A brother or sister is often the closest to a person in the world. Sometimes you want to call a friend this way, but a real blood brother can only be someone with whom you have at least one common parent - mother or father. In addition, there are godbrothers, half-brothers, named brothers and, of course, cousins. Once you start to figure out which relatives are related to whom, it is very easy to get confused. And to understand, for example, who the cousin’s cousin is, becomes almost impossible.
What does the term mean?
Cousins are those whose parents are blood brothers or sisters. That is, either your brother’s mother is your aunt, or your father is your uncle. These laws of kinship apply regardless of gender. It’s just that if it is a female relative, then he is called a cousin, and if it is a male relative, he is called a cousin.
Literally, the word “cousin” means “belonging to two families.” And in a figurative meaning, this word can be understood as “belonging to the second degree of kinship.” By the way, other relatives can also be cousins: grandparents, aunts and uncles.
The need to determine degrees of kinship arose in those days when it was customary to have many children - at least five. They, in turn, had the same number of children, and in the end it became completely difficult to figure out who was dealing with whom. But it is also wrong to exclude a sibling from the kinship of children - after all, this is not the most distant relative. And, besides, in that era, family ties were very helpful, and people clung to them. Nowadays, city residents usually limit themselves to communicating with relatives of the first generation, or at most the second. But earlier, the importance of family ties played a big role, and cousins, uncles and aunts were considered close people, despite the fact that there were so many of them.
Is a wife legally related to her husband?
- Is a wife legally related to her husband? If we talk about biological kinship, then, of course, there is none. They are not related by blood. In addition, in the Russian Federation, marriage between a man and a woman who are close relatives is prohibited by law.
- If we consider it from a legal point of view, then the interpretations depend on the aspect in which such kinship is considered and on the form of marriage. If the marriage is official, the spouses become family members.
Family members, but not blood relatives
- Moreover, in criminal and civil law they are considered specifically as spouses, not falling under the definition of close relatives, while children and parents, sisters and brothers are.
- But in tax law, spouses are classified as close relatives who are subject to certain tax benefits. As for housing law, it does not use the term “relative” at all, speaking exclusively about family members, which, of course, are spouses.
- As for the labor code , it does not provide a clear definition of who are relatives, so employers perceive such relationships at their own discretion.
- In the inheritance case, the order of kinship is determined. And here the spouses, together with their children, act as first-degree heirs in the absence of a will. Therefore, in this aspect we can talk about kinship.
Queue of kinship
- There is also a medical field in which certain actions are allowed only to close relatives. Both husbands and wives are included in this category, thereby being considered relatives.
- The Family Code regulates the relationship between husband and wife as inherent, and not related, since marriage can be called a contract. The same can be called the relationship of spouses with fathers-in-law, mother-in-law and father-in-law, as well as daughters-in-law and sons-in-law.
Thus, the relationship between husband and wife is determined by the plane in which the legislative act lies. But in any case, spouses are considered family members who are not related by blood.
And in many areas of legislation they are equated to close relatives. Living in a civil marriage deprives spouses of many rights. And finally, let’s return to the connections and names between relatives and family members, speaking specifically about husbands and wives. Those who did not remarry after the death of their spouse are called widows and widowers , and fiancés (or wives) are the fourth unmarried wives.
Relation degree
Relatives do not always treat each other well, and sometimes they would prefer not to have anything in common, but this does not depend on their desire. Kinship is a connection between people, both emotional and legal, which is determined either by the presence of common ancestors, or by the act of marriage or adoption.
Relationships can be consanguineous or non-consanguineous (for example, through marriage and adoption). In addition, it has degrees. In addition to the emotional coloring, these degrees play a role in receiving an inheritance. Thus, first of all, the inheritance will be given to the closest relatives, and to second-order relatives only in the absence of the first ones. Immediate family members include parents, children, spouses and siblings. If there are no second-order relatives, then third-degree relatives can also claim the inheritance, and so on.
In the Russian tradition, there are dozens of names for degrees of kinship. This is due to the fact that our ancestors used to live in large communities, and belonging to a large family gave advantages, since it was easier to survive together.
It is noteworthy that in villages a similar attitude towards kinship can still be found today. At village weddings there are at least 100 people. And in the city it became very difficult to maintain such family ties, and such interesting names of kinship as father-in-chief, father-in-law, or daughter-in-law became archaic.
Spouses and their parents
Father-in-law is the father of the husband.
Mother-in-law is the husband's mother. The origin of this word means "one's own blood".
Father-in-law is the wife's father.
Mother-in-law is the mother of the wife. It is about the mother-in-law and her relationship with her son-in-law that there are a huge number of jokes that ridicule their mutual enmity and hatred. But there are also proverbs about the good relationship between mother-in-law and son-in-law, for example: “A good mother-in-law’s son-in-law is her most beloved son.”
Matchmaker is the father of one of the spouses in relation to the parents of the other spouse. About a person who has gained trust, they say “both matchmaker and brother.” There is also a saying: “A brother is a brother, a matchmaker is a matchmaker, but money is not relatives.”
Matchmaker (not to be confused with matchmaker) is the mother of one of the spouses in relation to the parents of the other spouse. Pushkin's in-law Babarikha is in fact the mother of all three girls who were spinning late in the evening, so her hatred of her third sister and her own grandson is difficult to explain. Further in the text of the tale, Pushkin confirms this in the episode where Prince Guidon turned into a mosquito and bit his in-law woman on the nose: “But he pities the eyes of his old grandmother.”
Matchmaker is a woman involved in matchmaking and arranging marriages. A profession that has disappeared these days, but was very in demand in the past.
Son-in -law is the husband of a daughter, sister, or sister-in-law. In other words, a son-in-law is a man in relation to his wife’s family: her parents, brothers, sisters.
Daughter-in-law is the wife of a son, brother, brother-in-law. In other words, a daughter-in-law is a woman in relation to her husband’s family: his parents, brothers, sisters.
Daughter-in-law (son) is the wife of a son in relation to his father (father-in-law) and mother (mother-in-law). In Vysotsky’s song “A Trip to the City” there are the words: “so that I can bring my daughter-in-law and her husband a doha.” If the daughter-in-law is the son’s wife, then “her husband” is the son of the main character of the song.
Cousins
There is an opinion that cousin is the same cousin, because in English and French this combination of words is translated as cousin. But here it is worth noting that literal translation is not always possible due to conceptual differences in cultures. Both the English and the French use the word “cousin” to designate a distant blood relative in the same tribe as someone, and not necessarily in the second. That is, they also call second and fourth cousins cousins.
And if we transfer this word into the Russian language, then it is also only as a common name for all brothers, except for siblings. And “cousin,” accordingly, is the name for sisters of all tribes.
Who are the wives' or husbands' cousins?
They are relatives, naturally, not by blood. If we talk about who the husband’s cousin is, then we can say that he is the cousin-in-law. But, in fact, only a sibling is considered a relative and is simply called a brother-in-law.
Questions about, for example, who is the husband's cousin, are asked more for the sake of educational interest, and not in order to maintain such family ties. In the Russian tradition, this degree of relationship is called “seventh water on jelly.”
Ancient names of relatives among Russians
- Terms such as bro (that’s what they called their brother’s daughter ) and bratych (respectively, son ) have almost gone out of use.
- a brother .
- An aunt by uncle used to be called grandfather or grandfather , and grandfather was a direct heir by grandfather.
- Nephews related to an aunt were called Dshcherich or Dshersha
- The eldest in the family was called father-in-chief , and the heir was called father-in-law or father-in-law .
- Any relative was considered a nephew .
- The married couple from whom the given clan originated was respectfully ancestors
- In addition, when talking about a paternal uncle , they used the term stry , and when talking about a maternal uncle, they vui or howl . They called their nephews and nieces in all sorts of ways: sisters and sisters, sisters and sons.
Children of cousins
Family ties such as grandmother - grandson, aunt - niece are preserved even with cousins, but with a prefix. And if we talk about a specific case, for example, about who your cousin’s daughter is, then she is your cousin’s niece. And the daughter of a second cousin will be a second cousin, that is, a niece in the third generation. Who is your cousin's son? Accordingly, a cousin's nephew.
The children of cousins themselves will also have a relationship in relation to each other, but this time it will be threefold. This means they can be called second cousins. This relationship is already quite distant, and often they do not even know each other closely. But it’s still worth knowing about such relatives.
Examples from star families
The famous TV presenter and public figure Ksenia Sobchak admitted in an interview that after marrying Maxim Vitorgan, she managed to improve relations with her husband’s parents. She called her father-in-law Emmochka, and her mother-in-law Irochka. Singer Natalie, having become a daughter-in-law, immediately began to call her husband’s parents - dad Sasha and mom Tonya. TV presenter Ksenia Borodina addresses her mother-in-law as “my good one,” “my dear.”
Ksenia Sobchak, having married Maxim Vitorgan, began calling her father-in-law “Emmochka”, and her mother-in-law “Irochka”
Can cousins get married?
This question has two sides: moral and formal. According to Article 14, paragraph 2 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation, such marriages are possible. But from a moral, ethical and genetic point of view, this is extremely undesirable. This is still too close a relationship, and it can cause genetic abnormalities in the children of such spouses.
In the history of monarchical states, including the Russian Empire, there are many cases when, in order to maintain power, people married cousins. And since an heir was needed, they had to have children. The latter almost always had either poor health or some kind of abnormality.
Hemophilia of Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov was a hereditary disease of the Romanovs and, remarkably, other royal houses of Europe in the 19th-20th centuries. It was called “the royal disease” in those days. Now geneticists are very likely to claim that this pathology was caused by numerous incest in the reigning clans. Because then, in order to preserve the throne within the same clan, they did not disdain marriage between cousins, without seeing anything immoral in it.
Fourth and fifth cousins
The terms “fourth cousin”, “fifth cousin” and so on are formed rather by analogy and are rarely used in real life. In some cultures, it is customary for all numerous relatives to gather for weddings or funerals, and then at such events they begin to remember who is a fourth cousin and who is a sixth cousin. But, in fact, these are already very distant relatives. Whether such people should be considered relatives in the modern world is a philosophical question. After all, if you start digging even deeper, then all people on Earth are relatives to each other in the fourteenth generation.
