American kinship calculation and kin terminology reflect these social features.Bilateral kinship means that people tend to perceive kin links through males and females as being similar or equivalent.Also, even with intact mar-riages, the wife tends to play a more active role in managing family affairs, including family vis-its, reunions, holidays, and extended family rela-tions, than the husband does.We do this because American kinship calculation is bilateral- traced equally through males and females, for example, father and mother.Thus, the term uncle distinguishes between the kin types MB and FB on the one hand and the kin type F on the other.We'd actually expect a bit of matrilat-eral skewing a preference for relatives on the mother's side.However, this term also lumps kin types together.