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1002:2022:5.2 [2022/08/25 16:33] – [Why did early anthropologists ignore all these exceptions?] Ryan Schram (admin)1002:2022:5.2 [2022/08/30 15:50] (current) – [Late edition brain candy: Are your memories an out-of-body experience?] Ryan Schram (admin)
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 **Other reading:** Carsten (1995) **Other reading:** Carsten (1995)
  
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 +===== A final note from Monday’s lecture =====
 +
 +==== What’s the difference between kinship and descent? Are members of other unilineal descent groups still your kin? ====
 +
 +This is an excellent question, because it’s really asking what we should call the topic of this module, Module II.
 +
 +Family, ancestors, relatives, buʻuna, susu, etc., etc…. What are we talking about?
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 +Historically, anthropologists have used the term **kinship** as a replacement for all the other vague terms people use. They also break this down as
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 +  * **Consanguineous** kin (relatives through parents).
 +    * **Kinship** in general, i.e. the socially-recognized ties to other people through one’s parents.
 +    * **Descent** specifically, a principle that determines membership in a larger group or category of people, e.g. Nuer lineages.
 +  * **Affinal** kin (relatives through marriage, or what English speakers call in-laws, e.g. father-in-law).
 +
 +==== Kinship’s weak link is the proliferation of technical terms ====
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 +Just because we have specialized, precise terms for people’s relationships doesn’t mean that we understand them better.
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 +We’ve just [[:emic_and_etic|applied a name]] to them.
  
  
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 ===== A lingering bias ===== ===== A lingering bias =====
  
-Kinship is purely social system of categories, and need not have any connection to biology and reproduction. So what’s with all this talk of marriage, parents, children?+Kinship is a purely social system of categories, and need not have any connection to biology and reproduction. So what’s with all this talk of marriage, parents, children?
  
   * Do people have to form heterosexual, opposite-sex marriages in order for people to have kinship classifications?   * Do people have to form heterosexual, opposite-sex marriages in order for people to have kinship classifications?
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   - by studying people’s genealogical connections and the categories that they used to divide them up, they thought they could examine a society objectively and arrive at scientific explanations for many common forms of kinship, like the cross–parallel distinction and the prohibition on incest.   - by studying people’s genealogical connections and the categories that they used to divide them up, they thought they could examine a society objectively and arrive at scientific explanations for many common forms of kinship, like the cross–parallel distinction and the prohibition on incest.
  
-Making kinship diagrams is very much in this spirit.+Making kinship diagrams is very much in this scientific spirit.
  
   * By boiling down masses of information to lines and shapes, we can reveal a lot that is obscure, **but**   * By boiling down masses of information to lines and shapes, we can reveal a lot that is obscure, **but**
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   * Furthermore, all of the acts that create kinship are also mutual. They take place in a sphere of exchange of care. Acts of kinship are also services for others: feeding, nursing, adopting, granting permission to garden, or even just explicit recognition of someone as a member.   * Furthermore, all of the acts that create kinship are also mutual. They take place in a sphere of exchange of care. Acts of kinship are also services for others: feeding, nursing, adopting, granting permission to garden, or even just explicit recognition of someone as a member.
     * Kinship is not just an act, it is an act of “nourishment,” or perhaps nurture in a fuller sense (Carsten 1995, 225, 234).     * Kinship is not just an act, it is an act of “nourishment,” or perhaps nurture in a fuller sense (Carsten 1995, 225, 234).
 +
 +==== Late edition brain candy: Are your memories an out-of-body experience? ====
 +
 +When we remember, we can see ourselves as others see us. Do we see what they also ascribe to us? Or, do we see only what we think we are? 
 +
 +Stern, Jacob. 2022. “You’ve Probably Seen Yourself in Your Memories.” //The Atlantic//, August 29, 2022. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/08/memories-third-person-perspective-psychology/671281/.
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 ===== References and further reading ===== ===== References and further reading =====
1002/2022/5.2.1661470394.txt.gz · Last modified: 2022/08/25 16:33 by Ryan Schram (admin)