Kinship Structure Theory and Its Implications for the Study of Mosuo Kinship Relations
This article introduces Claude Lévi-Strauss's theory of kinship structure, the foundation of his structural anthropology, written in memory of his passing in 2009. It first traces the theory's origins, contrasting Lévi-Strauss's approach with Morgan's social evolutionism (classificatory vs. descriptive kinship terminology) and Radcliffe-Brown's structural-functionalism, which reduced kinship to the biological nuclear family and the husband-wife dyad. Lévi-Strauss rejected these views, arguing that kinship should be understood as a social relationship rooted in marriage alliance rather than biological family, incorporating complex interwoven natural and cultural elements. The paper then reviews the theory's core ideas concerning the "atom" of kinship and its operating mechanisms. Finally, it applies structuralist interpretation to the Mosuo people's unique kinship system and proposes a new research perspective combining structuralism with psychological methods to further study Mosuo kinship relations.
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