Alexander Mansutti Rodríguez
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780813054315
- eISBN:
- 9780813053066
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813054315.003.0003
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
Mansutti adopts Needham’s scheme of distinguishing three analytical levels; the jural rules; the statistical-behavioural, and the categorical. He includes a computer simulation to gain a time depth ...
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Mansutti adopts Needham’s scheme of distinguishing three analytical levels; the jural rules; the statistical-behavioural, and the categorical. He includes a computer simulation to gain a time depth in his model of Piaroa kinship and marriage, which demonstrates that the exceptions to the marriage rules are not residual and inexplicable but are necessary to maintain the ideal model anticipated by the formal rules. Although violations of the rules are motivated by personal desires and not a desire to save the formal system, they are in fact necessary to its preservation. Moreover, he employs Bourdieu’s distinction between official and private kinship, and illustrates his approach with apposite case studies. For instance, he describes how personal interests can be transmuted into community interests, and genealogical relationships between two people in small-scale societies can be “read” along different routes with telling results.Less
Mansutti adopts Needham’s scheme of distinguishing three analytical levels; the jural rules; the statistical-behavioural, and the categorical. He includes a computer simulation to gain a time depth in his model of Piaroa kinship and marriage, which demonstrates that the exceptions to the marriage rules are not residual and inexplicable but are necessary to maintain the ideal model anticipated by the formal rules. Although violations of the rules are motivated by personal desires and not a desire to save the formal system, they are in fact necessary to its preservation. Moreover, he employs Bourdieu’s distinction between official and private kinship, and illustrates his approach with apposite case studies. For instance, he describes how personal interests can be transmuted into community interests, and genealogical relationships between two people in small-scale societies can be “read” along different routes with telling results.
