ANTH 202 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Anal Sex, Egg Donation, Sperm Donation

• School: McGill University
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTH 202
• Professor: Eduardo Kohn

Document Summary

Biological kinship: descent trees of a population, genetics. Cultural kinship: does(cid:374)"t full(cid:455) (cid:373)ap o(cid:374)to (cid:271)iolog(cid:455) (cid:271)ut does i(cid:373)pli(cid:272)ate (cid:272)o(cid:374)sa(cid:374)gui(cid:374)it(cid:455) a(cid:374)d affi(cid:374)it(cid:455) Natural kinship is nature, the genetic differences between individuals. A culture kinship sort of maps that, (cid:271)ut it is(cid:374)"t e(cid:454)a(cid:272)tl(cid:455) (cid:271)iologi(cid:272)al. I(cid:374) (cid:373)a(cid:374)(cid:455) so(cid:272)ieties arou(cid:374)d the (cid:449)orld, it is a(cid:272)(cid:272)epta(cid:271)le to (cid:373)arr(cid:455) (cid:272)ousi(cid:374)s. However, many societies in which this is acceptable, you should only marry a cross-(cid:272)ousi(cid:374) (cid:894)i. e. pare(cid:374)t"s opposite se(cid:454) si(cid:271)li(cid:374)g: (cid:373)other"s (cid:271)rother or father"s sister(cid:895). It does (cid:374)ot (cid:373)ap o(cid:374) to genetics; there is no difference, yet there are these rules in societies. Culture of kinship we think of kinship as natural i. e. genetically-based. In general, we tend to think that the kin terms we use should map onto biology. Father is the one who made the baby, mother is the one who gave birth, etc. According to thompson, traditional disruptions preserve this idea.