Sibling-in-law

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David and Jonathan, sworn friends and confidants, became brothers-in-law when David married Jonathan's sister Michal.[1]

One's sibling-in-law is the sibling of one's spouse or the spouse of one's sibling. By gender, this is specified as brother-in-law for the brother of one's spouse or the husband of one's sibling, and sister-in-law for the sister of one's spouse or the wife of one's sibling.[2]

Just like other affines, or "in-laws", siblings-in-law are related by a type of kinship called affinity. A more distant type of relation is that of a co-sibling-in-law; that is, one's spouse's sibling's spouse or one's sibling's spouse's sibling. Just like the children of one's siblings, the children of one's siblings-in-law are called simply nieces and nephews (more rarely, niblings[3]) – if necessary, specified whether "by marriage", as opposed to "by blood" or "by adoption".

One study, examining the issue of envy in the triadic system of sibling, sibling-in-law and spouse, concluded that "The sibling-in-law relationship shared similarities with both spousal and sibling relationships" and that "Relational closeness and satisfaction for all relationships in the triad were correlated."[4]

In Islamic law (shariʿa)[5] and Jewish law (halakhah)[6] sexual relations between siblings-in-law are prohibited as incestuous, unless the spouse is deceased. Conversely, in Judaism there was the custom of yibbum, whereby a man had a non-obligatory duty to wed his deceased brother's childless widow so she might have progeny by him.[7]

If one pair of siblings is married to another pair of siblings, the siblings-in-law are thus doubly-related, each of the four both through one's spouse and through one's sibling, while the children of the two couples are double cousins.

See also

Look up sibling-in-law in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References

  1. ↑ 1 Samuel 18:20–27.
  2. ↑ Cambridge Dictionaries Online. "Family: non-blood relations".
  3. ↑ Conklin, Harold C., "Ethnogenealogical Method", in Explorations in Cultural Anthropology: Essays in Honor of George Peter Murdock, W. H. Goodenough, ed., McGraw-Hill, New York, 1964
  4. ↑ Yoshimura, C.G (2010). "The experience and communication of envy among siblings, siblings-in-law, and spouses". Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.
  5. ↑ Qurʾan, An-Nisa, verse 23.
  6. ↑ Leviticus 18:16, 18:18.
  7. ↑ Deuteronomy 25:5–10.


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