Work

Generalized Exchange

Year: 2021

Type: article

Abstract: Generalized exchange, in which sections of a tribe exchange women in a cycle and thus guarantee social solidarity, was induced from models of the norms governing classificatory kinship systems. A blockmodel analysis of one aboriginal tribe yields sections that serve as marriage classes in a generalized exchange system, though the norms that govern kinship would fail to manifest, if followed, a cycle for exchange. Generalized exchange systems emerge from inequalities exogenous to the kinship system, specifically gerontocracy. Models of norms are weak predictors of actual exchange structures. Models of relations yield insight into the etiology of systems that build social solidarity from social exchange.

Source: Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

DOI: 10.17615/xvpc-1z05

Author: Bearman, Peter

Institution: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Language: English

Topic: Australian Indigenous Culture and History

Subfield: Anthropology

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Science Foundation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill