Only Lving Relative...

[Richard]

No: HPFGUIDX 82972

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboy_mn at y...> wrote:
> Let's say for a moment that my name is Harry Potter and my mother's
> name is Lily Evans.
> 
> Additionally, let's assume that my great great grandfather had one 
son
> and one daughter; the son being my great grandfather.
> 
> So the daughter marries a guy named Fish and they have a daughter;
> making that daughter first cousin to my great grandfather. 
<snip>

Richard here, apologizing in advance for pointing out a nit or 
two ....

Your count of "cousinship" is a little off.

           GGGF
           /  \
          /    \
    fish+d     GGF
        |       | 
   carp+d       GF
       |        |
 trout+d        F
      |         |
Evans+d    Harry Potter (me, for this discusson)
     |
 Mark Evans

First off, the daughter of Carp and my great-great-grandfather's 
daughter is my great-grandfathers NIECE, not his cousin.  She IS my 
grandfather's first cousin, though, so your count is off by one.  
Further, there is one extra layer in the Mark Evans linage back to my 
great-great-grandfather (GGGF), which means that my GGGF is Mark's 
great-great-great-grandfather.  This also means that Mark and I are 
third cousins, once removed, not fourth cousins, or simple third 
cousins.

> Let us now assume that if you trace Mr. Evan family tree back 
through
> many generation, it intersects at some distant point with the Lily
> Evans family tree. 
> 
> Are Mark Evans and I related, or are we total strangers?
> 
> For all intent and purpose, we are total strangers. The only reason 
> I know him at all is because he lives in my neighborhood.
<snip>

Richard again:

In ethnology (the study of cultures), 'family' is limited in meaning 
to some relatively (no pun intended) immediate set of relations.  
There is immediate family (parents and siblings) and extended family 
(generally grandparents or great-grandparents (whatever the oldest 
living ancestors are), and their descendants, for example) ... often 
with some expectation of proximity, such as living together, or 
living in the same small community.  Because our family trees TEND to 
diverge upward, as well as downward, your cousin may be a member of  
your extended family, yet both you and your cousin will generally 
have family members who are NOT SHARED.  Once you get past extended 
family, you have other terms, such as clan.  All members of the same 
clan are related (even if only by "law" in marrying into the clan), 
but they are not all "family," even if they are blood relations.

So, I agree with your interpretation of "only family" not being in 
conflict with a potential blood relationship between Harry and Mark 
Evans.  It is linguistically, genealogically and 
ethnologically "legit" for this to be the case.


Richard, whose studies in anthropology and ethnology sometimes get 
the better of him.