The sibling tie in adulthood : an analysis based on meeting frequency - article ; n°1 ; vol.43, pg 41-65

Emmanuelle Crenner, Nicolas Herpin, Jean-Hugues Déchaux

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Revue française de sociologie - Année 2002 - Volume 43 - Numéro 1 - Pages 41-65
What can be said of the sibling tie in adulthood ? Analysis of a survey conducted by Insee of meetings between or among brothers and sisters (survey sample : 6,000 French households) points to three main conclusions. First, there is little that is normative about the sibling tie: number of meetings varies greatly by individual. In contrast to direct filiation, relations between siblings seem determined by choice and interest more than status-conditioned obligations. Second, inclination is nonetheless more likely to regulate sibling ties for men; for women, regulation is more likely to be status-conditioned. Third, the sibling tie is structurally secondary to direct filiation (mother and father-adult children) : how often siblings see each other is a function of father's and/or mother's presence, and declines when individuals settle into couples and have their own children. The fact that the sibling tie functions as a substitute when direct filial ties are impoverished or lost further illustrates that, of the two direct blood ties, the sibling tie is structurally secondary. These properties of siblingship are probably particular to the cognatic or non-unilineal, kindred system which is that of modern Western kinship.
25 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique

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• Publié par: REVUE_FRANCAISE_DE_SOCIOLOGIE
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2002
• Nombre de lectures: 10
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Emmanuelle Crenner
Jean-Hugues Déchaux
Nicolas Herpin
Amy Jacobs
The sibling tie in adulthood : an analysis based on meeting
frequency
In: Revue française de sociologie. 2002, 43-1. pp. 41-65.
Abstract
What can be said of the sibling tie in adulthood ? Analysis of a survey conducted by Insee of meetings between or among
brothers and sisters (survey sample : 6,000 French households) points to three main conclusions. First, there is little that is
normative about the sibling tie: number of meetings varies greatly by individual. In contrast to direct filiation, relations between
siblings seem determined by choice and interest more than status-conditioned obligations. Second, inclination is nonetheless
more likely to regulate sibling ties for men; for women, regulation is more likely to be status-conditioned. Third, the sibling tie is
structurally secondary to direct filiation (mother and father-adult children) : how often siblings see each other is a function of
father's and/or mother's presence, and declines when individuals settle into couples and have their own children. The fact that the
sibling tie functions as a substitute when direct filial ties are impoverished or lost further illustrates that, of the two direct blood
ties, the sibling tie is structurally secondary. These properties of siblingship are probably particular to the cognatic or non-
unilineal, "kindred" system which is that of modern Western kinship.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Crenner Emmanuelle, Déchaux Jean-Hugues, Herpin Nicolas, Jacobs Amy. The sibling tie in adulthood : an analysis based on
meeting frequency. In: Revue française de sociologie. 2002, 43-1. pp. 41-65.
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/rfsoc_0035-2969_2002_sup_43_1_5565R. franc, sociol, 43, Supplement, 2002, 41-65
Emmanuelle CRENNER
Jean-Hugues DÉCHAUX
Nicolas HERPIN
The Sibling Tie in Adulthood: an Analysis
Based on Meeting Frequency
Abstract
What can be said of the sibling tie in adulthood? Analysis of a survey conducted by
Insee of meetings between or among brothers and sisters (survey sample: 6,000 French house
holds) points to three main conclusions. First, there is little that is normative about the s
ibling tie: number of meetings varies greatly by individual. In contrast to direct filiation, re
lations between siblings seem determined by choice and interest more than status-
conditioned obligations. Second, inclination is nonetheless more likely to regulate sibling
ties for men; for women, regulation is more likely to be status-conditioned. Third, the s
ibling tie is structurally secondary to direct filiation (mother and father-adult children): how
often siblings see each other is a function of father's and/or mother's presence, and declines
when individuals settle into couples and have their own children. The fact that the sibling tie
functions as a substitute when direct filial ties are impoverished or lost further illustrates
that, of the two direct blood ties, the sibling tie is structurally secondary. These properties of
siblingship are probably particular to the cognatic or non-unilineal, "kindred" system which
is that of modern Western kinship.
Sociologists and anthropologists of kinship in modern societies have only
rarely studied relations between/among siblings in adulthood. This is surpris
ing, especially since the tie between brother(s) and/or sister(s) is one of the
two that constitute the elementary or nuclear family, the basic unit of the
Western kinship system (the other being of course that of direct filiation, fa
ther and mother-children). In modern Western societies, as among the Eski
mos, families" the kinship network can be described as "interlocking elementary
(Ghasarian, 1996, p. 48). Each individual belongs to two such el
ementary or nuclear families: the one into which he or she was born -the fami
ly of orientation- and the one he or she forms with his or her spouse (or
opposite-sex partner) W and children: the procreation family.
(l)The number of unmarried couples in known as the PaCS {Pacte civil de solidarité),
France is high. Living together in what is known which permits all unmarried couples, hetero-
as a union libre is widely accepted and practiced: sexual and homosexual, to officialize their
four out of ten children are born to unmarried situation and thereby acquire some of the legal
couples. In 2000 the French parliament officially rights of married couples,
recognized this arrangement by passing a law
41 Revue française de sociologie
The ties that make up the elementary family are direct consanguinity ties;
there are no intermediate ones. Brother and sister, like father, mother, son,
and daughter, are "primary" relatives. This is why these ties are the most
likely to be maintained throughout one's life. In our society, relations with the
nuclear family of orientation constitute the core of the kinship network opera
tive in adulthood. We know how central the role of relations between father
and mother and adult children is, but we know almost nothing of the relations
that may exist between siblings, even though, of all primary kinship ties, this
one lasts the longest because of closeness in sibling ages. The "structural" po
sition of the sibling tie within the kinship network is thus a very strong one,
and may be expected to endow it with a key role. Analyzing the organization
of the Western kinship system as a whole requires studying the sibling tie.
The richest contributions on the question date from the 1950s and 60s,
when anthropologists of kinship, until then specialized exclusively in the
study of unilineal systems, became interested in bilateral or undifferentiated
systems (those that do not take sex into account in defining kinship ties), of
which Western kinship is one. The most stimulating theoretical text is without
a doubt Cumming and Schneider's 1961 article, "Sibling solidarity: a property
of American kinship", published in American Anthropologist. Taking up an
idea launched by Pherson (1954) and on the basis of a 220-respondent survey
conducted in Kansas City, Cumming and Schneider claimed that the sibling
tie is the archetypal kinship tie in undifferentiated systems characterized by
egalitarian kinship relations -the American system, for example. The tie this
study found to exist between adult siblings is strong and by soli
darity, namely at the level of affect; but it is also marked by a high degree of
autonomy, choice, and egalitarianism. It, rather than the more normative and
hierarchical direct filial tie, seemed to the authors particularly in step with the
cultural orientations of modern society, infused as they are with individual
ism. In sum, the "modernity" of the sibling tie could be opposed to the
"passe" quality of filiation.
This thesis was not really tested. Virtually no further surveys bearing on
the theme were conducted, even in the United States, where analysis of the
sibling tie had in fact long been neglected (Irish, 1964). In the last few years,
North American sociologists have shown renewed interest in the study of sib
ling groups. As we shall see, a number of American statistical surveys have
essentially confirmed Cumming and Schneider's 1961 interpretation. At the
present time, therefore, there is consensus among North American specialists
around the idea that the sibling tie is both strong and determined by individual
initiative rather than status-determined norms.
Without prejudging the validity of Cumming and Schneider's thesis for the
French case, we can use it to examine the reality of French adult sibling ties in
contrast to two other types of social tie: direct filiation, since siblingship is
the relation established with one's other primary blood relatives, and
friendship ties, since the weakness of status-determined norms and strength
of personal inclination and affinity that characterizes siblingship should logi
cally, following Cumming and Schneider, make it similar to friendship. Our
42 Emmanuelle Crenner, Jean-Hugues Déchaux, Nicolas Herpin
approach may be described as structural in that by seeking to identify the fac
tors that determine how often siblings see each other, we are trying to grasp
the place of the sibling tie in the overall organization of kinship, and the
properites deriving from that place. (2) This approach in no way requires us to
concur with structural-functionalist anthropology, to see kinship as a sort of
collective individual, a single, indivisible entity. Instead it enables us to see it
as a network of dyadic relations, each of which can only be defined in relation
to the others. For this reason, we shall consider the expressions "kinship" and
network" synonymous. "kinship
entraide'" We shall be using iNSEE's "Réseau de parenté et survey [Kinship
networks and mutual support], conducted in October 1997 on a sample of
6,000 French households (see Appendix for presentation of survey). The pre
sent article is only the first of several that aim to analyze the sibling tie in
contemporary French society; here we will only be discussing results relative
t