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Anthropology of kinship |
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Social anthropology Cultural anthropology |
Collateral is a term used in kinship to describe kin, or lines of kin, that are not in a direct line of descent from an individual. [1] Examples of collateral relatives include siblings of parents or grandparents and their descendants (uncles, aunts, and cousins). [2] Collateral descent is contrasted with lineal descent: those related directly by a line of descent such as the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc. of an individual. Though both forms are consanguineal (blood relations), collaterals are neither ancestors nor descendants of a given person. [3] In legal terminology, 'Collateral descendant' refers to relatives descended from a sibling of an ancestor, and thus a niece, nephew, or cousin. [4]