Ladislav Holy was Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews and the author of several
publications including Kinship, Honour and Solidarity: Cousin Marriage in the Middle East (1989). He died in 1997.
Summary
'Holy largely eschews polemic in favour of the balanced approach appropriate to a good lecture course.' Social
Anthropology With this volume Ladislav Holy considers the extent to which, overridingly, Western assumptions have
guided anthropological studies of kinship. This is a highly readable introductory text on the subject to consider
changes in the conceptualisation of kinship brought about by new reproductive technologies and the growing interest
in culturally specific notions of personhood and gender. Holy reveals a growing sensitivity on the part of anthropologists
to individual ideas of person hood and gender, and encourages further critical reflection on cultural bias in approaches
to the subject. Linking kinship with wider debates in anthropology and the social sciences in a lucid, jargon free
study, Anthropological Perspectives on Kinship is an invaluable introduction to current practice for specialists
and non-specialists alike.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1: First Principles
2: Kinship, Descent and Marriage
3: Kinship and the Domestic Domain
4: Descent and the Public Domain I: Lineage Theory
5: Descent and the Public Domain Ii: Matrilineal and Cognatic Descent
6: Marriage and Alliance
7: Universality of Kinship and the Current Practice of Kinship Studies
