In the Ealdremen system, the term kith is used for close relationships typically of non-romantic natures without biological or legal ties that constitute a familial relation. In common parlance, such relationships may be "chosen family," but cultural applicability of who is and is not "kith" can vary. As an example, in cultures with great focus on business relationships, an individual's kith might include close business partners for a certain number of years or colleagues instrumental to that individual's career, while other cultures might instead describe something similar to kith as people with something close to a familial bond. Generally speaking, when listing an individual's kith, they are listed from the perspective of the individual, not the writer or speaker, though the cultural sensitivity of the term kith can result in omissions in documents or records that have incomplete pictures of a subject's cultural norms or inner life.