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The 'Global' versus the 'Local': Cognitive Processes of Kin Determination in Aboriginal Australia.
- Source :
- Oceania; Nov2008, Vol. 78 Issue 3, p260-279, 20p, 3 Diagrams, 3 Charts
- Publication Year :
- 2008
-
Abstract
- Morgan and his informants' interpretation of Australian social categories as 'marriage classes' has survived in Dumont's (and Viveiros de Castro's) distinction of a 'local' (Dravidian systems) and a 'global' (Australian systems) formula. This paper explains that the 'global formula' is neither a necessary nor an applied device in Australian kin category determination, even when genealogical memory is short and when there is a non-limitation of range in the extension of categories. Instead, a heuristic model, which is called the relational triangle, is proposed. This model depicts the procedure through which Australian people pragmatically determine and extend kin categories. Moreover, it also offers a visualisation of the cognitive schema and processes framing discourse and behaviour in relation to kinship and draws some parallels with Greenberg's hypotheses on markedness in kinship classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- KIN recognition
ABORIGINAL Australian kinship
COGNITION
HEURISTIC
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00298077
- Volume :
- 78
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Oceania
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 37588233
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1834-4461.2008.tb00041.x