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A growing body of research has documented the existence of extensive kin networks within African American communities (Aschenbrenner, 1973; Hill, 1972; Marin and Martin; 1978; McAdoo, 1980; Stack, 1974) and the importance of these networks as sources of informal social support(Taylor, 1988; Hatchett, Corcoran, and Jackson, 1991; Taylor and Chatters, 1991; Stack, 1974). Ethnographic research reveals that fictive kin relationships are an integral component of these networks (Anderson 1976; Aschenbrenner, 1975; Kennedy, 1980; Martin and Martin, 1978; Stack, 1974; Tatum, 1987), and indeed, extending kinship status to friend relationships is a means to expand one's social network. Persons who are designated as fictive (or pseudo-and para-) kin are unrelated by either blood or marriage, but regard one another in kinship terms (Sussman, 1976) and employ a standard cultural typology (i.e., likened to blood-ties, sociolegal or marriage ties, and parenthood) to describe these non-kin associations (Rubenstein et al., 1991). Many of the rights and statuses usually associated with kinship are accorded to participants in these relationships. As a consequence, friendships which are regarded in kinship terms undergo an intensification of the bonds of mutual obligation in what normally would be a relatively informal and casual relationship (Aschenbrenner, 1975; Stack, 1974). With the designation of fictive kin status comes both respect and responsibility and fictive kin are expected to participate in the duties of the extended family. Despite the importance of fictive kin ties in the maintenance and functioning of the extended family networks of African Americans, little is known about fictive kin generally and quantitative evidence as to the general pervasiveness of these ties is lacking.
HISTORICAL EVIDENCE OF FICTIVE KINSHIP TIES AMONG BLACK AMERICANS
Guttman (1976) provides one of the most indepth historical examinations of fictive kinship relations among black families. He notes that there is considerable evidence that the practice of establishing fictive kinship ties and status among African Americans pre-dates the period of slavery. Persons from various West African cultures viewed kinship as the normal idiom of social relations (Patterson, 1967; Guttman, 1976). During transport to the Americas on slave ships(Patterson, 1967) and later on plantations (Guttman, 1976), parents and other adults taught children to address older persons who were unrelated to them by either blood or marriage by the title "Aunt" or...