An Introduction to Two Theories

The book is a translation of Louis Dumont's lectures on kinship, which provide a comprehensive but also idiosyncratic overview of descent theory and alliance theory for students. These two competing theories of kinship, associated respectively with the British and French schools of social anthropology, as well as the theoretical tendencies of functionalism and structuralism, dominated anthropological theory from the 1950s to the 1970s and are of fundamental historical significance. But Dumont's lectures also have stood the test of time and provide an excellent introductory account of kinship for the student. They also reflect his own structuralist sympathies and critical acumen in assessing the work of many of anthropology's great theoretical minds, among which he himself should be numbered.

ISBN 1845451473   DEWEY 306.83 ISBN13 9781845451479 (What's this?)   DEWEY edition DC22 Publisher Berghahn Books   Pages 110 Imprint Berghahn Books   Volumes 001 Format Paperback   Published in Oxford Publication date 12 Apr 2006   Series title Methodology and History in Anthropology Translator Robert Parkin   Height (mm) 230 Library of Congress GN487.D86   Academic level Undergraduate

Pt. I		Kinship in the work of Radcliffe-Brown
A		What is kinship?		3
B		The meaning of 'kinship system'		7
C		Interpersonal relations and 'structural principles'		18
Pt. II		The theory of unilineal descent groups
D		Before The Nuer		29
E		Evans-Pritchard : The Nuer		35
F		After The Nuer		50
Pt. III		The theory of marriage alliance
G		Levi-Strauss : Elementary structures		61
H		After Elementary structures		88

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