Kith and Kin

Country and kinfolk sounds old-fashioned, but recognizing a kindred spirit is a real gift. Sensing a true shared essence is rare. Far too often we presume similarity, a derived origin that somehow unites and binds us together. But is this really possible in a world where information increases at a rate faster than doubling, beyond exponential growth, into the realm of dimensional explosions.

Trying to make sense of cultural traditions that are embedded in a an explosion is daunting. After a year of trying to make sense of patterns I saw when traveling across the heartland, part of me wanted to give up, but this is really all I know. Trained in anthropology, working in information nodes (university libraries) and in cultural repositories (museums) and successfully raising a child in this maelstrom, I suspect I have as good of a perspective and grounding in change in our society as anyone.

Kith and kin is still a phrase we recognize and believe we understand. It means friends and family, right? Um, not really. Kith originally was country, in the sense of land, the land where a people live, not political demarcations. Kin was kinfolk in the sense of the intertwining of of families through time in a logical, supportive way. Family these days shares little of that logical overlap and branching.

Family is based on genetic connection for the most part these days. My husband and I have a daughter who lives in central coastal California and one who lives in the Hudson Valley. I do not think we are all that atypical. People moved around a lot in the last two centuries in the U.S. There isn’t much kith connecting us. Logical supportive structures that can be called into action, if necessary, are difficult to activate beyond ceremonial interactions such as weddings or funerals. Family in a specific locality as a concept is disappearing.

I spent time last summer trying to capture the wispy ends of family story strings that were falling away from a traceable lineage. If nothing else, my family, as in my nuclear family, were focused on the who and where of generations back to the 1600s. There was no royalty to stay connected to, there were just people with stories worth preserving and learning from. That is what I gleaned.