Anthropology short notes · Paper 1

Forms of descent groups (lineage, clan, phratry, moiety and kindred)

Forms of descent groups (lineage, clan, phratry, moiety and kindred)

Part of Kinship

Short notes

Forms of descent groups (lineage, clan, phratry, moiety and kindred)

Definition

III. Applications in Anthropological Studies

Thinkers

  • A.R. Radcliffe-Brown — structural-functionalism: institutions function like organs to maintain social structure.
  • Radcliffe-Brown: Used genealogies to reconstruct descent groups and social structure in Africa.
  • Malinowski: Used them to understand kinship and land inheritance among the Trobriand Islanders.
  • Claude Lévi-Strauss: Used genealogical/kinship data to develop Alliance Theory, focusing on marriage and exchange between lineages.
  • India: S.C. Roy documented Oraon genealogies; Irawati Karve used genealogical mapping to study village kinship and exogamy in Maharashtra.