ABSTRACT
Kinship, as an institution of social bonds of descent and marriage between persons, has long suggested itself as a tool for the elucidation of symbolic and material power, and thus has always attracted the attention of anthropological studies. The classic anthropology tended to emphasize kinship ideology through symbolic systems and terminological structures. With the rise of alternative families and new technologies of reproduction alongside the disappearance of kin-based societies, the study of kinship cannot be confined to systems, since the domain of rules and structures has an ideological character merely indicating what people should do. However, kinship behavior analysis will not come to an end even if kin-based societies slip into the past, as kinship behavior is about how people act in accordance to their idealized kinship rules (Godelier et al. 1998: 1-4).
