Schneider (Unfinished, 3 answers to write)

Question 1

What did Schneider reject? (3)

Answer 1

1. Assertion that kinship has to do with reproduction
2. Assertion that all mankind is genealogically composed
3. Implicit concept of ‘biology’ as underpinning ‘kinship’

Question 2

What did Schneider suggest/argue? (2)

Answer 2

1. That the first task of anthropology, prerequisite to all others, is to understand and formulate the symbols and meanings and their configuration that a particular culture consists of
2. Social (including most intimate) relatedness is always culturally constructed

Question 3

What does Schneider (1980: 34) mean when he says that the biological assumptions of ‘American family that is formed according to the laws of nature’?

Answer 3

He means blood relatedness through marriage or kin is the one-track thinking of Americans
(They believe this is the only way forward)

Question 4

What does Schneider mean through ‘Cultural Construct’?

Answer 4

Children are connected to their parents through ‘blood ties’ (a shared biogenetic substance) which symbolises ‘enduring solidarity’

Question 5

What was Schneider’s view of Sexual Reproduction of the kin-unrelated partners in marriage as a core symbol of
kinship?

Answer 5

‘Sexual intercourse [is] itself a symbol of course. The figure is formulated …
as a biological entity and a natural act. Yet throughout, each element which is
culturally defined as natural is at the same time augmented and elaborated, built
upon and informed by the rule of human reason, embodied in law and in morality.’
(1980:40

Question 6

What did Schneider seen his shift away from kinship as?

Answer 6

He saw it as part of a general shift in anthropological understanding from structure to practice, and from practice to discourse
(Interpretative shift)

Question 7

What were the impacts of Schneider’s work? (3)

Answer 7

1. Kinship diagrams and terminological ‘algebra’ nearly disappear in anthropological studies
2. Convergence with sociology in its emphasis on gender, body, and personhood, although emphasis on symbolic systems and meaning continued
3. Seeking for alternative terms without necessarily solving the underpinning epistemological problem of ethnocentrism of analytic categories

Question 8

What are 3 examples of post-Schneider ethnographies

Answer 8

1. Inupiat
2. Nuer
3. Malays