Sib (anthropology)

Sib is a technical term in the discipline of anthropology which originally denoted a kinship group among Anglo-Saxon and other Germanic peoples. In an extended sense, it then became the standard term for a variety of other kinds of lineal (matrilineal or patrilineal) or cognatic (i.e.,descended through links of both sexes) kinship groups. The word may also denote a member of such a group.^[1]

American anthropologists often used the term 'sib' as the generic term for a category that breaks down into the sub-classifications of patri-sib, referring to patrilineal clan descent, and matri-sib, to refer to matrilineal clan descent.^[2]

• Oxford English Dictionary. Vol. XV (2nd ed.). Clarendon Press. 1989.
• Fox, Robin (1967). Kinship and Marriage. Penguin.
• Berreman, Gerald D. (October 1962). "Sib and Clan among the Pahari of North India". Ethnology. 1 (4). University of Pittsburgh: 524–528. doi:10.2307/3772855. JSTOR 3772855.
• Lowie, Robert H. (January 1919). "Family and Sib". American Anthropologist. 21 (1). Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological Association: 28–40. doi:10.1525/aa.1919.21.1.02a00030.
• Lessells, C. M.; G. A. Parker (August 1999). "Parent-Offspring Conflict: The Full-Sib-Half-Sib Fallacy". Biological Sciences. 266 (1429). The Royal Society: 1637–1643. doi:10.1098/rspb.1999.0826. PMC 1690187.