Systems Of Consanguinity And Affinity Of The Human Family

Lewis Henry Morgan; introduction by Elisabeth Tooker

ISBN 10: 0803282303 / ISBN 13: 9780803282308

Published by Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, 1997., 1997

About this Item

ISBN 0803282303. Oversized Heavy Trade Paperback. First Printing. Very Good Condition. Tight sound copy with minor rubs to edges and corners of covers. Remainder stamp in red ink on bottom edge.

Seller Inventory # 9517274

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Systems Of Consanguinity And Affinity Of The Human Family
• Publisher: Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, 1997.
• Publication Date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0803282303
• ISBN 13: 9780803282308
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: Later Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Dustjacket
• Signed: No Signature
• Seller catalogs:
  • Social Science

About this title

Synopsis

Modern anthropology would be radically different without this book. Published in 1871, this first major study of kinship, inventive and wide-ranging, created a new field of inquiry in anthropology. Drawing partly upon his own fieldwork among American Indians, anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan examined the kinship systems of over one hundred cultures, probing for similarities and differences in their organization. In his attempt to discover particular types of marriage and descent systems across the globe, Morgan demonstrated the centrality of kinship relations in many cultures. Kinship, it was revealed, was an important key for understanding cultures and could be studied through systematic, scientific means.

 

Anthropologists continue to wrestle with the premises, methodology, and conclusions of Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity. Scholars such as W. H. R. Rivers, Robert Lowie, Meyer Fortes, Fred Eggan, and Claude Lévi-Strauss have acknowledged their intellectual debt to this study; those less sympathetic to Morgan’s treatment of kinship nonetheless do not question its historical significance and impact on the development of modern anthropology.

About the Author

Elisabeth Tooker is professor emerita at Temple University. She is the author of numerous studies, including Lewis H. Morgan on Iroquois Material Culture and The Iroquois Ceremonial of Midwinter.