A sibling-in-law is the
spouse
A spouse is a significant other in a marriage. In certain contexts, it can also apply to a civil union or common-law marriage. Although a spouse is a form of significant other, the latter term also includes non-marital partners who play a soci ...
of one's
sibling, or the sibling of one's spouse, or the person who is married to the sibling of one's spouse.
[Cambridge Dictionaries Online.]
Family: non-blood relations
.
More commonly, a sibling-in-law is referred to as a brother-in-law for a male sibling-in-law, and a sister-in-law for a female one.
Sibling-in-law also refers to the reciprocal relationship between a person's spouse and their sibling's spouse. In
Indian English
Indian English (IE) is a group of English dialects spoken in the republic of India and among the Indian diaspora. English is used by the Indian government for communication, along with Hindi, as enshrined in the Constitution of India. ...
this can be referred to as a co-sibling (specifically a co-sister, for the wife of one's sibling-in-law,
or co-brother, for the husband of one's sibling-in-law
).
Relationships
Siblings-in-law are related by a type of
kinship
In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...
called ''
affinity'' like all in-law relationships. All of these are relations which do not relate to the person directly by blood.
Just like the children of one's siblings, the children of one's siblings-in-law are called simply
''nieces'' and ''nephews'' – if necessary, specified whether "by marriage", as opposed to "
by blood" or "by adoption".
If one pair of siblings is married to another pair of siblings, the siblings-in-law are thus doubly related, each of the four both through one's spouse and through one's sibling, while the children of the two couples are
double cousins
Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, ...
.
Culture
One study, examining the issue of envy in the triadic system of sibling, sibling-in-law and spouse, concluded that "The sibling-in-law relationship shared similarities with both
spousal and
sibling relationships" and that "Relational closeness and satisfaction for all relationships in the triad were correlated."
In
Islamic law
Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the ...
(Sharia) and
Jewish law
''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical comman ...
(''halakha''), sexual relations between siblings-in-law are prohibited as incestuous, unless the spouse is no longer married. Conversely, in Judaism there was the custom of
yibbum
Yibbum (, Hebrew: ייבום) is the form of levirate marriage found in Judaism. As specified by , the brother of a man who died without children is permitted and encouraged to marry the widow. However, if either of the parties refuses to go throu ...
, whereby a man had a non-obligatory duty to wed his deceased brother's childless widow, so she might have progeny by him.
Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy ( grc, Δευτερονόμιον, Deuteronómion, second law) is the fifth and last book of the Torah (in Judaism), where it is called (Hebrew: hbo, , Dəḇārīm, hewords Moses.html"_;"title="f_Moses">f_Moseslabel=none)_and_th ...
25:5–10.
See also
*
Nephew and niece
In the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a niece or nephew is a child of the subject's sibling or sibling-in-law. The converse relationship, the relationship from the niece or nephew's perspective, is that of a ...
*
Cousins-in-law
*
Affinity (law)
In law and in cultural anthropology, affinity is the kinship relationship created or that exists between two people as a result of someone's marriage. It is the relationship which each party to a marriage has to the relations of the other part ...
References
{{Family
Affinity (law)
Kinship and descent
Law