essay

Another view of Trobriand kinship categories

formal semantic analysis • 67 (5) (2) • Published In 1965 • Pages: 142-185, 309-316

By: Lounsbury, Floyd G..

Abstract

In response to Leach's rebuttal of Malinowski's 'family-centered' and 'extensionist' theory of kinship, (see 50: Leach, in this file), Lounsbury defends Malinowski in this paper, defending the older and more conventional notion about kinship and kinship terminology and presenting a different theory of the meaning of Trobriand kinship terms based on his own formal semantic analysis. Lounsbury outlines the basic tenets of Leach's ideas about kinship in general and then shows, through his own analysis of the data that there is a perfectly understandable underlying logic to the terms and referents reported by Malinowski. Lounsbury expresses his skepticism about the view of 'primitive' kinship, and of kinship in unilineal societies that Leach and other social anthropologists have enunciated in recent studies.

HRAF PubDate

1995

Region

Oceania

Sub Region

Melanesia

Document Type

essay

Evaluation

Creator Type

Ethnologist

Document Rating

4: Excellent Secondary Data

Analyst

John Beierle

Field Date

no date

Coverage Date

not specified

Coverage Place

Papua New Guinea

Notes

[by] Floyd G. Lounsbury

Bibliography: p. 309-316

LCSH

Trobriand Islanders