On my mother’s side, I have my grandfather and grandmother (as well as the names of their parents), two consanguineal aunts (both deceased) and three consanguineal uncles (one who is deceased), three cousins, and four cousins once removed. On my father’s side, I have grandfather and grandmother (as well as the names of their parents), three consanguineal aunts (one who is deceased) and three consanguineal uncles, twenty-six cousins, and eight cousins once removed. There are sixty consanguineal relatives, as well as fourteen affinal relatives.
My uncles Bazi and Yalo live in the same village as my grandmother, Satu. The rest of the family lives within six or seven hours by walking. In Ethiopia, children are socially required to take care of
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In my family, the average amount of offspring is four. However, there are three families on my father’s side that have six or seven children. In Ethiopia, families tend to be large unless there is an external variable changing the norm. Oftentimes, multiple generations will live together or close by in order to help each other in a patrilocal setting. In America, the nuclear family model tends to be a mother, a father, and two or three children. The parents tend to be neolocal, choosing a new location to settle down and have …show more content…
My parents and siblings are the only members of the family in the United States, and there is little discussion of family in Ethiopia. I didn’t know that I had uncles, aunts, or cousins, so the realization that I had a family of nearly seventy individuals was definitely shocking. Another aspect that surprised me was how difficult it was to create the kinship chart. Since I don’t speak Amharic, I have to ask my parents for the names of their siblings, nieces, and nephews. Surprisingly enough, they remembered only a few names, and had to call family in Ethiopia in order to find out