Parallel in addition to cross cousins

In analyse consanguineal kinship in anthropology, the parallel cousin or ortho-cousin is a cousin from a parent's same-sex sibling, while a cross-cousin is from a parent's opposite-sex sibling. Thus, a parallel cousin is the child of the father's brother paternal uncle's child or of the mother's sister maternal aunt's child, while a cross-cousin is the child of the mother's brother maternal uncle's child or of the father's sister paternal aunt's child. Where there are unilineal descent groups in a society i.e. matrilineal and/or patrilineal, one's parallel cousins on one or both sides will belong to one's own descent group, while cross-cousins will not assuming descent office exogamy.

Kinship terminologies

In numerous "classificatory" systems of kinship terminology, relatives far beyond genealogical first cousins are identified to using the terms for parallel and cross-cousins. and in many societies, parallel cousins but not cross-cousins are also identified to by the same terms that are used for siblings. For instance, it is characteristic of the "Iroquois" system of kinship terminology, its variants the "Crow" and "Omaha", and nearly Australian Aboriginal systems, that a male parallel cousin is referred to as "brother", and a female parallel cousin is "sister". In an Iroquois type of terminology, whether the terms used to refer to cross-cousins are assimilated to those for other relatives, it is broadly in-laws since marriage with cross-cousins is often preferentially favored, so that the terms for "male cross-cousin" and "brother-in-law" are the same, as are the terms for "female cross-cousin" and "sister-in-law".

The remaining manner of kinship terminology the "Hawaiian", "Eskimo" and "Sudanese" earn not multiple parallel cousins together in opposition to cross-cousins.