E-Book Overview
Announcements in the 1970s and 1980s of the death of kinship and descent as subjects of anthropological study were highly premature. These subjects continue routinely to be encountered in the course of empirical ethnographic research and to be reported upon in ethnographies – or they are ignored at the peril of ethnographers pathetically unprepared to deal with them. Moreover, considerable evidence has accumulated that systems of social relations built on relations of genealogical connection exhibit a remarkable degree of orderliness about which it is possible already to make a number of substantial empirical generalizations, especially about the qualities of social relations within and between groups. As the masters of the subject always stressed, kinship and political and jural organization are closely interdependent structures. In this wide-ranging theoretical and comparative-ethnographic study, Harold Scheffler demonstrates that there is a simple reason why detection of this order has been too long delayed and has given rise to more destructive than to constructive debate in social anthropology.
E-Book Content
FILIATION AND AFFILIATION
This page intentionally left blank
FILIATION AND AFFILIATION Harold W. Scheffler Yale University
Westview A Member of the Perseus Books Group
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © 2001 by Westview Press, A Member of the Perseus Books Group Published in 2001 in the United States of America by Westview Press, 5500 Central Avenue, Boulder, Colorado 80301-2877, and in the United Kingdom by Westview Press, 12 Hid's Copse Road, Cumnor Hill, Oxford OX2 9JJ Visit us on the World Wide Web at www.westviewpress.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Scheffler, Harold W. Filiation and affiliation / Harold W. Scheffler. p, cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. IBN 0-8133-3761-5 1. Kinship. 2. Kin recognition. 3. Matrilineal kinship. 4. Patrilineal kinship. 5. Affiliation (Philosophy). I. Title. GN487.S34 2000 306.83—dc21
00-043788
The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1984,
1 0 9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
CONTENTS List of Illustrations Introduction
vii ix
PART ONE: GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 1 Kinship and Descent
3
2 Descent Groups
21
3 Jural Structures I
36
4 Jural Structures II
48
PART Two: SPECIFIC INSTANCES 5 Patrifiliation Necessary and Sufficient
69
6 Patrifiliation Necessary but Not Sufficient
106
7 Patrifiliation Sufficient but Not Necessary I
120
8 Patrifiliation Sufficient but Not Necessary II
132
9 Joint-Family Systems
160
10 Cognatic Descent Groups?
169
References Index
181
198
v
This page intentionally left blank
ILLUSTRATIONS TABLES 2.1 Implications of rules of filiation and affiliation 7,1 Yakö group nomenclature
27 123
FIGURES 5.1 Territorial segmentation, Nuer
75
5.2 Descent group segmentation, Nuer
76
5.3 Dominant lineage relations, Nuer
80
5.4
Realignment of lineages, Tiv
102
9.1
Chinese "lineage" segmentation
163
vii
This page intentionally left blank
INTRODUCTIO