Kinship in Action: Self and Group

For courses in Social Organization, Kinship, and Cultural Ecology.

Kinship has made a come-back in Anthropology. Not only is there a line of noted, general, introductory works and readers in the topic, but theoretical discussions have been stimulated both by technological changes in mechanisms of reproduction and by reconsiderations of how to define kinship in the most productive ways for cross-cultural comparisons.

In addition, kinship studies have moved away from the minutiae of kin terminological systems and the “kinship algebra” often associated with these, to the broader analysis of processes, historical changes and fundamental cultural meanings in which kin relationships are implicated. In this changed, and changing context both Andrew Strathern and Pamela J. Stewart -- both of the University of Pittsburgh -- bring together a number of interests and concerns, in order to provide pointers for students, as well as scholars, in this field of study.

Taking an explicitly processual approach, the authors examine definitions of terms such as kinship itself, approach the topic in a way that is invariably ethnographic, and deploy materials from field areas where they themselves have worked.

For courses in Social Organization, Kinship, and Cultural Ecology.

Kinship has made a come-back in Anthropology. Not only is there a line of noted, general, introductory works and readers in the topic, but theoretical discussions have been stimulated both by technological changes in mechanisms of reproduction and by reconsiderations of how to define kinship in the most productive ways for cross-cultural comparisons.

In addition, kinship studies have moved away from the minutiae of kin terminological systems and the “kinship algebra” often associated with these, to the broader analysis of processes, historical changes and fundamental cultural meanings in which kin relationships are implicated. In this changed, and changing context both Andrew Strathern and Pamela J. Stewart -- both of the University of Pittsburgh -- bring together a number of interests and concerns, in order to provide pointers for students, as well as scholars, in this field of study.

Taking an explicitly processual approach, the authors examine definitions of terms such as kinship itself, approach the topic in a way that is invariably ethnographic, and deploy materials from field areas where they themselves have worked.

Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew Strathern are a wife and husband research team with a long history of joint publications and research.

They are based in the Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh and are also Visiting Research Fellow and Visiting Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Durham; Visiting Research Fellows in the Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies, University of Aberdeen; and have been Visiting Research Fellows, at the Institute of Ethnology, Academic Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan over many years.

They have published many books and articles on their research in the Pacific region, especially in Papua New Guinea; and in Europe (primarily Scotland and Ireland); and in Asia (mainly in Taiwan and China).

They are the editors of the Ritual Studies Book Series, and the Medical Anthropology Book Series with Carolina Academic Press and the Anthropology and Cultural History in Asia and the Indo-Pacific with Ashgate Publishing.

They are also the long-standing Co-Editors of the Journal of Ritual Studies. Their coauthored books include: Witchcraft, Sorcery, Rumors and Gossip (Cambridge University Press, 2004); and Empowering the Past, Confronting the Future (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004).

Their co-edited books include: Asian Ritual Systems: Syncretisms and Ruptures (Carolina Academic Press, 2007); Exchange and Sacrifice (Carolina Academic Press, 2008); Religious and Ritual Change (Carolina Academic Press, 2009); and Ritual (Ashgate Publishing, forthcoming, 2010).

A list of their recent writings can be found at (http://www.pitt.edu/~strather/sandspublicat.htm).