Study Guide Regarding

Unfolding Reconsiderations…of Kinship, For Example

1a. In the end, what definition of “marriage” does Gough arrive at?

1b. Do you find this an adequate and useful definition of marriage?  (Before and while addressing this question, think about both the theoretical problem of knowing and comparing different human societies, across space and time, and your political and social views about “marriage” in the social world you inhabit.)

2.  Compare Gough’s treatment of “marriage” to Yanagisako and Collier’s treatment of, for instance, the distinction between “nature” and “culture,” “private” and “public,” “reproduction” and “production,” and “female” and “male.”   How is the treatment of such categories by Yanagisako and Collier different from Gough’s treatment of “marriage”?  (Clarification: you do not need to discuss Yanagisako and Collier’s treatment of each of those pairs as separate matters; rather, what is at issue here is the common theoretical treatment of each and every one of those pairs by Yanagisako and Collier.  So focus on the treatment, rather than on the series of pairs.  Got it?  If not, email for clarification, of course.)

3. On Schneider’s view, “sexual intercourse” is a symbol or is symbolic.  Write an explanation of what this means as if you were presenting this to introductory-level anthropology students, for whom this is a new idea.  (Your discussion might, for instance, make note of the fact that other mammals certainly engage in a behavioral act that is identifiable as sexual intercourse; and too, that this behavioral act is widely present across cultures.)  Please note: the exciting news is that this is this week’s “special question”—the one that will be given a separate grade; this means that your name might come out of "the hat" and your answer will be discussed in class (special note to Allison, Cheryl, Ben, and Dawn: yes, your name can come out of the hat twice; you are never off the hook in “theory.”)

4. What on earth could Handler and Segal mean when they say that our notions of love and family are “provincially capitalist” notions.

5a.  In McKinnon’s essay, ““American Kinship/American Incest: Asymmetries in a Scientific Discourse,” who is it that occupies the position of “natives”?

5b.  Do you think her essay is offensive in its representations of and/or attitudes toward victims of “incest” and/or “sexual abuse”?

6. Identify and briefly summarize the key argument’s against sociobiology and evolutionary psychology in McKinnon’s essay, “On Kinship and Marriage: A Critique of the Genetic and Gender Calculus of Evolutionary Psychology.”

7.  Does the "AAA Statement on Marriage and the Family" have identifiable and coherent theoretical underpinnings?  How does it relate to social evolutionary theory?  To functionalism? To Boasian ideas of cultural plurality? (Is it Boasian?) Positivism and the rejection of positivism? (Is it positivist?  Anti-positivist?  Or is that not visible?)