History & Society
kinship
Also known as: kin, kinsfolk
18th-century family register
Category:
History & Society
- Related Topics:
- consanguinity
- family
- kinship terminology
- godparent
- descent
kinship, system of social organization based on real or putative family ties. The modern study of kinship can be traced back to mid-19th-century interests in comparative legal institutions and philology. In the late 19th century, however, the cross-cultural comparison of kinship institutions became the particular province of anthropology. If the study of kinship was defined largely by anthropologists, it is equally true that anthropology as an academic discipline was itself defined by kinship. Until the last decades of the 20th century, for example, kinship was regarded as the core of British social anthropology, and no thorough ethnographic study could overlook ...(100 of 8985 words)