92STORIES OF CULTURE AND PLACEIntroductionThe cross-cultural study ofkinshipandkinship systemshas been a central anthro-pological topic at least since the time of Lewis Henry Morgan. Why is this so? Theprimary reason is because early anthropology chose to concentrate on “primitive”societies. Many of these lacked the social institutions—bureaucratic government,money-based economies, formal law, etc.—that Western observers were accustomedto. It came to be perceived that, where such institutions are lacking, “kinship” servesas an integrating force, an all-purpose social glue: “blood kinship” provides the basisfor the formation of cohesive groups, marriage establishes cross-generational connec-tions between them, and bonds of affection and complex economic relationships holdit all together. These perceptions were coupled with the evolutionary assumption that“the family” must have been the earliest form of human association, from which alllater forms are derived.Anthropologists and social historians have documented the worldwide range ofpractices relating to kinship, marriage, and the family. As always, the first impulsewas to collect and classify, and then to interpret what was found—as Morgan did—inevolutionary terms. We saw in Chapter 1 that this impulse gave way to detailed eth-nographic studies of social systems in their own terms and how they function on theground.1But, given all the diversity that was revealed, evendefining“kinship” and “thefamily” proves a difficult order.The anthropological study of kinship is a game that nearly everyone can play,since most of us have known kin. We invite you, therefore, to think about your ownfamily and its history in light of the discussion to follow. In this chapter we will
