Through Kinship Studies Across Cultures, Anthropologists Have Determined That the Ways

question 16

Essay

Through kinship studies across cultures, anthropologists have determined that the ways in which genealogies are constructed can be messy and far from exact. Gaps, interruptions, disruptions, uncertainties, and assumed connections are all found among genealogies. This fact is further underscored by Kathleen Gough's reexamination of anthropologist E. E. Evans-Pritchard's kinship work with Nuer people in Sudan. Describe one example of a genealogical disruption that Gough found among Nuer kinship data collected in the 1930s, and discuss why the disruption likely occurred. What sorts of gaps and disruptions are present in your own genealogy, and why do you think they have occurred? Do you think that genealogies will undergo even greater gaps and disruptions in the future? Why or why not?

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Definitions:

Water

A clear, colorless, odorless, and tasteless liquid, composed of hydrogen and oxygen (H2O), essential for most plant and animal life and the most widely used solvent.

Glucose

A simple sugar that is an important energy source in living organisms and is a component of many carbohydrates.

Photosynthesis

The process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize nutrients from carbon dioxide and water.

C3 Epimer

A type of epimer that specifically involves inversion of configuration at the carbon atom in the third position of a carbohydrate molecule.