Kinship As a Categorical Concept: A Case Study of Nineteenth Century English Siblings‪.‬

The late twentieth century's post-modern culture has produced a general questioning about boundaries and categories as part of the general turning away from a "master narrative." This has been associated with growing unease about accepted hierarchies. The concepts "family" and "kinship" have been subjected to this questioning: After many years of eclipse, the last decade has witnessed a renewed intellectual interest in both the family and kinship. Anthropologists in the West have begun to apply their skills and techniques to these topics within their own societies. (2) Sociologists of the family as well as social psychologists have begun to incorporate issues around gender, age, "race," ethnicity, and power into what had been the low status or rather sterile "sociology of the family."