Kinship Essay

Question 1

Essay Question

Answer 1

Discuss the limitations and also the positive aspects of kinship based ethnographies when understanding and exploring the structure and functions of society

Question 2

Essay Plan

Answer 2

Introduction; Greek Island Cosmos and Just; Study of European Societies; Kinship Focus; Just Moving Beyond; Defence of Just; Limitations and Flaws; Conclusion

Question 3

Introduction

Answer 3

I will briefly cover ethnographies of Greece at that period of time
Just used style to his advantage
However he was limited
Conclude on his style and the kinship focus in general

Question 4

Greek Island Cosmos and Just

Answer 4

Fieldwork done in 1977, book completed in 2000
Was seeking a isolated community (accordance with oxford style ethnography)
participant observation, reported case studies

Question 5

Study of European Societies

Answer 5

Anthropology was initially focused on non-western societies until 1960
Models from African societies were applied to Mediterranean (Radcliffe-Brown - Pritchard)
Ethnographies in Greece were entirely preoccupied with marriage and the single idea of maleness and femaleness as expressed in the context of conjugal procreation (Friedl, 1962; Campbell, 1964)
At the Just’s fieldwork, isolated communities was disproved (exoticising)

Question 6

Kinship Focus

Answer 6

Just’s book is dedicated to Campbell (Honour; Family and Patronage) which used similar models from Evans-Pritchard, kinship forming politics.
Emphasis on kinship has shaped anthropology, Structural functionalist approach sees marriage as basis of institutional domains of economics, politics and religion
‘we are all one family’ literate, affectionate, but also contradicting
In Greece, household single significant element in regulation of marriage, it is a status symbol (Papataxiarchis, 1990) (this is evident in Just’s work)

Question 7

Just Moving Beyond

Answer 7

Challenged friends from kin, with kin from friends, not focused in (Campbell, 1964)
Use of kinship not as determinant of action, but as an idiom of explaining action
Challanges social distinctions of villager, emigrant and urban dweller, or community does and he captures it well
Period of time made it impossible for Just to focus on stationary view, social change and modernisation (ships, tourists), combining oxford style with concerns raised by young generation

Question 8

Defence of Just

Answer 8

Just was reflexive about his choice to study rural community, he says rural societies are viable units of analysis, important in understanding large scale social processes
Book written well, kinship detail stands out, but maybe for consideration of kinship academics (Theodossopoulos, 2002)
Was his reflexive state too late?

Question 9

Limitations and Flaws

Answer 9

Emigrants perspectives were ignored, pressure on money not explored (family is an island), does cover a bit on students in Athens, but obviously an ethnography can’t do everything
Woman’s perspective ignored, (President got male population), Jealous not been able to talk to women
Dubisch (1986) women content with not bearing children, challenges women’s views of gender
Structural Functionalism criticised for simplistic view of society, ignoring important sources of thought and action which make up the complex society of Greece, (Loizos & Papataxiarchis, 1991)

Question 10

Conclusion

Answer 10

Local community is described with relation to the world outside, in a fluid way but he only accounts for one side
His justification is that its key to understanding larger social processes, so why didn’t he include some of this in the book?