ABSTRACT
Euro-Americans may think of relationships existing between abstract or inanimate entities, such as ‘society’ or ‘technology’. They also think of them as engaging persons in mutual accord or non-mutual antagonism. As a consequence, people can feel equally empowered by or powerless from relationships that already seem to be in place. Kin relations have a special quality here. They are distinguished from others as relations which are brought into being at the moment of procreation but which from the point of view of the person brought into being are already there.
