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An instance of family status is the collective ascription of a familial relationship between one actor and another by a community. The substance of the family status is the communal recognition of the familial connection between the two actors in question.

Instances of family status are recognizable through evidence of community members adopting the intentional stance  and behaviour indicated as proper to this relation, as observable from direct witnesses, through the reports of competent observers or through evidence of a declarative act (e.g.: adoption) initiating this status.

Instances of family status may come to be simply through birth in a certain community or may require that a formal process such as a right of passage has been undertaken. Instances of family status may end either though a formal process such as a renunciation or through death.  

Language

en