Primeval Kinship

Bernard Chapais is Professor of Anthropology, University of Montréal.

* Preface 1. The Question of the Origin of Human Society * A Forsaken Quest * The Deep Structure of Human Societies I. Primatologists As Evolutionary Historians 2. Primatology and the Evolution of Human Behavior * The Phylogenetic Decomposition Principle * Reconstructing the Exogamy Configuration 3. The Uterine Kinship Legacy * Primatological Theories and Primate Legacies * Appraising Primate Kinship * The Domain of Uterine Kindred in Primates * How Are Uterine Kin Recognized? * The Origin of Group-wide Kinship Structures 4. From Biological to Cultural Kinship * Beyond Consanguineal Kinship * The "Genealogical Unity of Mankind" * The Bilateral Character of Human Kinship 5. The Incest Avoidance Legacy * Elements of a Primatological Theory of Incest Avoidance * Humankind's Primate Heritage 6. From Behavioral Regularities to Institutionalized Rules * The Anthropologists' Treatment of the Primate Data * The Westermarck Knot * The Morality Problem * Lessons from Comparative Anatomy II. The Exogamy Configuration Decomposed 7. Levi-Strauss and the Deep Structure of Human Society * Reciprocal Exogamy as a Deep Structuring Principle * Reciprocal Exogamy as Archaic * The Convergence beyond the Critiques * Levi-Strauss and the Primate Data 8. Human Society Out of the Evolutionary Vacuum * Leslie White and the Primate Origins of Exogamy * Elman Service and the Primitive Exogamous Band * Robin Fox and the Initial Deconstruction of Exogamy 9. The Building Blocks of Exogamy * Pinpointing the Distinctiveness of Exogamy * Reconstructing Human Society: The Task Ahead * A Once Irreducible System III. The Exogamy Configuration Reconstructed 10. The Ancestral Male Kin Group Hypothesis * The Patrilocal Band Model * Male Philopatry in Apes * The Homology Hypothesis * Updating the Ancestral Male Kin Group Hypothesis * The Gorilla Alternative 11. The Evolutionary History of Pair-Bonding * The "Invariant Core of the Family" * Pair-Bonds as Parental Partnerships * The Pitfall of the Modern Family Reference * A Two-Step Evolutionary Sequence * Monogamy as a Special Case of Polygyny * The Evolutionary History of the Sexual Division of Labor 12 Pair-Bonding and the Reinvention of Kinship * The Fundamental Equation of the Exogamy Configuration * Kinship in the Ancestral Male Kin Group * Fatherhood * The Institutionalized Denial of Paternity * The Development of Agnatic Kinship Structures 13. Biparentality and the Transformation of Siblingships * Chimpanzee Siblingships * Fatherhood and the Evolution of Strong Brotherhoods * Fatherhood and the Brother--Sister Bond * The Added Effect of Shorter Interbirth Intervals 14. Beyond the Local Group: The Rise of the Tribe * Male Pacification as a Prerequisite for the Tribe * Females as Peacemakers: The Consanguinity Route * Females as Peacemakers: The Affinity Route * The Initial Impetus * The Prelinguistic Tribe 15. From Male Philopatry to Residential Diversity * Some Serious Discrepancies * The Emergence of Residential Diversity * Ancestral Patrilocality and Grandmothering 16. Brothers, Sisters, and the Founding Principle of Exogamy * The First Step: Outmarriage * Affinal Brotherhoods and the Origin of Exogamy Rules * From Siblings-in-Law to Cross-Cousins * The "Atom of Kinship" Revisited IV. Unilineal Descent 17. Filiation, Descent, and Ideology * The African Model of Unilineal Descent Groups * The Chestnut within the Model 18. The Primate Origins of Unilineal Descent Groups * Group Membership through Birth * Kinship-Based Segmentation * The Genealogical Boundaries of Exogamy * The Unisexual Transmission of Status * Primitive Corporateness * A Multilevel Structure of Solidarity 19. The Evolutionary History of Human Descent * Female Kin Groups as Precultural Matriclans * The Residential Basis of Proto--Descent Groups * The Latent Patriclan * Matrilineality as a Male Affair 20. Conclusion: Human Society as Contingent * References * Index