Biological and social aspects of kinship

to follow. Paper 2: Sayana Namsaraeva: MPI Halle, and Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow “The ambiguous use of avuncular terminology in defining Buryat diaspora relations with homeland and host country” Abstract The significance of the relationship between mother’s brother and sister’s son (avunculate) in kinship has been one of the most discussed topics in the history of social anthropology. The fact that it faded from the major topics of the discipline after the 1960s, when much of scholarship on the topic was produced (see R. Lowie 1919, A. Radcliffe-Brown 1958; J. Goody 1959; C. LéviStrauss 1949 and others), does not mean that the question does not require new approaches anymore, especially if ethnographic material continues to bring more evidence of its importance. Maurice Bloch and Dan Sperber in their recent article again drew attention on the peculiar mother’s brother and sister’s son relationship. They remark that “even today recent ethnographers are repeatedly struck by the prominence accorded to this relationship by the people they have studied in many different places...” (2006:116). My ethnographic material also turned my attention to the importance of this relation. In this paper I present two cases of how Buryat diaspora communities in Mongolia and China involve the mother’s brother and sister’s son relations in a wider and more flexible classificatory sense than just biological relatedness. Specifically I focus on how they metaphorically extended relations of avunculate to define their ambiguous relationship with homeland and host country. This local phenomena shows thatThe significance of the relationship between mother’s brother and sister’s son (avunculate) in kinship has been one of the most discussed topics in the history of social anthropology. The fact that it faded from the major topics of the discipline after the 1960s, when much of scholarship on the topic was produced (see R. Lowie 1919, A. Radcliffe-Brown 1958; J. Goody 1959; C. LéviStrauss 1949 and others), does not mean that the question does not require new approaches anymore, especially if ethnographic material continues to bring more evidence of its importance. Maurice Bloch and Dan Sperber in their recent article again drew attention on the peculiar mother’s brother and sister’s son relationship. They remark that “even today recent ethnographers are repeatedly struck by the prominence accorded to this relationship by the people they have studied in many different places...” (2006:116). My ethnographic material also turned my attention to the importance of this relation. In this paper I present two cases of how Buryat diaspora communities in Mongolia and China involve the mother’s brother and sister’s son relations in a wider and more flexible classificatory sense than just biological relatedness. Specifically I focus on how they metaphorically extended relations of avunculate to define their ambiguous relationship with homeland and host country. This local phenomena shows that kinship terminology continues to be used in a wider social context to express power relations, social inequality and conflicts. Paper 3: Austin Hughes, University of South Carolina, USA “Biological realism in kinship studies." Abstract Cultural anthropologists have treated kinship relations as a symbolic system divorced from biological reality. However, evolutionary theory provides reasons for predicting that animals (including humans) will interact differently with other individuals on the basis of biological relatedness (assuming that individuals have some method of determining relatedness, even approximately). I examine data that test this prediction, and discuss possible applications of an understanding of biological kinship in dissecting and predicting human social interactions.Cultural anthropologists have treated kinship relations as a symbolic system divorced from biological reality. However, evolutionary theory provides reasons for predicting that animals (including humans) will interact differently with other individuals on the basis of biological relatedness (assuming that individuals have some method of determining relatedness, even approximately). I examine data that test this prediction, and discuss possible applications of an understanding of biological kinship in dissecting and predicting human social interactions. Paper 4. Björn Vollan, University of Mannheim, Germany “The difference between kinship and friendship: (Field-) experimental evidence from Namibia on trust and punishment” Abstract This paper continues a tradition of using economic games in field settings to test evolutionary theories of cooperation. It reports on a one-shot trust experiment with and without third party punishment (TPP) where participants were either paired with one of their reported family members, a friend or an unrelated villager. So far, microeconomic experiments have not investigated kinship in an anonymous way and also its relation to punishment is unknown. Experimental trust and trustworthiness varies between only twenty per cent when playing with a villager and nearly eighty per cent when matched with a family member. TPP is positive and significant for first and second player in interactions among villagers and friends but detrimental among family members.This paper continues a tradition of using economic games in field settings to test evolutionary theories of cooperation. It reports on a one-shot trust experiment with and without third party punishment (TPP) where participants were either paired with one of their reported family members, a friend or an unrelated villager. So far, microeconomic experiments have not investigated kinship in an anonymous way and also its relation to punishment is unknown. Experimental trust and trustworthiness varies between only twenty per cent when playing with a villager and nearly eighty per cent when matched with a family member. TPP is positive and significant for first and second player in interactions among villagers and friends but detrimental among family members.