WOMEN AND KINSHIP: COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER IN ASIAKinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through biological, cultural or historical descent. In anthropology the kinship system includes people related both by descent and marriage while usage in biology includes descent and mating. Human kinship relations through marriage are commonly called affinity in contrast to descent (also called consanguinity), although the two may overlap in marriages among those of