In ancient China, was an uncle higher in status than even an uncle?

The concepts of kin and relative are different

In traditional Chinese society, relative is two terms, kin refers to the clan, the relative says outside the clan, the relative has the difference between inside and outside, the relatives in the clan refers to their own family within the family of the same family name, according to the relationship of the near and distant respectively are

Extra-ethnic relatives are relatives related to the mother by blood, according to the proximity, they are: uncle, aunt, cousins, etc. Cousins are the brothers of the same maternal grandmother, and the sons of uncles and aunts are cousins to ourselves.

The power of the uncle

In the early days of human society, there were two kinds of kinship systems, one was the kinship system in which matrilineal kinship was inherited from the maternal line, and the other was the kinship system in which patrilineal kinship was inherited from the paternal line, and the social relations in matrilineal clan societies were practically inherited from matrilineal kinship, and patrilineal clan societies' Social relations in matrilineal clan societies are actually inherited in descent from patrilineal kin.

Matrilineal clan societies, valuing the relationship between uncle and nephew, and sacrificing to the *** same matrilineal ancestor, that is to say, in matrilineal clan societies, uncle is equivalent to the father, and the exalted status of the uncle in ancient Chinese societies is actually a tradition left over from matrilineal clan societies.

The uncle in traditional Chinese society is the patriarchal representative of the mother's family, he is the mother's brother, for the nephew is the closest relatives outside the clan, the uncle of the nephew's family enjoys a special power to deal with some important matters, for example, in some places, nephews marrying the time of the banquet, the uncle needs to sit on the top seat, or even the uncle does not come to the scene, can not be opened; involving the mother of the important affairs, the uncle all have a certain right to speak, which is actually very likely to be the tradition left behind by the matriarchal clan society.

In European countries, the uncle does not have such power, and there is no such difference between inside and outside relatives, uncles, uncles and uncles are called Uncle in English.