On Speaking Terms
Why are kin, in societies all over the world, divided into “joking” and “avoidance” relations? Foundational figures in the human sciences, from E.B. Tylor and Alfred Radcliffe-Brown to Sigmund Freud and Claude Lévi-Strauss, have sought to explain why some classes of kin are normatively expected to prank and tease one another while others must studiously avoid each other’s presence. In this extensi...
Why are kin, in societies all over the world, divided into “joking” and “avoidance” relations? Foundational figures in the human sciences, from E.B. Tylor and Alfred Radcliffe-Brown to Sigmund Freud and Claude Lévi-Strauss, have sought to explain why some classes of kin are normatively expected to prank and tease one another while others must studiously avoid each other’s presence. In this extensi...
