Kinship

Parkin (1977) - ‘An introduction to the basics’

• All human societies have kinship and in many it is the sole structuring factor

• Anthropological truth is whatever people believe in a particular society - kinship can become a matter of social belief

• Anthropologists routinely use western notions of kinship in indigenous contexts to make them more understandable to readers - this is a product of the colonial attitude the western view is the correct,rational, scientific one

• Social groups are often defined through common residence, property, social action

Ragone (1994) - ‘Surrogate motherhood and american kinship’

• Despite reproductive technology american kinship ideology remains largely unchanged

• Preference for biological children - IVF, DI and surrogacy are favoured over adoption as the child is genetically related to at least one parent

• When only one parent is related it creates an imbalance - the fathers relationship to the surrogate must be de-emphasised

• Surrogacy, IVF and DI are attempts to achieve a traditional and acceptable end consistent with american american kinship ideology

Vilaca (2002) - ‘Making kin out of others in Amazonia’

• Wari’ people live in west Amazonia (Brazil)

• Procreation is no assurance of kinship - the man who accepts social responsibility and adheres to the Couvade restrictions is the child’s father such as abstaining from consuming certain foods - of this is breaches the child is believed to be turning into this animal as it attempts to take it as its kin

• Wari’ tend to classify spatially close cohabitants as their kin - genetic kin in other villages may be excluded

• blood relations are not important in defining kin

Stone (2004) - 'has the world turned’

• All examples taken from the soap opera ‘one life to live’

• Kinship is writ large in soap operas allowing us to understand the core aspects of american kinship ideology

• David Schneider identifies ‘order of nature’ (blood relatives) and ‘order of law (modified by humans e.g in-laws)

• The bio genetic conception of kinship is peculiar to euro-american culture

• Many characters embark on quests to find their true relatives while others denounce blood relatives (kinship appears negotiable)

• The nuclear family is rare - increase in single parents or blended families - family is more open and fluid and choice based than biology

• Soaps have demonstrated the breakdown and reconstruction of traditional ideas of family

Leach (1996) - ‘Virgin birth’

• Australian aboriginal communities are not ignorant to facts of paternity, their dogmas are just different to ours - the idea is an evolutionist doctrine that argues it must have occurred in earlier communities

• Ignorance is a term of abuse that attributes nativeness to childishness

• There is a need to believe that a cultures dogma/ritual most correspond to inner psychological attitudes - this isn’t true - e.g many UK girls have CofE weddings but tells us nothing of the woman’s psychological state

• Dogmas of indigenous are no different to dogmas of the west such as virgin birth - it is time to abandon the distinction between the stupidity of savages and the theology of civilised men