ABSTRACT
There is no privileged zone in culture from which the others necessarily derive, and society is neither the family expanded nor the polity generalized. From the beginning of the author's fieldwork in Formentera his research was intended to be an analysis of the role of kinship in a peasant society. From the standpoint of social structure, kinship practices in Formentera have very irregular and contradictory facets. In spite of the fact that the language of kinship may be thought marginal with respect to social structure and that the rules of behaviour defined by kinship rarely extend beyond the limits of the household, it became clear from the author's fieldwork that a kinship-based discourse still remained significant. In order to define the specific meaning of kinship, it was necessary to assume that it depicts a set of relations, primarily genealogical, though with an ultimate connection to its biological character.
