Innatism in the Anthropology of A. L. Kroeber: A Critique of ‘the Boasian Paradigm’

Basing his analysis on Kroeber's ‘The superorganic’ (1917 Kroeber, A. L. 1917. The superorganic.. American Anthropologist, 19: 163–213. [Crossref] [Google Scholar]) and ‘Eighteen professions’ (1915 Kroeber, A. L. 1915. Eighteen professions.. American Anthropologist, 17: 283–88. [Crossref] [Google Scholar]), Derek Freeman has put forward the notion of a ‘Boasian paradigm’, whereby Kroeber is alleged to have perpetuated the biology/culture split suggested by Boas. I argue, instead, that there is a strong innatist element in Kroeber's writings throughout his long career; and that the articles noted above need to be placed in the social and intellectual contexts of their time, particularly the encroachment of the eugenics movement on social theory and its application to immigration restriction.     

The Old Kinship Studies Confronts Gay Kinship: A Critique of Kath Weston

Kath Weston's highly-acclaimed analysis of gay kinship is examined in the light of the old kinship studies, especially the notion of focality. The verdict is quite contrary to Weston's, viz. that gay kinship and the idea of gay families are structural derivatives of heterosexual kinship and heterosexual families. Weston's work is shown to be part of a larger collectivist project in kinship theory in which key concerns in semantic theory are ignored.     

Conceiving Reproduction: New Reproductive Technologies and the Redefinition of the Kinship Narrative in New Zealand Society

This paper focuses on technologies for assisting conception and considers how normative notions of conception and family formation have informed the rejection, incorporation and adaptation of technologies and their regulation in New Zealand. Drawing on a textual analysis of primary written materials and secondary sources generated between 1965 and 2004, the paper reveals how these technologies help various groups in New Zealand society make explicit their understandings of relatedness, identity and social and cultural belonging. Whilst biological/genetic connection and social connections inform understandings of kinship, reproduction, parenthood and social structure for many New Zealanders, the boundaries between the biological and social are often blurred and precedence of one over the other is very much context dependent. The incorporation of the new reproductive technologies has been an inherently politicised process, with barriers to access to these technologies emerging in relation to ethnic identity and race, sexuality, socioeconomic status, gender, and marital status.     

Kinship and the quest for wealth and power as influences on conflict in the Punjab, 1839–1845

We examine the contention for the throne of the Punjab in the years 1839–1845. Kinsmen usually (but with some probable exceptions) supported and avenged one another. When conflicts over power occurred among biological kin, these conflicts were nearly always resolved without bloodshed or lengthy estrangement.