ANTH 195 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Freeze-Drying, Consanguinity, Trobriand Islands
Document Summary
Kinship system- a form of social organization based on mating, birth, and nurturance. Ethnology- a comparative study of ethnographic data from different cultures. Universal (found in all cultures: long period of infant dependency, year-round sexuality, family living and food sharing. Generality (found in many but not all cultures: nuclear family- common in us, western europe, and hunter-gathering societies (ju/wasi) absent among nayars of india. Particularity (a distinctive cultural trait or pattern: betsileo of madagascar prefer lavish funerals (may draw 1000 people, while americans prefer expensive weddings (avg. ,000: sweden freeze-drying the deceased and planting trees over them. Anthropologist use kinship as a tool to figure out relationships: genealogy- trace oldest ancestors; rely on info available, kinship chart- focuses on one individual and their memory. Kinship: descent- brought into the family; consanguineal blood kin and adopted kin, marriage- adding people on horizontally in addition to siblings; affinal kin.
