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Kinmaking, Progeneration, and Ethnography

Wilson, Rob (2022) Kinmaking, Progeneration, and Ethnography. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Philosophers of biology and biologists themselves for the most part assume that the concept of kin is progenerative: what makes two individuals kin is a direct or indirect function of reproduction. Derivatively, kinship might likewise be presumed to be progenerative in nature. Yet a prominent view of kinship in contemporary cultural anthropology is a kind of constructivism or performativism that rejects such progenerativist views. This paper critically examines an influential line of thinking used to critique progenerativism and support performativism that cites cross-cultural diversity in what I will call kinmaking. I challenge several key assumptions made in moving from this appeal to ethnography to conclusions about kinship and progeneration, arguing that closer scrutiny of both the ethnographic record and inferences that draw on it in fact support progenerative views of both kinship and kinmaking.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Wilson, Robrwilson.robert@gmail.com0000-0002-8034-0317
Keywords: kinship kinmaking reproduction progeneration ethnography cultural diversity extensionism kinship in nonhuman primates
Subjects: General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics
Specific Sciences > Anthropology
Specific Sciences > Biology > Evolutionary Theory
Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Concepts and Representations
General Issues > Conventionalism
General Issues > Natural Kinds
General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism
General Issues > Reductionism/Holism
Depositing User: Professor Rob Wilson
Date Deposited: 04 Jan 2022 04:38
Last Modified: 04 Jan 2022 04:38
Item ID: 20073
Official URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/...
Subjects: General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics
Specific Sciences > Anthropology
Specific Sciences > Biology > Evolutionary Theory
Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Concepts and Representations
General Issues > Conventionalism
General Issues > Natural Kinds
General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism
General Issues > Reductionism/Holism
Date: 1 February 2022
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/20073

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