Crow-Omaha

by Trautmann, Thomas R.; Whiteley, Peter M.

• ISBN13: 9780816507900
• ISBN10: 0816507902
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-11-15
• Publisher: Univ of Arizona Pr

Summary

The "Crow-Omaha problem" has perplexed anthropologists since it was first described by Lewis Henry Morgan in 1871. During his worldwide survey of kinship systems, Morgan learned with astonishment that some Native American societies call some relatives of different generations by the same terms. Why? Intergenerational "skewing" in what came to be named "Crow" and "Omaha" systems has provoked a wealth of anthropological arguments, from Rivers to Radcliffe-Brown, from Lowie to Lévi-Strauss, and many more. Crow-Omaha systems, it turns out, are both uncommon and yet found distributed around the world. For anthropologists, cracking the Crow-Omaha problem is critical to understanding how social systems transform from one type into another, both historically in particular settings and evolutionarily in the broader sweep of human relations. This volume examines the Crow-Omaha problem from a variety of perspectives-historical, linguistic, formalist, structuralist, culturalist, evolutionary, and phylogenetic. It focuses on the regions where Crow-Omaha systems occur: Native North America, Amazonia, West Africa, Northeast and East Africa, aboriginal Australia, northeast India, and the Tibeto-Burman area. The international roster of authors includes leading experts in their fields. The book offers a state-of-the-art assessment of Crow-Omaha kinship and carries forward the work of the landmark volume Transformations of Kinship, published in 1998. Intended for students and scholars alike, it is composed of brief, accessible chapters that respect the complexity of the ideas while presenting them clearly. The work serves as both a new benchmark in the explanation of kinship systems and an introduction to kinship studies for a new generation of students. Series Note:Formerly titled Amerind Studies in Archaeology, this series has recently been expanded and retitled Amerind Studies in Anthropology to incorporate a high quality and number of anthropology titles coming in to the series in addition to those in archaeology.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Kinship Notation	p. xi
Linguistic Note	p. xiii
A Classic Problem	p. 1
Crow-Omaha in Theory
Crossness and Crow-Omaha	p. 31
Tetradic Theory and Omaha Systems	p. 51
North America
Omaha and "Omaha"	p. 69
Crow-Omaha Kinship in North America: A Puebloan Perspective	p. 83
Phylogenetic Analysis of Sociocultural Data: Identifying Transformation Vectors for Kinship Systems	p. 109
Africa
A Tetradic Starting Point for Skewing? Marriage as a Generational Contract: Reflections on Sister-Exchange in Africa	p. 135
Crow- (and Omaha-) Type Kinship Terminology: The Fanti Case	p. 153
Deep-Time Historical Contexts of Crow and Omaha Systems: Perspectives from Africa	p. 173
South America
The Making and Unmaking of "Crow-Omaha" Kinship in Central Brazilian Ethnology)	p. 205
Schemas of Kinship Relations and the Construction of Social Categories among the Mebêngôkrê Kayapó	p. 223
Australia
Omaha Skewing in Australia: Overlays, Dynamism, and Change	p. 243
"Horizontal" and "Vertical" Skewing: Similar Objectives, Two Solutions?	p. 261
Afterword
Crow-Omaha, in Thickness and in Thin	p. 281
Notes	p. 299
Glossary	p. 303
References	p. 309
About the Contributors	p. 335
Topics Index	p. 337
Peoples Index	p. 344
Persons Index	p. 347
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