cross-cousin

Definition of Cross-cousin

(noun) The kinship between the children of a brother and sister.

Examples of Cross-cousin

• An individual’s father’s sister’s children.
• An individual’s mother’s brother’s children.
  

Cross-cousin Pronunciation

Pronunciation Usage Guide

Syllabification: cross cous·in

Audio Pronunciation

International Phonetic Alphabet

• American English – /krɔs-ˈkʌzən/
• British English – /krɒs-ˈkʌzn/

Usage Notes

• Plural: cross–cousins
• Term coined by Edward Tylor (1832–1917) and popularized by Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908–2009) in his book The Elementary Structures of Kinship (1949) which along with Lewis Henry Morgan’s (1818–1881) Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity in the Human Family (1871) helped establish the study of kinship as a distinct field of anthropology and sociology. Morgan and Lévi-Strauss among other kinship writers were critiqued by David M. Schneider (1918–1995) in American Kinship: A Cultural Account and A Critique of the Study of Kinship (1984). Schneider’s work reinvigorated the study of kinship.
• The sexes of the children do not matter as long as the sexes of the siblings are opposite.
• A cross-cousin is part of an extended family.
• In contrast to cross-cousin, parallel-cousin is the kinship of children from same sex siblings such as two brothers or two sisters and both kinship statuses are used to determine marriage eligibility.
• Variant spellings:
  • cross cousin
  • crosscousin
• Two people who are cousins share (noun) cross–cousinhood or (noun) cross–cousinship and are (adverb) cross-cousinly related.

Related Videos

Additional Information

• Family and Kinship Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
• Word origin of “cross-cousin” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com

Related Terms

• cousin
• family
• father
• marriage
• mother
• parallel-cousin
• relative

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Cite the Definition of Cross-cousin

ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2014. “cross-cousin.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved April 20, 2024 (https://sociologydictionary.org/cross-cousin/).

APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)

cross-cousin. (2014). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/cross-cousin/

Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2014. “cross-cousin.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed April 20, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/cross-cousin/.

MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)

“cross-cousin.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2014. Web. 20 Apr. 2024. <https://sociologydictionary.org/cross-cousin/>.