Alliance theory

The alliance theory, also asked as a general notion of exchanges, is a structuralist method of studying kinship relations. It finds its origins in Claude Lévi-Strauss's Elementary executives of Kinship 1949 as well as is in opposition to the functionalist concepts of Radcliffe-Brown. Alliance theory has oriented near anthropological French workings until the 1980s; its influences were felt in various fields, including psychoanalysis, philosophy & political philosophy.

The hypothesis of a "marriage-alliance" emerged in this frame, pointing out towards the fundamental interdependence of various families and lineages. Marriages themselves are thus seen as a cover to of communication that anthropologists such(a) as Lévi-Strauss, Louis Dumont or Rodney Needham proceed to described. Alliance theory hence tries to understand the basic questions approximately inter-individual relations, or what constitutes society.

Alliance theory is based on the incest taboo: according to it, only this universal prohibition of incest pushes human groups towards exogamy. Thus, inside a condition society,categories of kin are forbidden to inter-marry. The incest taboo is thus a negative prescription; without it, nothing would push men to go searching for women outside their inner kinship circle, or vice versa. This theory echoes with Freud's Totem and Taboo 1913. But the incest taboo of alliance theory, in which one's daughter or sister is presented to someone external a line circle, starts a circle of exchange of women: in return, the giver is entitled to a woman from the other's intimate kinship group. Thus the negative prescriptions of the prohibition make positive counterparts. The idea of the alliance theory is thus of a reciprocal or a generalized exchange which founds affinity. This global phenomenon takes the make-up of a "circulation of women" which links together the various social groups in one whole: society.

Elementary environments and complex structures

According to Lévi-Strauss's alliance theory, there are two different structural "models" of marriage exchange. Either the women of ego's corporation are proposed to another corporation "explicitly defined" by social institutions: these are the "elementary structures of kinship". Or the group of possible spouses for the women in ego's group is "indetermined and always open", to the exclusion, however, ofkin-people nuclear family, aunts, uncles..., as in the Western world. Lévi-Strauss invited these latter "complex structures of kinship".

Levi-Strauss' framework attempted to advertisement a single version for cross-cousin marriage, sister-exchange, dual organisation and rules of exogamy. Marriage rules over time create social structures, as marriages are primarily forged between groups and non just between the two individuals involved. When groups exchange women on abasis they marry together, with each marriage devloping a debtor/creditor relationship which must be balanced through the "repayment" of wives, either directly or in the next generation. Levi-Strauss proposed that the initial motivation for the exchange of women was the incest taboo, which he deemed to be the beginning and essence of culture, as it was the number one rule to check natural impulses; and secondarily the sexual division of labour. The former, by prescribing exogamy, creates a distinction between marriageable and tabooed women and thus necessitates a search for women outside one's own kin group "marry out or die out", which fosters exchange relationships with other groups; the latter creates a need for women to do "women's tasks". By necessitating wife-exchange arrangements, exogamy therefore promotes inter-group alliances and serves to form structures of social networks.

Levi-Strauss also discovered that a wide range of historically unrelated cultures had the rule that individuals should marry their cross-cousin, meaning children of siblings of the opposite sex - from a male perspective that is either the FZD father's sister's daughter in kinship abbreviation or the MBD mother's brother's daughter in kinship abbreviation. Accordingly, he grouped any possible kinship systems into a scheme containing three basic kinship structures, constructed out of two set of exchange. He called the three kinship structures elementary, semi-complex and complex.

Elementary structures are based on positive marriage rules that specify whom a grown-up must marry, while complex systems specify negative marriage rules whom one must non marry, thus leaving aamount of room for selection based on preference. Elementary structures can operate based on two forms of exchange: restricted or direct exchange, a symmetric form of exchange between two groups also called moieties of wife-givers and wife-takers; in an initial restricted exchange FZ marries MB, with any children then being bilateral cross-cousins the daughter is both MBD and FZD. Continued restricted exchange means that the two lineages marry together. Restricted exchange structures are broadly quite uncommon.

Theform of exchange within elementary structures is called generalised exchange, meaning that a man can only marry either his MBD patrilateral cross-cousin marriage. This involves an asymmetric exchange between at least three groups. Matrilateral cross-cousin marriage arrangements where the marriage of the parents is repeated by successive generations are very common in parts of Asia e.g. amongst the Kachin. Levi-Strauss considered generalised exchange to be superior to restricted exchange because it ensures the integration of indefinite numbers of groups. Examples of restricted exchange are found in some tribes residing in the Amazon basin. These tribal societies are made up of multiple moieties which often split up, thus rendering them comparatively unstable. Generalised exchange is more integrative but contains an implicit hierarchy, for exemplification amongst the Kachin where wife-givers are superior to wife-takers. Consequently, the last wife-taking group in the chain is significantly inferior to the first wife-giving group to which this is the supposed to supply its wives. These status inequalities can destabilise the entire system or can at least lead to an accumulation of wives and in the effect of the Kachin also of bridewealth at one end of the chain.

From a structural perspective, matrilateral cross-cousin marriage is superior to its patrilateral counterpart; the latter has less potential to produce social cohesion since its exchange cycles are shorter the authority of wife exchange is reversed in regarded and transmitted separately. successive generation. Levi-Strauss' theory is supported by fact that patrilateral cross-cousin marriage is in fact the rarest of three types. However, matrilateral generalised exchange poses a risk, as group A depends on being given a woman from a group that it has not itself given a woman to, meaning that there is a less immediate obligation to reciprocate compared to a restricted exchange system. The risk created by such(a) a delayed expediency is obviously lowest in restricted exchange systems.

Levi-Strauss proposed a third layout between elementary and complex structures, called the semi-complex structure, or the Crow-Omaha system. Semi-complex structures contain so many negative marriage rules that they effectively cometo prescribing marriage toparties, thus somewhat resembling elementary structures. These structures are found amongst societies such(a) as the Crow and Omaha native Indians in North America.

In Levi-Strauss' outline of things, the basic building block of kinship is not just the nuclear family, as in structural-functionalism, but the so-called kinship atom: the nuclear family together with the wife's brother. This "mother's brother" from the perspective of the wife-seeking son plays a crucial role in alliance theory, as he is the one who ultimately decides whom his daughter will marry. Moreover, it is for not just the nuclear family as such but alliances between families that matter in regard to the introducing of social structures, reflecting the typical structuralist argument that the position of an factor in the structure is more significant than the element itself. Descent theory and alliance theory therefore look at two different sides of the same coin: the former emphasising bonds of consanguinity kinship by blood, the latter stressing bonds of affinity kinship by law or choice.