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Ngadha Relationship Terms in Context: Description, Analysis, and Implications

Ngadha Relationship Terms in Context: Description, Analysis, and Implications Ngadha Relationship Terms in Context: Description, Analysis, and Implications O laf H. S medal Department of Social Anthropology University of Bergen, Norway Two issues need to be addressed with respect to social organization in east- ern Indonesia. One is a mistake; the other is a problem. The mistake is the assertion, often enough reiterated but most recently so in a state-of-the-art volume on Transformations of Kinship (Godelier, Trautmann and Tjon Sie Fat, 1998), that “all societies in Eastern Indonesia have expressions for ‘wife-givers’ and ‘wife-takers’ . . .” (Guermonprez, 1998:286). The problem concerns the choice of analytical categories in studying eastern Indonesian social systems. A recent exchange in American Ethnologist has revealed — again — the impasse of discussions based either on well- deŽ ned, time-honoured, if infelicitous, analytical terms that facilitate com- parison or on terms that are more naturalistic in ethnographic terms, but which have restricted comparative potential in that their universal applic- ability is improbable. An old nut, this, but one that needs to be contem- plated when compelling, new evidence is at hand. Although the purpose of this article is to rectify the mistake and not to solve the problem, I want to Ž http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Asian Journal of Social Science Brill

Ngadha Relationship Terms in Context: Description, Analysis, and Implications

Asian Journal of Social Science , Volume 30 (3): 493 – Jan 1, 2002

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 2002 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
1568-4849
eISSN
1568-5314
DOI
10.1163/156853102320945376
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Ngadha Relationship Terms in Context: Description, Analysis, and Implications O laf H. S medal Department of Social Anthropology University of Bergen, Norway Two issues need to be addressed with respect to social organization in east- ern Indonesia. One is a mistake; the other is a problem. The mistake is the assertion, often enough reiterated but most recently so in a state-of-the-art volume on Transformations of Kinship (Godelier, Trautmann and Tjon Sie Fat, 1998), that “all societies in Eastern Indonesia have expressions for ‘wife-givers’ and ‘wife-takers’ . . .” (Guermonprez, 1998:286). The problem concerns the choice of analytical categories in studying eastern Indonesian social systems. A recent exchange in American Ethnologist has revealed — again — the impasse of discussions based either on well- deŽ ned, time-honoured, if infelicitous, analytical terms that facilitate com- parison or on terms that are more naturalistic in ethnographic terms, but which have restricted comparative potential in that their universal applic- ability is improbable. An old nut, this, but one that needs to be contem- plated when compelling, new evidence is at hand. Although the purpose of this article is to rectify the mistake and not to solve the problem, I want to Ž

Journal

Asian Journal of Social ScienceBrill

Published: Jan 1, 2002

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