Kinship Pt 4: Kinship and Contemporary Family-making
Kinship is one of the first topics anthropologists studied over 150 years ago. While the term may seem quaint, issues of intimate relationships never get old.
“Part 1: Kinship Structures” outlines different ways of structuring family through marriage.
“Part 2: Brother, Sisters, and Beyond” explores siblinghood and culturally specific kin relationships.
“Part 3: Oedipus Ubiquitous?” questions whether there are universal psychological dynamics between parents and children.
“Part 4: Kinship and Contemporary Family-making,” offers an anthropological perspective on significant contemporary shifts in the way family is being created and defined.
“Part 5: Manipulating Kinship: Cults and Politics,” explores what happens when kinship structures and family ties are interrupted or controlled for political purposes.
Watch the full episode:
Resources:
Families We Choose: Lesbians, Gays, Kinship by Kath Weston.
A classic on “chosen families” and queer family making. First published in the 1990’s but still relevant today, Weston’s work simultaneously questioned the purported stability of “blood” relatives and introduced the idea of family as a social practice.
Belonging in an Adopted World by Barbara Yngevesson
Labor of Love: Gestational Surrogacy and the Work of Making Babies by Heather Jacobson. The first ethnography on gestational surrogacy in the United States.
Films:
How the Nuclear Family Broke Down by The Atlantic