avoidance relationship

avoidance relationship, in human societies, the institutionalized, formal avoidance of one individual by another. Avoidance relationships usually involve persons of opposite sexes who have a specific kin relationship to one another.

Formal rules for avoidance have generally been interpreted by anthropologists as a sign of respect rather than of bad feelings. Where the potential for strain is evident, however, the avoidance of contact serves to prevent, or at least to minimize, socially undesirable events or situations. Thus, in many groups, avoidance relationships are practiced by persons between whom marital or sexual relations are forbidden. A classic example—and one found in numerous and diverse societies—is the mutual avoidance of a mother-in-law and her sons-in-law. In some societies the ideal traditional marriage might join a bride with a groom who is 10–15 years her senior—and often much older than that. In such situations, mothers-in-law and sons-in-law are likely to be of approximately the same age and therefore to be potential (if illicit) sexual partners. The avoidance relationship circumvents such liaisons, at least notionally, by proscribing contact between these individuals. Similar patterns of avoidance have been noted in brother-sister, father-daughter, and father-in-law–daughter-in-law relations.

Many (but not all) cultures that have avoidance relationships also have institutionalized joking relationships, a complementary practice in which specific relatives may tease one another or even engage in ribald exchanges.