Relative Values : Reconfiguring Kinship Studies

The essays in Relative Values draw on new work in anthropology, science studies, gender theory, critical race studies, and postmodernism to offer a radical revisioning of kinship and kinship theory. Through a combination of vivid case studies and trenchant theoretical essays, the contributors—a group of internationally recognized scholars—examine both the history of kinship theory and its future, at once raising questions that have long occupied a central place within the discipline of anthropology and moving beyond them. Ideas about kinship are vital not only to understanding but also to forming many of the practices and innovations of contemporary society. How do the cultural logics of contemporary biopolitics, commodification, and globalization intersect with kinship practices and theories? In what ways do kinship analogies inform scientific and clinical practices; and what happens to kinship when it is created in such unfamiliar sites as biogenetic labs, new reproductive technology clinics, and the computers of artificial life scientists? How does kinship constitute—and get constituted by—the relations of power that draw lines of hierarchy and equality, exclusion and inclusion, ambivalence and violence? The contributors assess the implications for kinship of such phenomena as blood transfusions, adoption across national borders, genetic support groups, photography, and the new reproductive technologies while ranging from rural China to mid-century Africa to contemporary Norway and the United States. Addressing these and other timely issues, Relative Values injects new life into one of anthropology's most important disciplinary traditions. Posing these and other timely questions, Relative Values injects an important interdisciplinary curiosity into one of anthropology’s most important disciplinary traditions. Contributors. Mary Bouquet, Janet Carsten, Charis Thompson Cussins, Carol Delaney, Gillian Feeley-Harnik, Sarah Franklin, Deborah Heath, Stefan Helmreich, Signe Howell, Jonathan Marks, Susan McKinnon, Michael G. Peletz, Rayna Rapp, Martine Segalen, Pauline Turner Strong, Melbourne Tapper, Karen-Sue Taussig, Kath Weston, Yunxiang Yan The Essays In This Volume Offer A Radical Revisioning Of Kinship And Kinship Theory. The Contributors Chart A New Future For Kinship Studies, Addressing Topics That Range From The Commodification Of Kinship Through To Trans-national Adoption. Relative Values : Reconfiguring Kinship Studies / Sarah Franklin And Susan Mckinnon -- Substantivism, Antisubstantivism, And Anti-antisubstantivisim / Janet Carsten -- The Ethnography Of Creation : Lewis Henry Morgan And The American Beaver / Gillian Feely-harnik -- Making Kinship, With An Old Reproductive Technology / Mary Bouquet -- Kinship In Hypertext : Transubstantiating Fatherhood And Information Flow In Artificial Life / Stefan Helmreich -- Kinship, Controversy, And The Sharing Of Substance : The Race/class Politics Of Blood Transfusion / Kath Weston -- Strategic Naturalizing : Kinship In An Infertility Clinic / Charis Thompson. Self-conscious Kinship : Some Contested Values In Norwegian Transnational Adoption / Signe Howell -- Practicing Kinship In Rural North China / Yunxiang Yan -- The Shift In Kinship Studies In France : The Case Of Grandparenting / Martine Segalen -- The Economies In Kinship And The Paternity Of Culture : Origin Stories In Kinship Theory / Susan Mckinnon -- Biologization Revisited : Kinship Theory In The Context Of The New Biologies / Sarah Franklin. Blood/kinship, Governmentality, And Cultures Of Order In Colonial Africa / Melbourne Tapper -- We're Going To Tell These People Who They Really Are : Science And Relatedness / Jonathan Marks -- Genealogical Dis-ease : Where Hereditary Abnormality, Biomedical Explanation, And Family Responsibility Meet / Rayna Rapp, Deborah Heath, And Karen-sue Taussig -- Ambivalence In Kinshipsince The 1940s / Michael G. Peletz -- Cutting The Ties That Bind : The Sacrifice Of Abraham And Patriarchal Kinship / Carol Delaney -- To Forget Their Tongue, Their Name, And Their Whole Relation : Captivity, Extra-tribal Adoption, And The Indian Child Welfare Act / Pauline Turner Strong. Edited By Sarah Franklin & Susan Mckinnon. Papers Presented At The Wenner-gren International Symposium New Directions In Kinship Study : A Core Concept Revisited, Which Took Place From 27 March To 4 April 1998 In Palma De Mallorca. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. The essays in Relative Values draw on new work in anthropology, science studies, gender theory, critical race studies, and postmodernism to offer a radical revisioning of kinship and kinship theory. Through a combination of vivid case studies and trenchant theoretical essays, the contributors -- a group of internationally recognized scholars -- examine both the history of kinship theory and its future, at once raising questions that have long occupied a central place within the discipline of anthropology and moving beyond them.Ideas about kinship are vital not only to understanding but also to forming many of the practices and innovations of contemporary society. How do the cultural logics of contemporary biopolitics, commodification, and globalization intersect with kinship practices and theories? In what ways do kinship analogies inform scientific and clinical practices; and what happens to kinship when it is created in such unfamiliar sites as biogenetic labs, new reproductive technology clinics, and the computers of artificial life scientists? How does kinship constitute -- and get constituted by -- the relations of power that draw lines of hierarchy and equality, exclusion and inclusion, ambivalence and violence? The contributors assess the implications for kinship of such phenomena as blood transfusions, adoption across national borders, genetic support groups, photography, and the new reproductive technologies while ranging from rural China to mid-century Africa to contemporary Norway and the United States. Addressing these and other timely issues, Relative Values injects new life into one of anthropology's most important disciplinary traditions.