Cultures of Relatedness: New Approaches to the Study of Kinship

by Janet Carsten

Overview

Our understanding of what makes a person a relative has been transformed by radical changes in marriage arrangements and gender relations, and by new reproductive technologies. We can no longer take it for granted that our most fundamental social relationships are grounded in "biology" or "nature." Examining the idioms of relatedness in other societies, and ways in which relationship is symbolized and interpreted in our own society, this book challenges established analytic categories of anthropology, and brings into question the received wisdom at the heart of the study of kinship.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521656276
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/09/2000
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	228
Product dimensions:	6.02(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.59(d)

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; List of contributors; Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction: cultures of relatedness Janet Carsten; 2. Chinese patriliny and the cycles of yang and laiwang Charles Stafford; 3. Identity and substance: the broadening bases of relatedness among the Nuer of southern Sudan Sharon Elaine Hutchinson; 4. Sentiment and substance in North Indian forms of relatedness Helen Lambert; 5. Kindreds and descent groups: new perspectives from Madagascar Rita Astuti; 6. How Karembola men become mothers Karen Middleton; 7. 'He used to be my relative': exploring the bases of relatedness among Iñupiat of northern Alaska Barbara Bodenhorn; 8. Including our own Jeanette Edwards and Marilyn Strathern; 9. Figures of relations: reconnecting kinship studies and museum collections Mary Bouquet; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

'In Cultures of Relatedness, kinship study takes flight once again, soars to new heights, and offers us fresh perspectives on a topic that has long been integral to anthropology.' Ethnos

From the Publisher