Structure and Substance

Combining 'Classic' and 'Modern' Kinship Studies in the Australian Western Desert

Bibliographic Data

ID3660419
AuthorsL Dousset (0000-0002-6547-1749, The University of Western Australia, corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume16
Issue1
Pages18-30
Publication date2005-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Australian Journal of Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1035-8811 • E-ISSN: 1757-6547
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1835-9310.2005.tb00267.x
OpenAlexW4230172214
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited27

This paper attempts to participate in the reconciliation between ‘modern’ and cultural studies styles of approaches to kinship, and the more formal and structural analyses of the ‘classical’ type. It is argued that it is the methodological combination of these approaches that produces intelligible descriptions of social structure and process in relation to kinship. The fundamental assumption is that individual strategies play within, and to a certain extent (consciously) exploit, the structural particularities a kinship system provides. A heuristic tool is proposed from which such an analysis can be elaborated. The notion of ‘consubstantiality’ as a reflector of modes of ‘relatedness-conception’ is discussed, because such modes do exhibit interactionist processes while being framed within the structural precepts of the formal kinship system with its terminology and prescriptions

Epistemology · Genealogy · Heuristic · Kinship · Linguistics · Sociology · Terminology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Computer Science · History · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Philosophy · Rural development and sustainability

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