Kinship, Friendship, and Patron-Client Relations in Complex Societies

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Abstract
The anthropologist has a professional license to study such interstitial, supplementary, and parallel structures in complex society and to expose their relation to the major strategic, overarching institutions. This chapter focuses on three sets of such parallel structures in complex societies: kinship, friendship, and patron-client relations. Membership in a kinship coalition would be advantageous in situations where the state delegated the taxing power and the execution of other demands to entities on the local level. The kinship coalition or the village coalition is made to override any coalitions which the individual may wish to form, by playing off affinal and consanguineal ties against each other. The tie of kinship merges with the tie of friendship. In contrast to the kin tie, the primary bond in the friendship dyad is not forged in an ascribed situation; friendship is achieved. Like kinship and friendship, the patron-client tie involves multiple facets of the actors involved, not merely the segmental needs of the moment.

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