article
The Social use of kinship terms among Brazilian Indians
American anthropologist, n.s. • 45 • Published In 1943 • Pages: 398-409
By: Lévi-Strauss, Claude.
Abstract
This is a comparative study of one aspect of kin term usage among the Nambicuara and the Tupi of the sixteenth century, devoted mainly to what Levi-Strauss terms the 'compérage' - a special 'brother-in-law' relationship between individuals not united previously by any kinship tie in order to insure intermarriage and by this means to amalgamate familial or social groups, previously heterogeneous, into a new homogeneous unit. He gives an instance where this relationship was brought into effect for uniting two distinct groups of the Nambicuara. He believes this institution once had a much wider distribution on the South American continent. At the time of publication, Lévi-Strauss was with the New School for Social Research in New York.
- HRAF PubDate
- 2010
- Region
- South America
- Sub Region
- Amazon and Orinoco
- Document Type
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- Timothy J. O'Leary ; 1958
- Field Date
- 1938-1939
- Coverage Date
- 1938-1939
- Coverage Place
- Mato Grosso state, Brazil
- Notes
- Claude Lévi-Strauss
- Includes bibliographical references
- LCCN
- 17015424
- LCSH
- Nambicuara Indians