The most comprehensive reader on kinship available, Kinship and Family: An Anthropological Reader is a representative collection tracing the history of the anthropological study of kinship from the early 1900s to the present day. Brings together for the first time both classic works from Evans-Pritchard, Lévi-Strauss, Leach, and Schneider, as well as articles on such electrifying contemporary debates as surrogate motherhood, and gay and lesbian kinship. Draws on the editors’ complementary areas of expertise to offer readers a single-volume survey of the most important and critical work on kinship. Includes extensive discussion and analysis of the selections that contextualizes them within theoretical debates.

In France as elsewhere in recent years, legislative debates over single-parent households, same-sex unions, new reproductive technologies, transsexuality, and other challenges to long-held assumptions about the structure of family and kinship relations have been deeply divisive. What strikes many as uniquely French, however, is the extent to which many of these discussions—whether in legislative chambers, courtrooms, or the mass media—have been conducted in the frequently abstract vocabularies of anthropology and psychoanalysis. In this highly original book, Camille Robcis seeks to explain why and how academic discourses on kinship have intersected and overlapped with political debates on the family—and on the nature of French republicanism itself. She focuses on the theories of Claude Lévi-Strauss and Jacques Lacan, both of whom highlighted the interdependence of the sexual and the social by positing a direct correlation between kinship and socialization. Robcis traces how their ideas gained recognition not only from French social scientists but also from legislators and politicians who relied on some of the most obscure and difficult concepts of structuralism to enact a series of laws concerning the family. Lévi-Strauss and Lacan constructed the heterosexual family as a universal trope for social and psychic integration, and this understanding of the family at the root of intersubjectivity coincided with the role that the family has played in modern French law and public policy. The Law of Kinship contributes to larger conversations about the particularities of French political culture, the nature of sexual difference, and the problem of reading and interpretation in intellectual history.

Winner of the 2019 Ruth Benedict Prize for Outstanding Single-Authored Monograph Interweaving the narratives of multiple family members, including parents and siblings of her queer and trans informants, Amy Brainer analyzes the strategies that families use to navigate their internal differences. In Queer Kinship and Family Change in Taiwan, Brainer looks across generational cohorts for clues about how larger social, cultural, and political shifts have materialized in people’s everyday lives. Her findings bring light to new parenting and family discourses and enduring inequalities that shape the experiences of queer and heterosexual kin alike. Brainer’s research takes her from political marches and support group meetings to family dinner tables in cities and small towns across Taiwan. She speaks with parents and siblings who vary in whether and to what extent they have made peace with having a queer or transgender family member, and queer and trans people who vary in what they hope for and expect from their families of origin. Across these diverse life stories, Brainer uses a feminist materialist framework to illuminate struggles for personal and sexual autonomy in the intimate context of family and home.

In this interdisciplinary study, Leire Olabarria examines ancient Egyptian society through the notion of kinship. Drawing on methods from archaeology and sociocultural anthropology, she provides an emic characterisation of ancient kinship that relies on performative aspects of social interaction. Olabarria uses memorial stelae of the First Intermediate Period and the Middle Kingdom (ca.2150–1650 BCE) as her primary evidence. Contextualising these monuments within their social and physical landscapes, she proposes a dynamic way to explore kin groups through sources that have been considered static. The volume offers three case studies of kin groups at the beginning, peak, and decline of their developmental cycles respectively. They demonstrate how ancient Egyptian evidence can be used for cross-cultural comparison of key anthropological topics, such as group formation, patronage, and rites of passage.

"This is a landmark book that should be read around the world. For far too long adoption and kinship families have not received the attention that they so sorely need...The material in this book is well researched, sensitively delivered, and essential for any clinician for adoption and kinship families."—Cheryl Tatano Beck, DNSc, CNM, FAAN,Professor, School of Nursing, University of Connecticut–Storrs, From the Foreword Provides foundational knowledge on how to provide current, evidence-based, clinical best practices for the specific needs of adoption and kinship families. To be a family, and what that means in society, is undergoing dramatic changes that reflect fluidity in the definition of spouse, children, and kin. Pediatric, family, adult-gerontology, psychiatric-mental health, and other advance practice nurses increasingly serve as frontline primary care providers for the growing number of adoption and kinship families. The creation and preservation of these nontraditional families are often replete with social, cultural, and legal issues that the advanced practice nurse must recognize to provide optimal care. This groundbreaking clinical guide breaks down the adoption and kinship triads into their distinct parts—the birth parents, adoptive or kinship parents, and the child—and analyzes the relationships among them and how the nurse can assist their development. Beginning with an overview of adoption and kinship parenting, this book also discusses the specific psychosocial and health care–related needs of adoption and kinship families using detailed case studies to illustrate a variety of conditions and circumstances, along with guidance on how nurses should intervene. A clinically focused section within the case study chapters covers assessment, interventions, referrals, and follow-up considerations. Learning objectives at the beginning of each chapter relay major discussion points and sidebars embedded in each chapter provide related resources for additional information on the health care considerations of adoption and kinship families. Key Features: Addresses nursing’s specific role in the holistic assessment and care of the different members of adoption and kinship families Authored by a renowned nurse leader in adoption and kinship care Provides chapter objectives, highlights, and questions for reflection Promotes current, evidence-based best practices Includes a glossary of adoption-friendly language Discusses nursing practice within the context of a larger health care team

With reference to the Dule Bagdis, cultivating and fishing caste in West Bengal.