| dc.description.abstract | The dissertation presents an alliance model of Crow-Omaha
marriage-system constraints based on the ethnographic description
of the marriage and kinship relations of the Tugen of Kenya.
Both Crow-Omaha and asymmetrical alliance constraints are shown
to be logical derivatives of this model. Furthermore, the
parameters on which the model is based seem to constrain all
marriage alliance systems, regardless of the mode of lineation
utilized.
Implicit in the model is a theorem which stipulates that
systems operating within Crow-Omaha and asymmetrical alliance
constraints require specific minimum numbers of alliance units.
These numbers are shown to be those reported to be associated
with Crow-Omaha systems in a variety of symbolic contexts.
Several implications of importance for anthropological theory
follow from the model. First, different social classes in stratified
regimes operating with Crow-Omaha constraints are likely to
have different minimum numbers; the higher the stratum, the lower
the number. This suggests an explanation for the origin of the
common Indo-European symbolic oppositions, where three is sacred,
thirteen denotes misfortune, and numbers in between like five and
seven are associated with good luck.
Since Crow-Omaha systems, in contrast to asymmetrical
alliance systems, involve more prohibitions, and therefore, •
larger minimum nUmbers of alliance units, they are less amenable
to the manipulation for the advantage of a particular
alliance group than are asymmetrical alliance systems proper.
The model thus has implications for our understanding of the
process of social stratification.
The similarity of kin classification systems typically
associated with both Crow-Omaha and asymmetrical alliance is
shown to result from interaction between the processes of kin
classification and marriage alliance. Crow-Omaha kin classification
is meaningless in the absence of Crow-Omaha marriage
constraints, but people with such constraints n~ed not have a
Crow-Omaha classification. If they do, then they have the
simplest kin classification which encodes the maximum amount of
information about the relative social statuses of interacting
persons vis a vis the alliance relationship linking their kin
groups. variations within the class of Crow-Omaha systems are
shown to be related to different value-assignments of the
parameters of the model.
The dissertation demonstrates that theoretical discussions
about Crow-Omaha or asymmetrical alliance in recent years are
mistaken or misleading. Most notably it falsifies Needham's
claim that Omaha and, by implication, Crow kinship systems do
not constitute a class of systems with any analytical value or
validity. Furthermore, Radcliffe-Brown's notion of lineage
solidarity is shown to be irrelevant.
Finally, the model suggests an ecological-adaptive basis
for Crow-Omaha marriage rules. The suggestion is speculative,
but it follows from the theory, and provides an area of some
interest for further research. | en |
