The basis of the Kerek society was a large matriarchal family. It was divided into small families for the summer. Fish stocks and fishing tools were considered common property. The eldest woman was in charge of all economic, family and social affairs. Kinship was based on the maternal line. There were exogamous associations; the Kereks of Navarino took wives from the group of Opukin Kereks marriages with other peoples were not encouraged. Sometimes women were forcibly taken by Chukchi reindeer herders, which is why the Meynypilginsky Chukchi trace their descent from the Kereks. With the settlement of the Chukchi on the seashore, marriages of the Kereks with them became more frequent. The disintegration of the large family among the Kereks began in the 19th century due to the decline of sea fishing and the transition from collective to individual hunting.
The Kerek believed that the children born were their ancestors who had returned to them. Mothers regarded their daughters as mothers or grandmothers and their sons as fathers or maternal grandfathers. Children were given the names of their ancestors and were surrounded by things that the ancestor had liked during his or her lifetime. When a child was born dead, they said ‘passed away’, meaning an ancestor who did not want to return to his relatives. The Kereks took great care of children - they did not deny them anything, satisfied any wish. There was even an institution of subordinating elders to their children as their ancestors, who must not be crossed.
‘In all Kerek tales, all the younger children turn out to be smarter than their mothers and fathers and even instruct them. Thus, the fox Jayuchanankkut, before going anywhere, asks her daughter Imynna for permission, and Imynna, in turn, scolds her mother for deceit and mischief. Kukki's youngest son Auppali, a raven-haired boy, guesses before anyone else that the fox is being sly’, writes V. Leontiev in an article on the folklore of the Kereks.
Earlier, the writer A.A. Resin, in his sketches about foreigners, noted that women played a great role in the life of ‘Chukmareys’ (as he called the Kereks): ‘Women in this people have a noticeably greater importance than in others: they manage the entire household, take a great part in trade and seem to be more developed than men...’. A grandmother or wife managed not only products, but also preceded any deed of men with advice, could authorise or forbid to do something.
