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Resumo

This article, the first of two parts, critiques the anthropological treatment of kinship as descent and alliance and proposes an alternative. Kinship is defined not by genealogy or common substance but by the reciprocal exchange of life-sustaining gifts. The gifts of the parent to the child are the prototypical instance. The child’s life comes from the parent’s being, as from a cosmic source, and is returned to the parent in the form of care and, ultimately, the perpetuation of the parent’s lineage. This principle of reciprocity is extended to other relatives through the sharing of food and other gifts. Kinship is thus a ‘mutuality of being’, a reciprocal exchange of existence, which creates a network of interdependence and obligation. The article explores the implications of this definition for understanding kinship systems cross-culturally.

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