ABSTRACT

Originally published in the UK in 1970.
The central argument of this book is that the structuralist theory and method developed by British and American anthropologists in the study of kinship and social organization are the direct descendants of the researches of Lewis Henry Morgan. Re-examining Morgan's work, the book demonstrates how a tradition of mis-interpretation has disguised the true import of Morgan's discoveries and ideas for Rivers and Radcliffe-Brown and the generation of anthropologists inspired by them.

part I|83 pages

Retrospect

chapter 1|15 pages

Morgan: The Founding Father

chapter 3|11 pages

Morgan and the Analytical Approach

chapter 5|25 pages

Toward the Jural Dimension

part II|132 pages

Paradigmatic Ethnographical Specimens

chapter 6|14 pages

A Methodological Excursus

chapter 7|21 pages

The Kinship Polity

chapter 9|16 pages

The Ashanti: State and Citizenship

chapter 10|37 pages

The Lineage in Ashanti

chapter 11|26 pages

Ashanti Patrilateral Kinship and its Values

part III|94 pages

Some Issues in Structural Theory

chapter 12|31 pages

Kinship and the Axiom of Amity

chapter 13|26 pages

Filiation Reconsidered

chapter 14|35 pages

Descent and the Corporate Group