DOCSLIB.ORG

Family Business a Demos Collection

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Family Business a Demos Collection Family Business a Demos Collection Edited by Helen Wilkinson Open access. Some rights reserved. As the publisher of this work, Demos has an open access policy which enables anyone to access our content electronically without charge. We want to encourage the circulation of our work as widely as possible without affecting the ownership of the copyright, which remains with the copyright holder. Users are welcome to download, save, perform or distribute this work electronically or in any other format, including in foreign language translation without written permission subject to the conditions set out in the Demos open access licence which you can read here. Please read and consider the full licence. The following are some of the conditions imposed by the licence: • Demos and the author(s) are credited; • The Demos website address (www.demos.co.uk) is published together with a copy of this policy statement in a prominent position; • The text is not altered and is used in full (the use of extracts under existing fair usage rights is not affected by this condition); • The work is not resold; • A copy of the work or link to its use online is sent to the address below for our archive. By downloading publications, you are confirming that you have read and accepted the terms of the Demos open access licence. Copyright Department Demos Elizabeth House 39 York Road London SE1 7NQ United Kingdom [email protected] You are welcome to ask for permission to use this work for purposes other than those covered by the Demos open access licence. Demos gratefully acknowledges the work of Lawrence Lessig and Creative Commons which inspired our approach to copyright. The Demos circulation licence is adapted from the ‘attribution/no derivatives/non-commercial’ version of the Creative Commons licence. To find out more about Creative Commons licences go to www.creativecommons.org Contents Family business Helen Wilkinson 3 A time of transition Arlene Skolnick 25 Valuing the feminine economy Shirley P Burggraf 35 Changing the culture of care Mona Harrington 45 The networked family Melanie Howard & Michael Wilmott 51 Thinking in the future tense Nancy Ramsey 63 Reflections on modern day family values Michael Rustin 75 The learning family Tom Bentley 85 The mother’s tale Laura Wilkinson 93 The father’s tale Jack O’Sullivan 99 The great work-life debate Liz Bargh 105 How do children feel about their working parents? Ellen Galinsky 113 A ‘third way’ on the work-life issue Brad Googins 121 Let’s get personal Graeme Russell & Juliet Bourke 129 Demos 1 This page is covered by the Demos open access licence. Some rights reserved. Full details of licence conditions are available at www.demos.co.uk/openaccess Family business Forever young? Suzan Lewis & Julia Brannen 141 Choosing childlessness? Fiona McAllister 149 Getting the relationship right Ed Straw 159 Japan’s battle of the sexes Sumiko Iwao 167 The evolved family Helena Cronin & Oliver Curry 175 Things can only get better Colette Kelleher 185 Childcare as public good Sue Slipman 195 Modest hopes or great expectations? Peter Moss 199 A children’s crusade Paul Gregg 209 New Labour, work and the family Stephen Driver & Luke Martell 217 The sustainable family Ian Christie 227 The new old age Michael Young & Jean Stogdon 237 Family and work balance Linda Tarr-Whelan 245 From work ethic to ethical work Ed Mayo 255 An equal marriage? Maureen Freely 265 Bookmarks 275 2 Demos This page is covered by the Demos open access licence. Some rights reserved. Full details of licence conditions are available at www.demos.co.uk/openaccess Family business Helen Wilkinson ‘Whatever direction public policy takes with respect to the family, we are going to have to take the feminine/ caretaking/ family economy as seriously as we take the competitive/ market/ business economy of economic man. The caretaking economy and the competitive economy are two sides of the same economic reality, neither of which can function without the other’ Shirley P Burggraf, author of The Feminine Economy and Economic Man The family is our most precious business: the foundation of social cohesion and economic growth. Partly because of this, family values are in focus across the political spectrum. Yet despite the rhetoric and symbolism, too little thought has been given to the family unit as the central dimension of the new economy. Although the need for skills and talent in this economy is heavily debated, little attention is given to the supply of future workers, or their social and family context. As a result, we ignore the vital role that families play as generators of the nation’s wealth. This leads to unsustainability.Nurturing families in the new context – a global economy, major change in gender relations and in social Demos 3 This page is covered by the Demos open access licence. Some rights reserved. Full details of licence conditions are available at www.demos.co.uk/openaccess Family business values – requires a new way of thinking about families. This collection presents the foundation for such an approach. In this essay, I set out its major strands and propose a range of policies that can support tomor- row’s families in ways which benefit us all. The family reshaped Although often debated in isolation, family life has always been pro- foundly affected by the wider economic and social context, and reshaped during periods ofhistorical change.The symptoms of change – disruption, dissolution and renewal – are apparent for all to see. As Arlene Skolnick’s article shows, each period of social and eco- nomic development generates a new model of family life. The industrial era produced a distinctive pattern of family life: a rigid gender division of labour between the male breadwinner and female caregiver, the physical separation of work and home, and a par- ticular kind of relationship between the paid and care economies. The post-industrial era is precipitating new family forms and new sets of relationships. Families are becoming more open, democratic and flexible. Gender roles are fluid, even if they are not yet entirely equal. Children are involved in family decision-making; they are heard as well as seen.1 Diversity has become the norm, as non-traditional families become part of the mainstream. Family networks and kinship structures are flexible and diverse, extending outwards and embracing friends as well as blood relatives.2 As Melanie Howard and Michael Wilmott show, the network para- digm helps to explain the new family structures. Tomorrow’s families also mirror the extended families of the pre-industrial era. Michael Young and Jean Stogdon envision a ‘new old age’,where grandparents help ease the care burden at critical life transitions in return for nur- ture in old age, and become the ‘new parents’ in the event of family 3 death or breakdown. Just as the physical separation of work and home in the industrial era gave birth to the traditional nuclear family, today’s blurring of boundaries between work and home is accelerating the decline of 4 Demos This page is covered by the Demos open access licence. Some rights reserved. Full details of licence conditions are available at www.demos.co.uk/openaccess Family business hierarchy and patriarchy. Dual-earning families already define the new economy, in the same way that male breadwinners defined the indus- trial era. Modems, faxes, email and the Internet are enabling a shift to portfolio parenting, as well as portfolio working. As women have entered the workforce, more and more household labour has been outsourced, contributing to the growth of the service economy and creating job opportunities in areas such as cooking, cleaning, gardening and DIY. Families increasingly resemble the micro-businesses of the new economy. They are once again becoming sites of production as well as consumption – what Alvin Toffler 4 describes as ‘prosumption’ – just as they were in the preindustrial era. In this sense, organisational restructuring and innovation in busi- ness – especially outsourcing to consultants and associates – is mir- rored in the organisation of modern family life. As Tom Bentley argues, the commonalities between the emerging relationships, struc- tures and functioning of late twentieth century families and the world of work are coming into view. Trouble and strife By all accounts, it would be easy to view these changes as leading har- moniously to a new model of family life and relationships. But the process of change is inherently fraught. The current wave of family change – and the stress and disruption that accompany it – are rooted in global economic forces and gender change. Nancy Ramsey’s article offers some scenarios to help us think more flexibly about the future. Part 2 of this collection deals with the challenge of transition – for individuals and for society at large. Laura Wilkinson and Jack O’Sullivan remind us that today’s parents are pioneers, navigating new ways of working and organising family life, at a time when the sup- porting institutional infrastructure has yet to adapt. It is no longer feasible – nor indeed desirable – to prop up the tradi- tional nuclear family.5 The transition to a new period of family life must be recognised as inevitable, and as bringing a new set of opportu- nities, especially for women. But on current trends, the emerging Demos 5 This page is covered by the Demos open access licence. Some rights reserved. Full details of licence conditions are available at www.demos.co.uk/openaccess Family business family relationships will not undergo a smooth, spontaneous transi- tion without policies supporting their growth. The qualities and out- comes we value most in family life must be explicitly protected and nurtured.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • SOME MOOT PROBLEMS in SOCIAL ORGANIZATION by ROBERT H
    American Anthropologist NEW SERIES Vol. 36 JULY-SEPTEMBER, 1934 No.3 SOME MOOT PROBLEMS IN SOCIAL ORGANIZATION By ROBERT H. LOWIE AXIOMS wo recent papers on social organization1 explain the distribution of T social phenomena by diffusion from a single world centre. Conclusions of such import challenge scrutiny as to the methods by which they have been reached. In my judgment they are corollaries of questionable axioms. According to Professor Olson, unilateral descent is an almost incon­ ceivable anomaly, hence multiple origin is unthinkable: not only have all American clan systems sprung from one source but that source must lie in the Old World to save us "from the awkward plight of positing their special creation within the New World" (pp. 411-14). The axiom is no~ new, since Lewis H. Morgan (Ancient Society, pt. II, ch. XV) considered. the clan (gens) an "essentially abstruse" institution and alleged "the improbability of its repeated reproduction in disconnected areas." Those who do not accept the dogma naturally have offered hypotheses to account for clans. Professor Olson chides them for explaining "the esoteric in terms of the prosaic." What does he conceive an explanation to be? Should it reduce the unknown to the unknowable? There is one attempt to prop the axiom. Unilateral reckoning, it seems, is esoteric because "it contradicts the duality of parenthood,and results in an unnatural stressing of one side of the family.... Children naturally feel that the parent bestowing clanship is of more importance than the one who is nothing more than a biological accessory." Yet in our own so­ ciety the father alone bestows "familyship" without reducing the mother to the status of a mere biological accessory.
    [Show full text]
  • Dark Avunculate: Shame, Animality, and Queer Development in Oscar Wilde’S “The Star-Child”
    WellBeing International WBI Studies Repository 2014 Dark Avunculate: Shame, Animality, and Queer Development in Oscar Wilde’s “The Star-Child” Rasmus R. Simonsen University of Western Ontario Follow this and additional works at: https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/acwp_ailae Part of the Animal Studies Commons, Other Anthropology Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Simonsen, R. R. (2014). Dark Avunculate: Shame, Animality, and Queer Development in Oscar Wilde's" The Star-Child". Children's Literature, 42(1), 20-41. This material is brought to you for free and open access by WellBeing International. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of the WBI Studies Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Dark20 Avunculate: Shame, Animality, andRasmus Queer R. Simonsen Development in Oscar Wilde’s “The Star-Child” Rasmus R. Simonsen [A]t the birth of a child or a star there is pain. —Oscar Wilde, De Profundis Then he had been a young girl Caught in the woods by a drunken old man Knowing at the end the taste of his own whiteness, The horror of his own smoothness, And he felt drunken and old. —T. S. Eliot, “The Death of Saint Narcissus” Critics dealing with Oscar Wilde’s collection of fairy tales, A House of Pomegranates, have tended to focus on “how and why a single fairy tale might simultaneously appeal to adults and to children” (Marsh 73). In order to emphasize the different impact of the stories, Michelle Ruggaber points out that the title of the collection itself harbors sin- ister allusions, as it refers to the ancient myth of Proserpine, in which pomegranates are explicitly connected with the underworld (143).
    [Show full text]
  • An Evolutionary Sketch of Russian Kinship. INSTITUTION American Ethnological Society, Washington, D.C
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 041 494 FL 001 445 AUTHOR Friedrich, Paul TITLE An Evolutionary Sketch of Russian Kinship. INSTITUTION American Ethnological Society, Washington, D.C. PUB DATE 63 NOTE 26p.; From Symposiu on Language and Culture: Proceedings of the 1962 Annual Spring Meeting of the American Ethnological Society, p1-26 EDRS PRICE EDRS Price MF-$0.25 HC-$1.40 DESCRIPTORS Anthropology, Behavioral Science Research, Behavior Patterns, *Cultural Factors, *Diachronic Linguistics, Ethnic Relations, Family (Sociological Unit), *Family Relationship, Family Structure, Ind(' European Languages, Language Patterns, Linguistics, Personal Relationship, *Russian, Semantics, *Slavic Languages, Sociolinguistics, Synchronic Linguistics ABSTRACT This paper presents a preliminary sketch of the evolution of Russian kinship from the reconstructed stages of Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Slavic, through old and nineteenth century Russian, to the trends of contemporary modern Russian. Linguistic, historical, and anthropological approaches have been combined. The kinship terminology is viewed as mediating through time between one aspect of linguistic structure and one social aspect of cultural organization. The conclusions deal with a point of method, suAa up the evolution of Russian kinship in relation togeneral evolution and taxonomy, and suggest new fields for the present approach. (Author/RL) otkor Veit ve:e4 U.S. DEPA/100/111 OF HEALTH, EDUCATION I WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION 4. THIS DOCUMENTHAS BEEN /IMPUTED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED PERSON OR OMNI/AMON FROM THE ORI6INATIN6 IL POINTS Of VIEWOR STATED DO POTPRESSOR REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE POSITION OR POLICY, OF EDUCATION ecalunt4useeedeenyd41 apyruid, Medantestagtm) Ott no 5.I. VOL UT IONA RY SKLTcfiOFPT= KINSHIP Paul Friedrich IN THE FOLLOWING paper is presented a preliminary sketch of the evolution of Russian kin- ship from the reconstructed stages of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and Proto-Slavic, through the historically attested old and nineteenth-century Russian, to the trends of contempo- rary modern Russian.
    [Show full text]
  • Focality and Extension in Kinship Essays in Memory of Harold W
    FOCALITY AND EXTENSION IN KINSHIP ESSAYS IN MEMORY OF HAROLD W. SCHEFFLER FOCALITY AND EXTENSION IN KINSHIP ESSAYS IN MEMORY OF HAROLD W. SCHEFFLER EDITED BY WARREN SHAPIRO Published by ANU Press The Australian National University Acton ACT 2601, Australia Email: [email protected] This title is also available online at press.anu.edu.au A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia ISBN(s): 9781760461812 (print) 9781760461829 (eBook) This title is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). The full licence terms are available at creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ legalcode Cover design and layout by ANU Press. Cover photograph of Hal Scheffler by Ray Kelly. This edition © 2018 ANU Press To the memory of Harold Walter Scheffler, a compassionate man of the highest scholarly standards Contents List of Figures and Tables . ix Acknowledgements . xiii Contributors . xv Part I. Introduction: Hal Scheffler’s Extensionism in Historical Perspective and its Relevance to Current Controversies . 3 Warren Shapiro and Dwight Read Part II. The Battle Joined 1 . Hal Scheffler Versus David Schneider and His Admirers, in the Light of What We Now Know About Trobriand Kinship . 31 Warren Shapiro 2 . Extension Problem: Resolution Through an Unexpected Source . 59 Dwight Read Part III. Ethnographic Explorations of Extensionist Theory 3 . Action, Metaphor and Extensions in Kinship . 119 Andrew Strathern and Pamela J. Stewart 4 . Should I Stay or Should I Go? Hunter-Gatherer Networking Through Bilateral Kin . 133 Russell D. Greaves and Karen L.
    [Show full text]
  • Revisiting Matrilineal Priority
    REVISITING MATRILINEAL PRIORITY Chris Knight Professor of Anthropology University of East London Nineteenth century anthropologists widely agreed that early human society was not based on the nuclear family. Lewis Henry Morgan instead championed the matrilineal clan as the first stable institutional framework for human family life. In this, he was supported by theorists who later came to include E. B. Tylor, Friedrich Engels, W. H. R. Rivers, Emile Durkheim and Sigmund Freud. Until the 1920s, most anthropologists still accepted a ‘stages’ view of the evolution of kinship, in which matrilineal descent systems universally preceded their patrilineal counterparts. When Morgan’s evolutionist schema was discredited early in the twentieth century, it was largely on the basis of two interventions. First, Franz Boas claimed to have discovered a Vancouver Island tribe (the Kwakiutl) in the throes of transition from patrilineal to matrilineal descent, reversing Morgan’s supposedly universal sequence. Second, A. R. Radcliffe-Brown offered an explanation of the ‘avunculate’ in terms of universal psychological and sociological principles, claiming that the ‘matrilineal survival’ interpretation of this peculiarity of kinship could therefore be dispensed with. In this article, I make no attempt to return to the debate or adjudicate on the substantive issues involved. My more modest aim is to recall key features of the debate, highlighting the motivations and agendas involved at the time. * * * * * If there is one thing on which all schools of social anthropology are agreed, it is that the nineteenth century ‘mother-right’ theory of early kinship is of no more than historical interest. Of all the theoretical conquests achieved by Boas, Kroeber, Lowie, Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown and their allies during the first decades of the twentieth century, the overthrow of the Bachofen-Morgan evolutionary scheme has appeared the most secure.
    [Show full text]
  • An Examination of the Maternal Uncle (Azhang) and His Significance in Tibetan Culture
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Kobe City University of Foreign Studies Institutional Repository 神戸市外国語大学 学術情報リポジトリ An Avuncular Profile: An Examination of the Maternal Uncle (Azhang) and his Significance in Tibetan Culture 著者 Samuels Jonathan journal or Journal of Research Institute : Historical publication title Development of the Tibetan Languages volume 51 page range 435-464 year 2014-03-01 URL http://id.nii.ac.jp/1085/00001795/ Creative Commons : 表示 - 非営利 - 改変禁止 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.ja An Avuncular Profile: Ęă ĽŬŜāǤŢāŇȾŇāĹŔŢŖŢāŇŪŌāņŪŘāĸĹāļŢĹāĹŢāŘŪɹāŎŢĹ An Examination of the Maternal Uncle (Azhang) and his Significance in Tibetan Culture Jonathan Samuels Heidelberg University 1. Introduction Due largely to the patrilineal character of the society, historical descriptions of Tibet have placed an emphasis upon agnates and the relationships between them. In these historical descriptions, as well as later academic works, affine figures and their traditional roles have attracted far less attention. There has been a certain amount of interest in the term zhang (understood to mean ‘maternal uncle’), within the context of attempts to understand the significance of the Tibetan imperial-era minister known as the zhang-lon or zhang-blon – the most detailed treatment of the topic thus far being that by Dotson (2004). Earlier, based primarily upon analysis of kinship terminology, Benedict (1942), Lévi-Strauss (1969), and Nagano (1998) also made reference to the maternal uncle figure, when proposing theories regarding certain marriage practices. Aside from this, little direct interest has been shown in the figure.
    [Show full text]
  • University of Groningen Avunculate and Fosterage Bremmer
    University of Groningen Avunculate and Fosterage Bremmer, Jan Published in: EPRINTS-BOOK-TITLE IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 1976 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Bremmer, J. (1976). Avunculate and Fosterage. In EPRINTS-BOOK-TITLE (pp. 65-78). s.n.. Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Download date: 26-09-2021 AVUNCULATE AND FOSTERAGE JAN BREMMER University of Utrech t A survey of the Indo-European peoples shows that most of them knew an affectionate relationship of ego-mother's brother and mother's father in contrast with a more formal relationship -of ego-father and father's family. This is explained by the absence of the patria potestas for the maternal uncle and grandfather.
    [Show full text]
  • Some Moot Problems in Social Organization
    UC Berkeley Anthropology Faculty Publications Title Some Moot Problems in Social Organization Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2562z0pt Journal American Anthropologist, 36(3) Author Lowie, Robert H. Publication Date 1934-09-01 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California American Anthropologist NEW SERIES Vol. 36 JULY-SEPTEMBER, 1934 No.3 SOME MOOT PROBLEMS IN SOCIAL ORGANIZATION By ROBERT H. LOWIE AXIOMS wo recent papers on social organization1 explain the distribution of T social phenomena by diffusion from a single world centre. Conclusions of such import challenge scrutiny as to the methods by which they have been reached. In my judgment they are corollaries of questionable axioms. According to Professor Olson, unilateral descent is an almost incon­ ceivable anomaly, hence multiple origin is unthinkable: not only have all American clan systems sprung from one source but that source must lie in the Old World to save us "from the awkward plight of positing their special creation within the New World" (pp. 411-14). The axiom is no~ new, since Lewis H. Morgan (Ancient Society, pt. II, ch. XV) considered. the clan (gens) an "essentially abstruse" institution and alleged "the improbability of its repeated reproduction in disconnected areas." Those who do not accept the dogma naturally have offered hypotheses to account for clans. Professor Olson chides them for explaining "the esoteric in terms of the prosaic." What does he conceive an explanation to be? Should it reduce the unknown to the unknowable? There is one attempt to prop the axiom. Unilateral reckoning, it seems, is esoteric because "it contradicts the duality of parenthood,and results in an unnatural stressing of one side of the family...
    [Show full text]
  • In-Law Conflict: Omenw ’S Reproductive Lives and the Roles of Their Mothers and Husbands Among the Matrilineal Khasi
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Anthropology Faculty Publications Anthropology, Department of December 2007 In-law Conflict: omenW ’s Reproductive Lives and the Roles of Their Mothers and Husbands among the Matrilineal Khasi Donna L. Leonetti University of Washington, [email protected] Dilip C. Nath Gauhati University, Guwahati, Assam, India Natabar S. Hemam Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, Assam, India Evelyn Blackwood (Comment by) Purdue University, [email protected] Patricia Draper (Comment by) University of Nebraska - Lincoln, [email protected] See next page for additional authors Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/anthropologyfacpub Part of the Anthropology Commons Leonetti, Donna L.; Nath, Dilip C.; Hemam, Natabar S.; Blackwood, Evelyn (Comment by); Draper, Patricia (Comment by); Euler, Harald A. (Comment by); Gibson, Mhairi A. (Comment by); Jenike, Mark R. (Comment by); Khongsdier, R. (Comment by); Kramer, Karen L. (Comment by); Langstieh, B. T. (Comment by); McKay, Kimber Haddix (Comment by); Ragsdale, Gillian (Comment by); and Voland, Eckart (Comment by), "In-law Conflict: omenW ’s Reproductive Lives and the Roles of Their Mothers and Husbands among the Matrilineal Khasi" (2007). Anthropology Faculty Publications. 2. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/anthropologyfacpub/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Anthropology, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Anthropology Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Authors Donna L. Leonetti, Dilip C. Nath, Natabar S. Hemam, Evelyn Blackwood (Comment by), Patricia Draper (Comment by), Harald A. Euler (Comment by), Mhairi A.
    [Show full text]
  • The Dual Organizations of the Ramko'kamekra (Canella) of Northern Brazil
    American Anthropologist NEW SERIES VOL. 39 OCTOBER-DECEMBER, 1937 No. 4 (Part 1) THE DUAL ORGANIZATIONS OF THE RAMKO’KAMEKRA (CANELLA) OF NORTHERN BRAZIL BY CURT NIMUENDAJ~AND ROBERT H. LOWIE~ HABITAT AND AFFILIATIONS HE Ramko’kamekra (Canella) occupy2 the village of Ponto, situated Tin the steppes of Maranhtio, Brazil, about 78 km. south of the town of Barra do Corda. Linguistically, they represent the southern dialect of the Eastern Timbira division of the GC family. A simplified scheme of this stock is appended herewith, with the proviso that Snr Nimuendajli is not yet clear as to the affinities of the Eastern branch (E). In this stock linguistic, geographical, and ethnographic classification happen to coincide to a striking degree. Gd Stock A Northern and Western G& I Timbira branch (a) Eastern Timbira (1) Northern Dialect Timbira of Rio Gurupy, et al. (2) Southern Dialect Ramko’kamekra, et al. (b) Western Timbira Apinaye’ 1 Under the auspices of the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of California, Snr Curt Nimuendajd of BelCm do Para has during the last two years synthetized some of his previous observations (in German) and undertaken two supplementary expeditions to GB tribes in the interior of Brazil. The present paper presents primarily data bearing on dual organizations; his extremely ample material on ceremonialism has been rigidly excluded ex- cept when too intimately interwoven with social structure to permit segregation. Even so it is not easy to summarize clearly the characteristics of a society simultaneously recognizing four distinct principles of dichotomy, two being of tribal scope, the other two limited to males.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction: Hal Scheffler’S Extensionism in Historical Perspective and Its Relevance to Current Controversies Warren Shapiro and Dwight Read
    Introduction: Hal Scheffler’s Extensionism in Historical Perspective and its Relevance to Current Controversies Warren Shapiro and Dwight Read Hal Scheffler was one of the world’s great anthropologists and, without question, its foremost authority on human kinship. These considerations in themselves would be quite enough to merit a collection of essays in his memory, but his work also touches upon certain larger issues in our appreciation of the human condition, as well as current social controversies. It was for his extensionist position on kinship terminologies—what he liked to call ‘systems of kin classification’—that he was best known. In a nutshell, Scheffler would come to raise two questions: (1) What is the primary meaning—what he called the focus—of kinship terms like English ‘mother’, ‘father’, ‘brother’, ‘sister’ etc.? (2) By what procedures do people extend these meanings from their foci to others? His answers, based upon meticulous analyses of kinship terminologies in various parts of the world, were that focal membership is supplied mostly by nuclear family relationships, from which relationships it is extended to people— even to things—outside the nuclear family; and that these extensions are accomplished by ordered sets of rules that have considerable generality cross-culturally. 3 FOCALITy AND ExTENSION IN KINSHIP The man himself1 Harold Walter Scheffler was born in St Louis, Missouri, United States, on 24 October 1932, to working-class parents, William C. Scheffler, an office clerk, and Dorothy C. Scheffler (née Briggs), a housewife. He registered at Southeast Missouri State College in 1952, moving to the University of Missouri the following year.
    [Show full text]
  • An Informational Theory of Electoral Targeting
    The Effects of Matrilineality on Gender Differences in Political Behavior across Africa∗ Jessica Gottlieb† Amanda Lea Robinson‡ April 20, 2016 Abstract Women tend to participate less in political and civic life across Sub-Saharan Africa, which could be due to inequality in access to resources, norms against gender equality, or both. We explore the implications of kinship systems for gender-specific access to resources, and eval- uate whether matrilineal kinship is associated with smaller gender gaps in political and civic participation. Using a combination of Afrobarometer and cross-national ethnographic data from 26 countries, we find that the gender gaps in political engagement, political participation, and civic participation are significantly smaller among matrilineal ethnic groups compared to patrilineal and mixed-descent groups. We then explore the relative importance of women’s access to material (e.g., land) and social (e.g., matrilocal residence) resources in closing gen- der gaps through an in-depth analysis of data from Malawi, a country in which 75% of the population hails from a matrilineal group. We find that material resources trump social ones in explaining female empowerment, but that access to land through matrilineal inheritance mat- ters above and beyond the short-term material implications of owning land. This suggests that it is the long-term expectation of resource entitlements conferred by matrilineal inheritance, rather than a single positive economic shock, that ultimately empowers women. ∗The authors thank Miguel Eusse for excellent research assistance, and participants at the Yale University Politics of Gender and Sexuality for helpful comments. We are particularly grateful to Crystal Biruk for pointing us to the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health (MLSFH) data.
    [Show full text]