Kinships Compared: Relations, Families, and Connections

In all cultures people see themselves as related more closely to some people than to others and they usually experience that relation in terms of some shared substance such as blood. Beyond these generalizations there is an enormous variety of ways in which people live in, build, and maintain connections with others - in nuclear and extended families, peer groups, friends, ethnic groups, and so on. This course is about kinship as an idea, as an experience, and as an institution. In the midst of divorce and blended families, new reproductive technologies, and adoption we will investigate kinship and connection in our own lives, in a range of other cultures, and within the discipline of Anthropology.