Using some of his landmark publications on kinship, along with a new introduction, chapter and conclusion, Robert Parkin discusses here the changes in kinship terminologies and marriage practices, as well as the dialectics between them. The chapters also focus on a suggested trajectory, linking South Asia and Europe and the specific question of the status of Crow-Omaha systems. The collection culminates in the argument that, whereas marriage systems and practices seem infinitely varied when examined from a very close perspective, the terminologies that accompany them are much more restricted.
Robert Parkin was Departmental Lecturer in Social Anthropology in the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford, from 2002 until his retirement in 2017. He has conducted field research in India, the UK, Brussels, northern Italy, and Poland.