An Anthropological Study of Kinship Interactions and Family Formation in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This anthropological study investigates the patterns of kinship interactions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia given the circumstances of modernisation affecting Saudi kinship, the impact of changing patterns of work, the growth in paid employment (especially on forms of kinship organisation and interaction) and how Saudis express the delay in family making and having children in light of modernisation. By conducting 10 interviews from different regions of the country with people aged 27–47, this anthropological study suggests that the modernisation of kinship in Saudi Arabia must be understood in light of the persistence of tribe and Islam in people’s lives even as they move to towns and cities, so that, despite people’s tendency in separate households, with separate jobs, in distant places, they remain members of a tribe and an extended family. It also discusses the complexity of work, timing and aspirations in future husband’s personality among women causes delays in marriage.