ANTH 1001 Lecture 10: Lecture 10
24 Mar 2017
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Document Summary
Kinship systems and their role in social structure. Humans live in interdependent groups formed by practices of relatedness. Relatedness refers to the socially recognized ties that connect people to one another. Forms of relatedness are always embedded in, and shaped by, politics, economics, and world views. Based on social relationships of mating, birth, and nurturance. Believed to be based on shared substance and its transmission, either bodily (blood, genes, milk) or spiritual (soul, nurturance, love) Sexuality, conception, birth, and nurturance are selectively interpreted and shaped by cultural practices. Relationship between social complexity and status terms. Importance of ranking and relationships to society. Affinal kin (by marriage - separate terms or not) Blood and bodily substances are formed by eating food made at home. Those who live together gradually come to resemble one another, whether fostered or biological. The function of a social institution is the correspondence between it and the needs of the social organism.
