Paper short abstract:

I explore how friendship and siblingship are intertwined with each other through interviews with 33 adult sibling pairs. I analyze friendship and siblingship through binary oppositions, and focus specifically on friendship as a form of siblingship.

Paper long abstract:

While anthropologists have a rich tradition of studying close relationships, such as marriage, parenthood and kinship, there is still a lack of knowledge about friendship. To fill this gap, I explored the intertwining and opposition of friendship and siblingship through in-depth interviews with 33 pairs of adult siblings, collected in Russia in 2016. I reveal ambiguous nature of siblingship and friendship, analyzing how research participants described their relationships with siblings and friends through binary oppositions such as ‘obligations – freedom’, ‘one’s own – alien’, ‘depth – shallow’, ‘always – now’, and ‘immutable – situational’. I consider how participants conceptualize sibling relationships in terms of nature, social norms, shared past, and friendship to illustrate the intertwining of friendship and siblingship. I focus specifically on friendship as a form of siblingship and draw attention to two different perspectives on friendship. When siblings have close connections, these bonds can bring together the positive aspects of kinship and friendship, creating unique relationships. However, when sibling relationships are strained, kinship ties can become a container for relationships that are often perceived as forced. While these relationships continue to be called “friendship” by research participants, the meaning of friendship is changed.