Kinship Chart and Analysis

1. The kinship chart in which I created used my mother as the ego. My mother is white, and from Lubboc, TX. She was born in Texas and had lived there all the way up until her college years at San Diego State University. There isn't a great cultural background in her, though she is mainly English with a dash of Irish. She came from a somewhat dysfunctional family with divorced parents. Other than divorced parents, her family life was relatively normal and she was raised quite well.

2. I tried my best to initiate this interview as any anthropologist would, and in this case, pretend I knew absolutely nothing about my mom. With this approach I was able to draw detailed information about her family life, where she was raised, and how my parents came to meet. The interview wasn't awkward at all, though at times it felt a little silly pretending I knew nothing about my own family. But we powered through it as a team! The fact that I was receiving information about my family in which I had already known had a little bit of an effect on my interview, as everything was predictable and made me slightly impatient. Had I conducted this interview to a stranger who was from a different culture, i'm sure I would be in awe of the attachments in the kinship. Interviewing someone with a great amount of siblings would be interesting, and I had become interested in what the kinship chart of a Chinese or Indian family would look like, as many of these families have many children.

3. I have always been aware of my family's situation as far as who is who and where people live. Having drawn out a kinship chart I was fascinated by the size of my dad's side of the family in comparison to my mom's side. My mom's side of the family all live in Texas, and being a Californian, I have spent some but not a great amount of time with them. My dad's side however, almost completely reside in San Diego, where I lived for 13 years, and Los Angeles, where I have lived for 6 years. This closeness has an unbelievable effect on the closeness levels I have with relatives. My dad's side of the family is always gathering for holidays, birthdays, and just family get togethers. Being a three hour flight from my mom's side, I haven't been able to develop strong bonds with them. Though, I do keep in touch with them frequently by phone, and they do visit on occasion. My dad is one of three children, all boys. His brothers have all had children, which my brother and I hang out with on a consistent basis. By the looks of my chart, my dad's side is significantly greater in size than my mom's side. Their isn't an age issue with my close by relatives, and I have just as great a time talking with my cousins who are within a year of me, and my uncles. There are also no ethnic differences in my family, we are all caucasians and lack any inter-racial relationships, not that there's anything wrong with that.

4. I have developed solid relationships with members of both my mom and dad's side of the family. I socialize with my dad's side of the family a significantly greater amount due to their convenient location, rather than my mom's side who live in Texas. As far as influence in the family, my grandma on my dad's side is the greatest without question. She is always organizing get-togethers and keeps the family close intact. She knows how and what everyone in the family is doing. She takes a great amount of pride in our family and is the glue holding us all together. She has always held this role, but acquired more responsibility and interest once my grandfather passed. I believe the reason for this is the fact that she raised the three kids including my dad, who then started families, therefore she has taken an interest in a great deal of our lives. Members who have married into the family are treated equally than those born into the family. We are an incredibly welcoming bunch, and continue to be so as our family grows and grows. Their isn't any gender discrimination in the family, though there have been an abundance of male children born. This has no effect on how we treat each other, but an interesting factor of our kinship chart. This exercise really opened up the fact that my father's side of the family is significantly larger. It has encouraged me to continue on the Robbins name, and I hope to add to our already large family tree in the future.