“Fictitious kinship” or “parenthood by grace”? Rethinking family ties through godparenthood in social anthropology

The study of godparenthood, that is, the ties of spiritual kinship, posed a definite challenge for Western social anthropology, since its “discovery” did not fit into the already existing theories of kinship systems. The first anthropological studies of the institute proceeded from the need to describe its observed effects and functions, consisting in the social integration of local communities, building exchange relations between households, as well as replacing the functions of biological kinship, by analogy with avunculate or fictitious kinship. Such a “utilitarian view” was criticized for neglecting the specific Christian roots of this complex of relations in comparison with other similar institutions. In order to find more adequate interpretations of its role, anthropologists turned to the study of Church law and identified the meanings of categories used in everyday language with reference to their theological interpretations (for example, honor, grace, etc.). Godparenthood is defined as a Folk-Christian institution when Christian dogmatic is embedded in the local tradition. Relying on the findings from the research of the compadrazgo institute, a complex of relations linking natural and spiritual kinship, we focus on expanding the meaning of the concept of family, which follows from these conclusions. Implementing theological arguments about “second birth” and “parenting by grace”, anthropologists on the one hand, draw an opposition between natural and spiritual kinship, which explains a number of rules of the compadrazgo institute that elevate spiritual affinity. On the other hand, they define it as a mechanism for expanding the natural boundaries of the family by including spiritual ties in kinship relationships and maintaining Christian family ideology within natural kinship relationships, as well as within local communities. Studies comparing the Catholic Institute of Compadrazgo and the Orthodox Institute of Kumstvo also pointed to the influence of the institute of godparents on the conceptual modification of family ties complementing natural kinship.

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