Year: 1980
Type: article
Abstract: Les Structures Elémentaires de la Parenté (reviewed by J. P. B. de Josselin de Jong in 1952), and in 1960 F. G. G. Rose published his Classification of Kin, Age Structure and Marriage Amongst the Groote Eylandt Aborigines (reviewed by P. E. de Josselin de Jong in 1962).T o most observers these worksseemed diametrically opposed in their respective assumptions and conclusions.While the first was alliance oriented, stressing the role of the circulation of women in strengthening both the links between men and society as a whole, the second was descent oriented, focussing more on the interrelation of kinship positions through marriage.And while Lévi-Strauss treated facts at the model level, Rose treated them at the level of observed behaviour.Despite this, however, P. E. de Josselin de Jong thought that, considered together, there might result one of those "chocs des opinions from which proverbially, truth results" (1962: 6 5 ) .It is the implications of this insight that I would like to explore here.Rose's arguments were based on his fieldwork on Groote Eylandt in Arnhem Land, Australia in 1940 and focussed on the relationship between sister-exchange, musin marriage and gerontocracy or the maniage of older men to young women.His data showed that the actual age differente between spouses was, on the average, about
Author: David H. Turner
Language: Dutch
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W2018625440