Introduction

Author(s)

Tatjana Thelen, Christof Lammer

Abstract

Widespread procedures to measure what is taken to be kinship condition negotiations of various forms of belonging (family, ethnicity, nation, race, and even humanity). Kinship measurements require indicators, evidence, and persuasive display to become institutionalized. This introduction shows these measurements’ generative force, which enables their translation into differentiated access to resources. Kinship measurements pull together different and sometimes contrasting ideas, practices, and materialities. Different measurements can add up, mutually reinforcing each other, and reach thresholds for inclusion or exclusion. Yet most often they remain contested, produce gradual results, and do not achieve closure. Grouping them together as assessments of closeness or similarity, we explore the productivity of kinship measurements in diverse settings, such as medicine, bureaucracy, and ritual, to demonstrate how they shape inequalities and marginalizations.

Organisation(s)

Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology

External organisation(s)

Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt

Journal

Social Analysis

Volume

65

Pages

1-22

No. of pages

22

ISSN

0155-977X

DOI

https://doi.org/10.3167/sa.2021.650401

Publication date

2021

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

504017 Cultural anthropology, 504007 Empirical social research, 504008 Ethnography, 504009 Ethnology

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Cultural Studies, General Arts and Humanities, Anthropology, Sociology and Political Science

Portal url

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/6f6e9600-6fe4-466e-a5e8-cc803d198ad0