Description: This collection reasserts the importance of kinship, and of studying kinship, within the framework of social anthropology. The contributors look at both the benefits and burdens of kinship across cultures, and examine how "relatedness" is inextricably linked with other concepts which define people's identity -- such as gender, power and history. The contributors look at constructions of heredity and relatedness in a wide range of areas, including Greenland, Turkey, Portugal and across South America. Taking a theoretically-informed approach, they examine contentious themes, such as the relationship of communal living to concepts of kinship, and differences between rural and urban conceptions of the family. This volume provides a long overdue, critical reappraisal of the place of familial relations within the contemporary world.

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