Overview
This classic text, originally published in 1991 and now revised and updated to include a new preface, draws upon fieldwork and interviews to explore the ways gay men and lesbians are constructing their own notions of kinship by drawing on the symbolism of love, friendship, and biology.
Winner of a Ruth Benedict Prize in Anthropology
Editorials
Women's Review of Books
Graceful. . . . Valuable for the ways it demonstrates that, like race, gender and sexual identity, the meaning of kinship is culturally relative—and susceptible to change.Booknews
Weston draws upon fieldwork and interviews conducted in the San Francisco Bay area to explore the ways gay men and lesbians are constructing their own notions of kinship by drawing on the symbolism of love, friendship, and biology. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)The Women's Review of Books
Graceful.... Valuable for the ways it demonstrates that, like race, gender and sexual identity, the meaning of kinship is culturally relative--and susceptible to change.
Contemporary Sociology
The first to analyze the historical conditions, social meaning, and political implications of lesbians and gays' appropriating the language of kinship...A fine book.
SIGNS: Journal of Women in Culture and Society
Represents a new direction in lesbian and gay studies and in the anthropology of American culture.
American Journal of Sociology
Weighs in as an important contribution to current debates about family and family values.