Gender and kinship : essays toward a unified analysis /

Twelve anthropologists examine male-female relationships in a wide array of contexts. The introduction and overview by the editors supplement essays first presented at a 1982 conference. The book is dedicated to Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo, whose work (Women, Culture, and Society, ed. by M. Rosaldo and L. Lamphere, CH, Sep '74) is a major contribution to the anthropology of gender relations-the essays are a tribute to her influence. Many of them touch on the issues of the asymmetry of gender relations and on the value of the domestic-juridical distinction in social interaction. The major contribution of this collection lies in the critiques of the accepted assumptions of gender studies and the imaginative explorations of the ways gender and kinship are interrelated. The major drawback is its delay in publication; much work has been done since 1982 when most of the papers were written. Appropriate for advanced students.-M. Ottenheimer, Kansas State University