Anthropology 383 - Kinship

Institution:

Reed College

Subject:

Description:

Full course for one semester. This course surveys the study of kinship in anthropology, with special attention to the contributions of this study to anthropological theories of culture and society. The cross-cultural analysis of systems of kinship is one of the most distinctive areas of inquiry in anthropology. In its heyday, kinship was defined as a universal feature of so-called primitive societies, and the basis for social structure. In recent years, as anthropologists' theoretical perspectives have changed, scholars have questioned whether the recognition of genealogical relations is necessarily universal, or whether kinship is only a function of local cultural ideas about the body, gender and personhood. More recently, scholars have revisited kinship as a topic of study in the interest of exploring new forms of human life and experience engendered by cultural change, globalization, and new reproductive technologies. In this course, we will examine theories of kinship as social structure, theories that argue that kinship is a cultural phenomenon, and those that argue that kin relations are formed through their enactment in performance and practice. We will be guided in this survey by the question of what the study of kinship tells us about the nature of social relationships themselves. In particular, we will discuss the descent-alliance controversy, marriage systems, semantic analysis of kin terminology, the cultural critique of kinship, its feminist reinterpretation, and the recent revival of kinship studies. Prerequisite Anthropology 211. Conference. Not offered 2009-10.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.reed.edu

Phone Number:

(503) 771-1112

Regional Accreditation:

Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities

Calendar System:

Semester

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