we do around the house, there is no give, receive, and return relationship. The obligation between my parents and us their children is in a way mutual as my parents feel the need to take care of our well-being and to make sure we are well fed and that we have no short-comings in our lives and the same to my siblings and I we feel obligated to honor, respect and care for our parents.

As I am in university, I have created bonds with a lot of new people, mostly my housemates. In the unit that I live in, we have a hairdresser, who does our hair for free in exchange for us doing her laundry and her dishes. My roommate and I are in charge of cooking and the others are in charge of cleaning the house. When one of us is too busy to do their part of the chores we assist each other out as we understand how stressful and demanding school can get. Even though we are in different faculties, we can assist each other on assignments. This is a true indication of reciprocity, showing the true relationship of give, receive, and return.

In conclusion,  the kinship between children and their parents is seen through the bond shared and all the other things that tie them together, and this in a way forms an obligation between the two as both parties feel the responsibility to love and care for one another. Mostly children are obligated to respect and trust their parents, Reciprocity in the above text is displayed as the mutual exchange of goods and services strengthening the bond between friends.