Abstract
This work reviews various papers focused on human kin recognition. First, it briefly describes
evolutionary reasons for kin recognition; then, it deals with issues regarding the terminology,
and it continues with the introduction of recognition mechanisms (phenotype matching,
recognition alleles, spatial distribution and association) and of modalities utilized for
recognition (visual, olfactory, acoustic, and tactile modalities). This work also discusses the
cultural aspects of kin recognition. Cultural aspects are often omitted by authors even though
they play an important role in human kin recognition. This works links the cultural aspects of
kin recognition with the biological ones.