Yeah, when I was thinking about you implementing such an idea I was getting more than a little excited. The way in which it holds potential to be of such benefit to everyone involved is really nice.




I would firstly just briefly highlight that even within the nuclear set-up of two parents with children there is plenty of variability. For instance Malinowski observed that it is not what we would class as the father who serves the disciplinary role but rather the uncle among the Trobrianders. Kinship models are also models at that and do not reflect the complexity and variance of how people live within any culture or society. Even within our societies which greatly emphasize biological relatedness and two parent families we find single parent households, step parents, adopted children etc. I don't want this clarifier to come off as being offensive or patronizing. It is more so I don't come off as presenting a hopelessly simplified and reductionist account of cultural difference.

One example which is commonly cited would be the Hawaiian model. In this system it is determined based on generation and gender. As opposed to simply addressing one person as father and one as mother, you would address all the females in the same generation of what we would consider your mother as mother and the same for the males. This is actually the first kinship system which came to mind when I saw the title for your thread. As typically societies which implement this system have a value of sharing the care of the youth.

Among them people in the Tanimbar island there is a special way of relating open to the males. They can enter into what is referred to as an elder-younger brother relationship with people whom we would not consider them to be related to. When one of these men has children, not only does the brother become the child's father as well but his wife becomes the child's other mother.