Fanti kinship and the analysis of kinship terminologies.

9780252033704

Fanti kinship and the analysis of kinship terminologies.

Kronenfeld, David B.

U. of Illinois Press

2009

369 pages

$75.00

Hardcover

DT510

In a major ethnographic study, Kronenfeld (anthropology, U. of California, Riverside) focused on the kinship terminology of the Fanti people of Ghana. This volume collects his articles on informal and formal analyses of how these speakers decide on and use a term, and the relationship between kinship terms and behavior among kinfolk. Studying kinship terminology as an integral part of semantic and cultural issues, he compares the strengths and weaknesses of the approaches employed and discusses his study in the context of recent kinship theory and computer semantic theory analysis. Tables, graphs, and data sets are featured. To achieve the stated goal of reaching general readers interested in this subject, greater background on the Fanti and semantic analysis seems needed.

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