Kinship in the Admiralty Islands

by Mead,Margaret

• ISBN13: 9780765807649
• ISBN10: 0765807645
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2001-09-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The Manus of New Guinea's Pere village were Margaret Mead's most favored community, the people to whom she returned five times before she died in 1978. Kinship in the Admiralty Islands is the classic and only thorough description of their complex rules of marriage and family relations. It draws on Mead's 1928-1929 field work, conducted with her second husband, New Zealander Reo Fortune, and benefits by her being able to cross-check her data with his. Written in 1931, Kinship followed Mead's first and very popular book on the Manus, Growing Up in New Guinea, which was criticized by other anthropologists for being too general in scope. In Kinship Mead succeeded in demonstrating her thorough knowledge of this Melanesian group in the specific terms prized by her scholarly colleagues, while also describing in depth Manus social structure.Kinship in the Admiralty Islands describes an intricate system of social restraints and kinship ties and their impact on the local economy. The Manus' predilectionfor adoption, for example, allows surrogate fathers to make extended marriage payments, while in the next generation their adopted sons will take on the same responsibility for other young men in the new kin network. Mead reviews other kinship rules, such as avoidance behavior between in-laws of the opposite sex, early betrothals, other forms of adoption, and a range of deference behavior and joking relations among kin. In this work, Mead walks a fine line between functionalist kinship analysis of the British school of Radclife Brown and the cultural-and-personality orientation of Americans in the school of Franz Boas.

Author Biography

Margaret Mead (1901-1978) was curator of ethnology of the American Museum of Natural History.

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Transaction Edition	ix
Preface	xxv
THE MANUS TRIBE	1	(149)
Sketch of Manus Culture	1	(3)
The Manus Tribe	4	(8)
The Manus Village	12	(4)
Rank	16	(2)
Privileges of peri lapan	16	(2)
The Gens	18	(12)
The Kinship System	30	(22)
The kinship terminology	30	(8)
Ceremonial functions of Relatives	38	(2)
Summary of Marriage Rules	40	(1)
Structural Emphases	41	(7)
Kinship within the Gens	48	(4)
Kinship Behavior	52	(34)
Manus Manners Relevant to Avoidance Rules	52	(2)
The Prescribed Marriage and Kinship Behavior	54	(6)
Characteristic Behavior Types	60	(8)
Cross-Cousin Jesting	62	(4)
Respect Behavior	66	(1)
Avoidance Behavior	67	(1)
Use of Personal Pronouns in Affinal Relationships	68	(2)
Use of Personal Names	70	(7)
Other Aspects of Avoidance Behavior	77	(7)
Avoidance Situations Which are not Functions of Kinship	84	(1)
Summary of Avoidance Relationships	85	(1)
Husband and Wife	85	(1)
The Growing Child and the Kinship Categories	86	(8)
Effective Inter-Relationships in Adult Life	94	(26)
Brother and Sister	94	(6)
Husband and Wife	100	(4)
Brother and Brother	104	(4)
Brothers-in-Law	108	(5)
Cross-Cousins	113	(2)
Sister to Sister---Piloan	115	(1)
Sisters-in-Law---Pinkaiyon	115	(3)
Female Cross-Cousins---Pinpolapol	118	(1)
Co-Wives---Palu	118	(1)
Trade Friendships	119	(1)
Religious Ramifications of the Kinship System	120	(2)
Justification of Ensuing Comparisons	122	(3)
Ceremonial Plunder	125	(1)
Inheritance	126	(1)
Contravention of the Kinship System	127	(23)
Implications of the Affinal Exchange System	127	(4)
Adoption	131	(2)
The Modification of the Kinship Terminology	133	(2)
Illustrative Cases	135	(7)
Analysis of the Gens Lo	142	(5)
Summary	147	(3)
NOTES ON OTHER ADMIRALTY ISLAND SYSTEMS	150	(15)
Conditions of Collection	150	(1)
The Balowan Kinship System	150	(4)
Consanguinity	151	(1)
Affinal Terms	151	(1)
Special Terminology	151	(1)
The Expression of Seniority	152	(2)
The Lou System	154	(3)
Terms of Consanguinity	154	(1)
Analysis of Cross-Cousin Terms	155	(1)
Terms of Affinity	155	(1)
Consanguineous Terms Used in Affinal Relations	155	(1)
Notes on the Social Organization	155	(1)
Discussion	156	(1)
The Ario Usiai Kinship System	157	(2)
Terms of Affinity	158	(1)
Consanguineous Terms Used in Affinal Relationships	158	(1)
Analysis of Cross-Cousin Terms	158	(1)
Discussion	159	(1)
The Pak System	159	(3)
Terms of Consanguinity	160	(1)
Analysis of Cross-Cousin Terms	161	(1)
Affinal Terms	161	(1)
The Bipi System	162	(1)
Terms of Consanguinity	162	(1)
Affinal Terms	162	(1)
Linguistic Aspect of the Foregoing Terminologies	163	(2)
Concluding Statement	165	(4)
Glossary	169