Accepted Panels

The historian Thomas Trautmann has viewed a theory of kinship as being the precursor to anthropological theorizing.  The connection between the two stems from the fact that a theory of kinship is, fundamentally, a theory of the social organization of human societies since kinship provides the conceptual basis for the latter.  In this panel, we want to explore how a theory of kinship has led to advances in a theory of anthropology and, conversely, how a theory of anthropology has led to advances in a theory of kinship.  It is no coincidence that the scholars developing a theory of anthropology in the 20th century were also the scholars developing a theory of kinship.  From Morgan to Malinowski to Radcliffe-Brown to Leach and to Lévi-Strauss, the great thinkers of anthropology have also been the scholars who have excelled in advancing our theories regarding what constitutes kinship and why kinship relations are fundamental to how we, as culture bearers, perceive kinship relations.  For this reason, the way American anthropologists turned their backs on kinship theory in the 21st century, as if theorizing about human kinship systems denies our humanness and reduces being human to a mechanical approach to understanding human societies, has severely misconstrued the way in which kinship is the primary means through which we express the humanness that makes us a unique species.  Our goal in this panel is to reopen the discourse that sees the connection between kinship theory and anthropological theory as fundamental to how we understand ourselves as a species.  We welcome participation by anthropological scholars of all persuasions who share this notion of a connection between kinship theorizing and anthropological theorizing and who are engaging in research that makes evident the connection between kinship theorizing and anthropological theorizing.