Interpréter L'Exception. Une Société Qui Questionne L'Anthropologie de la Parenté

The social organisation of the Na of China is exceptional in that marriage occupies a marginal place and the concept of kinship appears to be absent. This poses fundamental questions for the anthropology of kinship. For Cai Hua this puts into question the universality of marriage, Radcliffe-Brown's definition of the elementary family, and Lévi-Strauss' theory of alliance. The article is based on the theoretical presupposition which interprets the residual presence of marriage solely as the result of cultural borrowing and provides as a principle the original absence of the institution in this society

Alliance · China · Epistemology · Humanities · Institution · Kinship · Political science · Presupposition · Social science · Sociology · Universality (dynamical systems) · Anthropology · Cultural Identity and Heritage · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · Law · Multiculturalism, Politics, Migration, Gender · Philosophy