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Department of Anthropology

Research Group Member Profile

Publication details for Dr Stephen M. Lyon

Lyon, Stephen M. (2010). Genealogy, kinship and knowledge: A cautionary note about causation. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 33(5): 394.

Author(s) from Durham

Abstract

The choice of emphasis in kinship studies has often resulted in incompatible theoretical models of kinship that are mutually undermining and contradictory. Jones’ attempts to reconcile disparate approaches to kinship using OT is useful, however; seeing kinship as a specialized system for representing genealogy may be unwarranted in the light of recent advances in mathematical approaches to kinship terminologies.

References

Bennardo, G. (2009) Language, space, and social relationships: A foundational cultural model in Polynesia. Cambridge University Press.
Carsten, J. (1997) The heat of the hearth: The process of kinship in a Malay fishing community. Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press.
Fischer, M. D. & Read, D. (2005) Kinship Algebra Expert System: A computer program and documentation for formal modelling of kinship terminologies and the simulation of populations that under these models. Retrieved 24 June, 2010, from http://Kaes.anthrosciences.net.
Goodenough, W. (1965) Yankee kinship terminology: A problem in componential analysis. American Anthropologist 67(5):259–87.
Leaf, M. J. (1979) Man, mind, and science: A history of anthropology. Columbia University Press.
Leaf, M. J. (2005) The message is the medium: language, culture, and informatics. Cybernetics and Systems: An International Journal 36(8):903–17.
Read, D. W. (2001) Formal analysis of kinship terminologies and its relationship to what constitutes kinship. Anthropological Theory 1(2):239–67.
Read, D. W. (2006) Kinship Algebra Expert System (KAES): A software implementation of a cultural theory. Social Science Computer Review 24(1):43–67.

Notes

Commentary on "Human kinship, from conceptual structure to grammar" by Doug Jones