Beyond Kinship Social And Material Reproduction In House Societies [Paperback]

Beyond Kinshipbrings together ethnohistorians, archaeologists, and cultural anthropologists for the first time in a common discussion of the social model of house societies proposed by Claude Levi-Strauss. While kinship theory has been central to the study of social organization, an alternative approach has emerged—that of seeing the house both as a physical and symbolic structure and a principle of social organization.

The house stands as a model social formation that is distinguished by its attention to a number of material domains (land, the dwelling, ritual and nonritual objects). As the essays in this volume make clear, the focus on material culture and on place contributes to the ongoing convergence of anthropology and history and helps erase the artificial distinctions between prehistory and history.

Contributions to the volume offer significant new interpretations of primary data as well as reconsidering classic ethnographic material. Beyond Kinship crosses the boundaries within anthropology—not only between cultural anthropology and archaeology but between structural—symbolic and materialist approaches and between American and British schools of anthropology; it is intended to advance the fruitful dialogue now taking place within the field.

Contents and Contributors
Foreword
—Clark E. Cunningham
Opening Up the House: An Introduction
—Susan D. Gillespie
Lévi-Strauss: Maison and Société Maisons
—Susan D. Gillespie
Toponymic Groups and House Organization Among the Nahuas of Northern Veracruz, Mexico
—Alan R. Sandstrom
Transformations of Nuu-chah-nulth Houses
—Yvonne Marshall
Temples as Holy Houses : The Transformation of Ritual Architecture in Traditional Polynesian Societies
—Patrick V. Kirch
The Continuous House: A View from the Deep Past
—Ruth Tringham
Maya Nested Houses : The Ritual Construction of PllS€