Where does nature stop and culture begin? This is why anthropologists study kinship. In this unit we will survey the development of this field from its origins to its contemporary form as a critical investigation of how culture shapes the way we think about personhood, relationships, sex, gender and the body. We will compare various types of kinship systems and discuss controversies over kinship - same-sex marriage, single-parent households, cloning, in-vitro fertilization, and alternative forms of family - from a cross-cultural perspective. -- Course Website
Instructor: Ryan Schram
