Ambivalence in Kinship since the 1940s

Peletz, Michael G.

doi:10.2307/j.ctv11cw885.20

Cited by 31 publications

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“…Yet rather than disappearing from anthropology, as had the study of primitive society, kinship was transformed. In kinship past, distinctively Western, bio‐essentialist conceptions of kinship dominated ethnographic studies of kinship; in kinship present, such conceptions had been replaced by the more encompassing notion of “relatedness” in the “new kinship studies” (Carsten ; Peletz ). Given the various negative associations that bio‐essentialist views had accumulated within cultural anthropology more generally, a rearticulation of kinship free of past bio‐essentialism was a welcome advance…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Informative characterizations of both Schneider's critique and the new direction in kinship studies can be found in novel, integrative research on kinship (Carsten ; Faubion ; Viveiros de Castro ); in area reviews (Levine ; Peletz , ; Scheffler ); in explicit reflections on Schneider's influence (Feinberg , ; Feinberg and Ottenheimer ; Kuper : ch.4; Wallace ); in self‐conscious locational work from researchers at the forefront of the redirection of the study of kinship (Bamford and Leach ; Collier and Yanagisako ; Franklin and McKinnon ); in critiques of ethnographic research conducted in the new kinship studies (Shapiro , , ); and in critical discussions of books in the field (Barnes ; Dousset ; Faubion ; Goody ; Miller ; Shapiro ).…”

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Kinship Past, Kinship Present: Bio-Essentialism in the Study of Kinship

Wilson

2016

American Anthropologist

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In this article, I reconsider bio-essentialism in the study of kinship, centering on David Schneider's influential critique that concluded that kinship was "a non-subject" (1972:51). Schneider's critique is often taken to have shown the limitations of and problems with past views of kinship based on biology, genealogy, and reproduction, a critique that subsequently led those reworking kinship as relatedness in the new kinship studies to view their enterprise as divorced from such bio-essentialist studies. Beginning with an alternative narrative connecting kinship past and present and concluding by introducing a novel way of thinking about kinship, I have three constituent aims in this research article: (1) to reconceptualize the relationship between kinship past and kinship present; (2) to reevaluate Schneider's critique of bio-essentialism and what this implies for the contemporary study of kinship; and (3) subsequently to redirect theoretical discussion of what kinship is. This concluding discussion introduces a general view, the homeostatic property cluster (HPC) view of kinds, into anthropology, providing a theoretical framework that facilitates realization of the often-touted desideratum of the integration of biological and social features of kinship.[bio-essentialism, kinship studies, homeostatic property cluster kinds, Schneider, genealogy] ABSTRAIT Cet article reconsidère le bio-essentialisme dans l'étude de la parenté, en mettant l'accent sur la critique influente de David Schneider soutenant que la parenté est un «non-sujet» (1972:51). La critique de Schneider est souvent considérée comme ayant démontré les limites des conceptions de la parenté fondées sur la biologie, la généalogie et la reproduction. Dans les nouvellesétudes de la parenté, cette critique a conduit ceux qui travaillent sur la parenté conç ue comme apparentementà présenter leur entreprise commeétant opposée auxétudes bio-essentialistes. Commenç ant avec un récit reliant parenté passée et présente et offrant une nouvelle faç on de penser la parenté, cet article a trois objectifs cardinaux: (1) redéfinir la relation entre la parenté passée et la parenté présente, (2) réévaluer la critique par Schneider du bio-essentialisme et ce qu'il implique pour l'étude contemporaine de la parenté, et (3) enfin réorienter la discussion théorique de ce qu'est la parenté. Cette discussion se termine par l'introduction en anthropologie d'un schème conceptuel -le groupement de propriétés homéostatiques (GPH) vue de catégories naturelles -fournissant un cadre théorique pour l'intégration tant recherchée des car- RESUMEN Este artículo reconsidera el esencialismo biológico (bio-esencialismo) en el estudio del parentesco, centrándose en la influyente crítica de David Schneider. A menudo se considera que la crítica de Schneider ha demostrado los problemas y las limitaciones de teorías del parentesco anteriores, basadas en la biología, la genealogía y la reproducción. Su crítica contribuyó a que aquellos que trabajaban el parentesco como afinidad ("...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Kinship Past, Kinship Present: Bio-Essentialism in the Study of Kinship

Wilson

2016

American Anthropologist

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“…Parenthood is also contested because birth mothers are not the only ones who can use speech and space to claim an infant. This competition for children creates multiple people as potential parents and multiple types of bonds as legitimate, revealing a source of people's ambivalence, something that Michael Peletz (:435) argues is central to kinship but undertheorized. Rather than simply being destructive, however, these tensions and ambivalences are also constructive: it is through their struggle to hold on that parents bind children to themselves.…”

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confidence: 99%

Holding On: Adoption, Kinship Tensions, and Pregnancy in the Marshall Islands

Berman

2014

American Anthropologist

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In the Marshall Islands, the idea that children belong to the kinship group as a whole exists in tension with an understanding of children as closely tied to their birth family. This tension is simultaneously created and overcome by linguistic and strategic practices in which adoptive and birth parents alike attempt to gain and keep children. Their efforts to "hold on" challenge recent trends in the anthropological study of kinship, specifically deconstructions of the importance of things-such as pregnancy-that appear biological. I argue that both criticisms and defenses of kinship as biology have overlooked how the physical process of reproduction creates interactional constraints on negotiations for children. These negotiations also create multiple potential parents as legitimate, thus producing the ambivalence and tensions that underlie Marshallese experiences of adoption. Rather than simply destructive, however, these tensions and ambivalences are also constructive-it is through their struggle to hold on that parents bind children to themselves. [adoption, kinship, possession, pregnancy, interaction, Marshall Islands] L .Ō MN . AK EO IN BEBA IN Ilo M .ā aer kajjioñ in dāpijir bwe er wōt ren bok kun . aer ajiri jiddik ro. Jet ien, m . akūtkūt in lale ajiri ak ajej ajiri emaroñ bar kōm . m . an bok ikōtaan baam . le ko, einwōt ilo aer leto-letak kōn won eo lukkuun m . oolin nejin ajiri eo, ro m . oolin jinen ak jemen ke ak ro rekar kokaajiriri im karūttolok ajiri eo. Bok im inepata ko ikōtaan baam . le ko kake kokaajiriri im karūttolok ajiri eo ej juon katak eo ekāāl an Anthropology ro -ke biology im bōro . ro reaurōk im rejjab maroñ bar aurōk. Rebōd ilo aer jab mel . el . e ke ilo tōre eo juon ajiri ej l . otak, rej bar kwal . o . k kakien im mālimñan kōnono ko.Ñe armej ro rekōn . aan bōk ajiri jiddik ro rej aikuj ba naan ko me rejim . we. Akō jet ien rūtto ro me rekōn . aan kokaajiririki rejjab maroñ ba naan kein. Pepe ko l .ō mn . aki bwe emaroñ jabrewōt emaroñ kokaajiririki ajiri eo ekōm . m . an bwe en bar einwōt wōr bok im kota kōn won eo enaj kokaajiriri ajiri eo. Bōtaab bok kein rejjab nana wōt bwe rej kajjioñ in dāpij ajiri eo bwe bok in ej bwe rūtto ro rej kōm . m . an bwe ren lukkuun einwōt nejier. [Kaajiriri, nukwi, m . weiuk, bōro . ro, bwebwenato, M .ā jel] RESUMEN En las Islas Marshall, la idea que los niños pertenecen al grupo de parentesco en su conjunto existe en tensión con un entendimiento que los niños están estrechamente unidos a su familia de nacimiento. Esta tensión es simultáneamente creada y superada a través de prácticas lingüísticas y estratégicas en las cuales padres adoptivos y biológicos por igual intentan ganar y retener los hijos. Sus esfuerzos de "retener" retan recientes tendencias en el estudio antropológico del parentesco, especialmente deconstrucciones de la importancia de las cosas-tales como embarazo-que parecen biológicas. Argumento que tanto criticismos como defensas del parentesco como

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“…The account offered in this article builds on efforts to foreground the inherent place of limits, disconnections, exclusions, difference, and ambivalence within kinship (Carsten 2013; Das 2018; McKinnon 2017; Peletz 2001; Stasch 2009). Such emphasis is in the wake of the ‘new’ kinship studies, which gives analytical primacy to practices and experiences of various forms of relatedness (Carsten 2000; 2004).…”

Section: Introduction: Cousinship and The Difficulties Of Kinship Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

Siblingship beyond siblings? Cousins and the shadows of social mobility in the central Philippines

Cruz

2020

Royal Anthropological Inst

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This article examines cousinship as a border zone that encompasses distance and intimacy, sameness and difference, and which mediates and is mediated by other kinship ties. It investigates how cousinship may bear traces of discord afflicting preceding generations; how it may further or augment them, or allow their repair; and how it is shaped by multiple and contending ideals. It does so in the context of social mobility in post-1945 central Philippines. Integrating 'old' and 'new' kinship studies, it analyses cousinship beyond consanguineous marriages; revisits the paradigm of siblingship that has dominated the anthropology of kinship in Southeast Asia; and attends to how inequalities and enmities arise, and are absorbed, within kinship.

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Ambivalence in Kinship since the 1940s

Cited by 31 publications

References 0 publications

Kinship Past, Kinship Present: Bio-Essentialism in the Study of Kinship

Kinship Past, Kinship Present: Bio-Essentialism in the Study of Kinship

Holding On: Adoption, Kinship Tensions, and Pregnancy in the Marshall Islands

Siblingship beyond siblings? Cousins and the shadows of social mobility in the central Philippines

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