Kinship Studies: Some Impressions of the Current State of Play
Author(s)
Barnes, John Arundel
Abstract
Although kinship was formerly a central category of anthropological analysis, since 1950 it has less often been the focus of study and its analytic utility has been challenged. Kinship terminology has become a sophisticated area of specialisation; relations between kin have been studied in a cultural rather than a social framework. Sociology and social anthropology have converged in their studies of law, religion, politics and economics but have shunned each other in kinship studies, party because of the relatively undeveloped state of Marxist analyses. The revival of sociobiology has prompted anthropologists to waver from an exclusive preoccupation with culture, if only to preserve their stake in the social arena. The study of symbolic structures has been intellectually rewarding but the time has come to resume what Levi-Strauss postponed, the study of events, a task for which sophisticated mathematical tools are ready for adaption.
