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In this ground-breaking study based on ethnographic research in Formentera, in the Balearic Islands, the author demonstrates that European kinship can become central to anthropological explanation once it is understood from a symbolic and cultural perspective. This book is an outstanding example of ethnographic analysis which is sensitive to the findings of demographic and historical research.
List of contents
Preface Josep LloberaI IntroductionKinship in FormenteraParadoxes in the study of kinshipFamily historyThe complex structures of kinshipII Systems of ClassificationNames and naming ritualGenealogies, names and family memoryThe name of the houseIdeas about kinship and the language of communityIII Household FormsThe model of the peasant familyFamily and residence: morphology and functionsThe structure of the residential group (1875-1955) a) Household composition b) Types of kin beyond the conjugal nucleusThe domestic cycle a) Household composition and age of Ego b) Phases in the domestic cycle c) Transformations in household compositionIV Ways of Living: Past and PresentThe domestic spaceThe houses of emigrantsContinuity: the `porxo', multifunctional spaceThe break in the present: family time and social timeV Household ReproductionThe house as social representationPatrimonial lines and the conjugal fundThe matrimonial domainMarriages between consanguine kin and the significance of matrimonial prohibitionsClose matrimonial strategiesAppendix Census of surnames on Formentera in 1934BibliographyIndex
About the author
Joan Bestard-Camps Lecturer in Social Anthropology,University of Barcelona Translated from the Spanish by Robert Pitt
Summary
In this ground-breaking study based on ethnographic research in Formentera, in the Balearic Islands, the author demonstrates that European kinship can become central to anthropological explanation once it is understood from a symbolic and cultural perspective.
