Kinship Theory in Archaeology: From Critiques to the Study of Transformations

Abstract

<jats:p>Kinship theory is argued to be an important aspect of social dynamics in past societies. However, archaeological critiques of kinship have suggested that descent and residence models are ideological constructs not associated with socioeconomic behavior, that social anthropologists believe normative kinship rules are rarely practiced, and that the models are biased by Western assumptions of biological relatedness. These critiques ignore the past several decades of kinship research. A review of kinship theory demonstrates sophisticated holistic approaches to socioeconomic behavior and ideology that are not based on biological assumptions, and that historic and ongoing social disruptions and political economic transformations have significantly altered kinship behavior. Furthermore, empirical data demonstrate adherence to kinship rules prior to historic transformations. The fact that kinship changes is argued to be the source of confusion leading to the critiques in archaeological literature but is also argued to present an opportunity for archaeologists to explain social transformations in the deep past.</jats:p>

Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein (1930–2019)

“…For example, of great interest are the correlations between the dwelling floor sizes and postmarital residence patterns detected by Melvin Ember (1973; see also Peregrine and Ember 2002), and further replicated and refined by Divale (1977), Brown (1987), Peregrine (2001), and Porčić (2010). However, the most sophisticated methodology for the identification of the basic features of the kin and family organization of ancient populations on the basis of the archeological data on ancient dwellings' characteristics and their patterns has been developed in the recent years by Bradley Ensor (2003Ensor ( , 2011Ensor ( , 2012Ensor ( , 2013aEnsor ( , 2013bEnsor ( , 2017.…”

Messy Data, Ordered Questions

“…Households are linked to a broader political and cultural landscape through communities and require us to examine the nature of membership, the use of symbolism, and the reconciliation of contradictions in social relationships. As Bradley Ensor (2011) suggests, rethinking theories of kinship and tracking social change through how people define themselves in relation to kin would be one important step to addressing these questions. Yet solidarities can be built beyond the kin group.…”

Bioarchaeology and Kinship: Integrating Theory, Social Relatedness, and Biology in Ancient Family Research

“…Kinship remains an active area of research within all anthropological subdisciplines. In particular, Ensor (2011Ensor ( , 2013a has recently pushed to make kinship a focus within archaeological research. Bioarchaeology, too, has witnessed an amplification of published kinship studies that have grown increasingly dependent on diverse lines of evidence and engagement with sociocultural theory.…”

“…One advantage of this model is that the material correlates of the social group (social house) can be readily identified in the archaeological record (e.g., the material remains of the physical house and objects that symbolize the house), thus facilitating considerations of kinship and relatedness in prehistory (Gillespie 2000a;Joyce 2000;Marshall 2000;cf. Carleton et al 2013;Ensor 2011Ensor , 2013a. House society approaches to kinship have been used to explore small-scale, kin-based social organization within a variety of archaeological and ethnographic contexts (e.g., Carsten 1997;Carsten and Hugh-Jones 1995;Joyce and Gillespie 2000;McKinnon 1991).…”

“…Our approach to kinship diverges from recent archaeological efforts to revitalize the investigation of kinship in past societies (Ensor 2011(Ensor , 2013a and is a unique and timely contribution to anthropological discussions of relatedness. Finally, we highlight potentially fruitful directions for future research by identifying critical issues to be addressed in order to establish kinship and family as vibrant topics of inquiry within bioarchaeology.…”