Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T13:59:16.506Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Genealogy, kinship, and knowledge: A cautionary note about causation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2010

Stephen M. Lyon
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom. [email protected]/s.m.lyon

Abstract

The choice of emphasis in kinship studies has often resulted in incompatible theoretical models of kinship that are mutually undermining and contradictory. Jones' attempts to reconcile disparate approaches to kinship using OT is useful, however; seeing kinship as a specialized system for representing genealogy may be unwarranted in the light of recent advances in mathematical approaches to kinship terminologies.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bennardo, G. (2009) Language, space, and social relationships: A foundational cultural model in Polynesia. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carsten, J. (1997) The heat of the hearth: The process of kinship in a Malay fishing community. Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischer, M. D. & Read, D. (2005) Kinship Algebra Expert System: A computer program and documentation for formal modelling of kinship terminologies and the simulation of populations that under these models. Retrieved 24 June, 2010, from http://Kaes.anthrosciences.net.Google Scholar
Goodenough, W. (1965) Yankee kinship terminology: A problem in componential analysis. American Anthropologist 67(5):259–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leaf, M. J. (1979) Man, mind, and science: A history of anthropology. Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leaf, M. J. (2005) The message is the medium: Language, culture, and informatics. Cybernetics and Systems: An International Journal 36(8):903–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Read, D. (2001a) Formal analysis of kinship terminologies and its relationship to what constitutes kinship. Anthropological Theory 1(2):239–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Read, D. (2006) Kinship Algebra Expert System (KAES): A software implementation of a cultural theory. Social Science Computer Review 24(1):4367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar