Author Description

This book is an introduction to the social anthropology of kinship - to the ways in which the peoples of different cultures marry and relate to one another within and outside the family, and to the means by which one generation relates to those that come before and after it. It is addressed in particular to students of anthropology, but is also intended as a one-volume guide to those, such as social historians and geographers, who find it necessary to understand patterns of kinship in different places and at different times. The book is divided into two parts. It opens with a discussion of what kinship means to the social anthropologist as distinct from the biologist, and considers the different possible approaches to the subject within social anthropology itself. The following chapters cover topics such as descent, inheritance, succession, the family, residence, marriage, kinship terminology, systems and pseudo-systems of affinal alliance, the new reproductive technologies, and symbolic approaches to kinship. In Part II four chapters provide an overview of theoretical debates concerning aspects of kinship, and consider, for example, how recent work on gender, person, and the body have challenged and modified earlier assumptions about, for example, descent, succession, and familial alliances. The book applies and illustrates these concepts and topics to a number of contrasting case studies. These illustrate the insights that can be achieved from the study of kinship, and also show that the complexity of even the most familiar kinship patterns rarely lends itself to simple description. The author also includes annotated guides to further reading.