- published: 01 Feb 2013
- views: 19430
In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of most humans in most societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox states that "the study of kinship is the study of what man does with these basic facts of life – mating, gestation, parenthood, socialization, siblingship etc." Human society is unique, he argues, in that we are "working with the same raw material as exists in the animal world, but [we] can conceptualize and categorize it to serve social ends." These social ends include the socialization of children and the formation of basic economic, political and religious groups.
Kinship can refer both to the patterns of social relationships themselves, or it can refer to the study of the patterns of social relationships in one or more human cultures (i.e. kinship studies). Over its history, anthropology has developed a number of related concepts and terms in the study of kinship, such as descent, descent group, lineage, affinity/affine, consanguinity/cognate and fictive kinship. Further, even within these two broad usages of the term, there are different theoretical approaches.
Learn more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kinship structures.
Colin Jones, lecturer in Aboriginal History, talks about his culture, his history and his art.
A preview of the concept of "kinship" as used by anthropologists. Important terms and concepts covered include genealogy; ego; avuncular; cross-cousin; parallel-cousin. Correction: at 10:33, I accidentally said that in the Trobriand Islands the best marriage partner is the parallel-cousin--I should have said "cross-cousin". For more kinship info, see: http://anthro.palomar.edu/kinship/def... http://www.ausanthrop.net/research/ki... About me: I'm Nick Herriman, author of The Entangled State and Witch-hunt and Conspiracy. In the "25 Concepts in Anthropology" series, I preview what I think are the 25 most important concepts in socio-cultural anthropology. Each concept provides a unique insight into what it is to be human. I am also the 'Audible Anthropologist' on iTunesU.
Paper-III Social And Cultural Anthropology
Kin relationships: Identification and classification. By James R. Carey, professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis. Among his many research interests, he is an authority on aging and longevity.
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