The Oriental, the Ancient and the Primitive
Systems of Marriage and the Family in the Pre-Industrial Societies of Eurasia

Jack Goody (Author)

9780521367615, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 8 February 1990

564 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 3 cm, 0.8 kg

"...this scholarly tour de force will become a standard reference work for many disciplines." Choice

In The Oriental, the Ancient and the Primitive one of the world's most foremost anthropologists looks in depth at kinship practice in Asia, and continues the comparative survey of pre-industrial family formation undertaken in The Development of Family and Marriage in Europe (1983) and elsewhere. Professor Goody's findings cause him to question many traditional assumptions about the 'primitive' east, and he suggests that, in contrast to pre-colonial Africa, kinship practice in Asia has much in common with that prevailing in parts of pre-industrial Europe. Goody examines the transmission of productive and other property in relation both to the prevailing political economy and to family and ideological structures, and then explores the distribution of mechanisms and strategies of management across cultures. He concludes that notions of western 'uniqueness' are often misplaced, and that much previous work on Asian kinship has been unwittingly distorted by the application of concepts and approaches derived from other, inappropriate, social formations, simple or post-industrial.

List of illustrations
List of tables
Preface
1. The nature of the enterprise
Part I. China: 2. The incorporation of women
3. The lineage and the conjugal fund
4. Differentiation, hierarchical and regional
5. Land, polyandry and celibacy in Tibet
Part II. India: 6. Marriage and the family in Gujarat (with Esther Goody)
7. The high and the low
8. The North and the South
9. Kinship and modes of production
Part III. The Near East: 10. The abominations of the Egyptians
11. Jacob's marriages
12. Marriage and property in the Arab world
Part IV. Greece and Rome, Yesterday and Today: 13. The heiress in ancient Greece
14. Monogamy, property and control in Rome
15. Dowry, continuity and change in the eastern Mediterranean
16. Asia and Europe
Notes
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Anthropology [JHM]