[Xmca-l] Re: kinship

Sun Jan 7 16:18:24 PST 2018

And for David's more linguistic sensibilities, there is a classic essay by
Maurice Bloch that looks at kinship terms among the Malagasy (Madagascar)
entitled "The Moral and Tactical Meaning of Kinship Terms.

This essay is particularly interesting because he not only does the
synchronic/structural analysis of the extension of given kinship terms
which was a central part of most anthropological studies of kinship, but he
makes the very Halliday-ian move of looking at how those kinship terms are
actually deployed in actual everyday conversation. Turns out that the
latter do not map onto (and sometimes directly contradict) the former.

I've attached that essay to this email in case anyone (other than David) is
interested...

-greg

On Sun, Jan 7, 2018 at 4:54 PM, Wolff-Michael Roth <
wolffmichael.roth@gmail.com> wrote:

> I guess this is biologists' way of distinguishing the different levels of
> groupings they make. A plant belongs to a family or subfamily; families
> group into an order; orders group into clade ... all the way up to kingdom
>
> Don't we do something similar in the social world?
>
> You can have a family with 2 persons, but it includes a child, such as in
> "single-parent family"; but two adults living together tend not to be
> referred to as a family but as a couple
>
> Michael
>
>
> Wolff-Michael Roth, Lansdowne Professor
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> --------------------
> Applied Cognitive Science
> MacLaurin Building A567
> University of Victoria
> Victoria, BC, V8P 5C2
> http://web.uvic.ca/~mroth <http://education2.uvic.ca/faculty/mroth/>
>
> New book: *The Mathematics of Mathematics
> <https://www.sensepublishers.com/catalogs/bookseries/new-
> directions-in-mathematics-and-science-education/the-
> mathematics-of-mathematics/>*
>
> On Sun, Jan 7, 2018 at 3:42 PM, Martin Packer <mpacker@cantab.net> wrote:
>
> > Hi Michael. Yes, I meant the plants. And I know that only humans produce
> > definition. In my clumsy way, I was trying to ask what definition of
> > ‘family’ you were employing when you stated that plants form families.
> >
> > Martin
> >
> > "I may say that whenever I meet Mrs. Seligman or Dr. Lowie or discuss
> > matters with Radcliffe-Brown or Kroeber, I become at once aware that my
> > partner does not understand anything in the matter, and I end usually
> with
> > the feeling that this also applies to myself” (Malinowski, 1930)
> >
> >
> >
> > > On Jan 7, 2018, at 6:34 PM, Wolff-Michael Roth <
> > wolffmichael.roth@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > Martin, I looked up the etymologies in English, French and German. All
> > > point to the Latin origin of family and familiar and the tie of the
> > latter
> > > to the former.
> > >
> > > The Russian and Polish translation point to different words.
> > >
> > > Not my definition.
> > >
> > > If you mean the plants...only humans produce definitions... you then
> > might
> > > be interested in Dewey and Bateson on natural situations and human
> > > descriptions
> > >
> > > Michael
> > >
> > >
> > > Wolff-Michael Roth, Lansdowne Professor
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > --------------------
> > > Applied Cognitive Science
> > > MacLaurin Building A567
> > > University of Victoria
> > > Victoria, BC, V8P 5C2
> > > http://web.uvic.ca/~mroth <http://education2.uvic.ca/faculty/mroth/>
> > >
> > > New book: *The Mathematics of Mathematics
> > > <https://www.sensepublishers.com/catalogs/bookseries/new-
> > directions-in-mathematics-and-science-education/the-
> > mathematics-of-mathematics/>*
> > >
> > > On Sun, Jan 7, 2018 at 3:28 PM, Martin Packer <mpacker@cantab.net>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > >> By your definition or theirs, Michael?
> > >>
> > >> Martin
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>> On Jan 7, 2018, at 6:23 PM, Wolff-Michael Roth <
> > >> wolffmichael.roth@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >>>
> > >>> but plants form families, too
> > >>>
> > >>> the familiar is linked to family apparently in languages that have
> > >> adopted
> > >>> the term from Latin, but not languages as Polish or Russian
> > >>>
> > >>> Michael
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> Wolff-Michael Roth, Lansdowne Professor
> > >>>
> > >>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> > >> --------------------
> > >>> Applied Cognitive Science
> > >>> MacLaurin Building A567
> > >>> University of Victoria
> > >>> Victoria, BC, V8P 5C2
> > >>> http://web.uvic.ca/~mroth <http://education2.uvic.ca/faculty/mroth/>
> > >>>
> > >>> New book: *The Mathematics of Mathematics
> > >>> <https://www.sensepublishers.com/catalogs/bookseries/new-
> > >> directions-in-mathematics-and-science-education/the-
> > >> mathematics-of-mathematics/>*
> > >>>
> > >>> On Sun, Jan 7, 2018 at 2:49 PM, Martin Packer <mpacker@cantab.net>
> > >> wrote:
> > >>>
> > >>>> So James,
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Could a childless couple in China be called a family?
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Or would they need to have a pig?  :)
> > >>>>
> > >>>> To all: In English we don’t call a childless couple a family, do we?
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Martin
> > >>>>
> > >>>> "I may say that whenever I meet Mrs. Seligman or Dr. Lowie or
> discuss
> > >>>> matters with Radcliffe-Brown or Kroeber, I become at once aware that
> > my
> > >>>> partner does not understand anything in the matter, and I end
> usually
> > >> with
> > >>>> the feeling that this also applies to myself” (Malinowski, 1930)
> > >>>>
> > >>>>
> > >>>>
> > >>>>> On Jan 7, 2018, at 5:45 PM, James Ma <jamesma320@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> Just to add an etymological aspect that you might be interested to
> > know
> > >>>>> (this is because Chines is logographical).
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> According to the Chinese Oracle, family 家 has two parts: the upper
> > >>>>> part 宀 refers
> > >>>>> to "room"; the lower part 豕 refers to "pig". In the ancient times,
> > >> people
> > >>>>> raised pigs in their houses, so having pigs in a house was a
> hallmark
> > >> of
> > >>>>> living. In modern Chinese, family also indicates "relationship",
> e.g.
> > >>>> 亲如一家
> > >>>>> as close as a family.
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> James
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> *_____________________________________*
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> *James Ma*  *https://oxford.academia.edu/JamesMa
> > >>>>> <https://oxford.academia.edu/JamesMa>   *
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> On 7 January 2018 at 21:30, David Kellogg <dkellogg60@gmail.com>
> > >> wrote:
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>> In Chinese and in Korean, the word "family" is related to housing
> > >> rather
> > >>>>>> than to kinship. In European languages it is the other way around.
> > >> This
> > >>>>>> does suggest something semantic, no?
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>> David Kellogg
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>> Recent Article in *Mind, Culture, and Activity* 24 (4)
> 'Metaphoric,
> > >>>>>> Metonymic, Eclectic, or Dialectic? A Commentary on “Neoformation:
> A
> > >>>>>> Dialectical Approach to Developmental Change”'
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>> Free e-print available (for a short time only) at
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>> http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/YAWPBtmPM8knMCNg6sS6/full
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>> On Mon, Jan 8, 2018 at 6:22 AM, Greg Thompson <
> > >>>> greg.a.thompson@gmail.com>
> > >>>>>> wrote:
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>>> Martin,
> > >>>>>>> Well that is a difficult question to answer without knowing what
> > you
> > >>>> mean
> > >>>>>>> by "family"?
> > >>>>>>> What in the world do you mean by "family"?
> > >>>>>>> -greg
> > >>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>> On Sun, Jan 7, 2018 at 12:59 PM, Martin Packer <
> mpacker@cantab.net
> > >
> > >>>>>> wrote:
> > >>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>> I am struggling with the way ‘family’ and ‘kinship’ have been
> > >> defined,
> > >>>>>> or
> > >>>>>>>> not defined, in psychology and anthropology. One question that
> has
> > >>>>>>> occurred
> > >>>>>>>> to me is whether a word equivalent to ‘family’ exists in every
> > >>>>>> language.
> > >>>>>>>> When I Google this, Google responds ‘Ask Siri’…  :(
> > >>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>> Anyone have an idea?
> > >>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>> Martin
> > >>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>> --
> > >>>>>>> Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
> > >>>>>>> Assistant Professor
> > >>>>>>> Department of Anthropology
> > >>>>>>> 880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
> > >>>>>>> Brigham Young University
> > >>>>>>> Provo, UT 84602
> > >>>>>>> WEBSITE: greg.a.thompson.byu.edu
> > >>>>>>> http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
> > >>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_
> > >>>> source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail>
> > >>>>> Virus-free.
> > >>>>> www.avast.com
> > >>>>> <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_
> > >>>> source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail>
> > >>>>> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>
> > >>>>
> > >>>>
> > >>
> > >>
> >
> >
>

-- 
Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
WEBSITE: greg.a.thompson.byu.edu
http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
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