Aims

- to provide the students a general introduction to the anthropological approach of kinship. Special accent will be put on the intercultural comparison.

Main themes

The course begins with an approach of the main concepts of kinship. It will try to show that the break between the so-called traditional societies and the modern societies is not as radical as it has been claimed for so long. As the course is an introduction, it will try to familiarize the students with the main authors and the main theories having marked the stody of ethnology. Special accent will be put on also on some particular themes such as polyandry, the taboo of incest or the equality of sexes. The course will also call upon criticism and comparison.

Content and teaching methods

Lectures on the following parts :
1) Main concepts
2) Prohibition of incest
3) Terminologies of kinship
4) Evolutionism
5) The family by the "hunters-pluckers"
6) African polygyny
7) Polyandry
8) The preferential wedding with the crossed cousin
9) Malinowski and the "trobriandais"
10) The Oedipus complex
11) The trend culture and personality

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Oral examination
Robert Deliège " Anthropologie de la parenté ", Paris, Armand Colin, 1996

Other credits in programs