fictives

Fictives, in some scholarly contexts, refer to individuals who are treated as kin within a social network despite lacking biological or legal kinship. The concept highlights how family ties can be formed through social roles, obligations, and mutual care beyond blood or marriage.

The term derives from fictive, meaning invented; fictive kinship describes relationships that resemble family ties. The phrase has been used since the early 20th century in anthropology to analyze how communities build support systems and alliances.

Functions of fictives include providing care, sharing resources, and reinforcing social norms. Fictive kin can offer emotional support, mentorship, and protection, and may participate in rites of passage, caregiving, and collective decision-making in the absence of blood ties.

Cross-cultural examples include godparents and godchildren in Christian communities, adoptive or chosen families in modern societies, and close friends treated as uncles, aunts, or siblings in immigrant or diasporic communities. The status of fictives can be publicly recognized in rituals and everyday speech, but legal rights and duties vary by jurisdiction.

Scholarly work on fictives studies how social networks compensate for gaps in biological kinship, how lineage and obligation are constructed, and how migration and displacement affect kin terms and care networks.

See also: kinship, fictive kin, godparent, adoptive family, social role.