Kinship and Archaeology

Topic of this entry:
- Examination of kinship and burials in archaeology
- What are the newer approaches to kinship

For my article assignment in this course, my focus of investigation was on how anthropologists study kinship through archaeology.  In class we were asked to explore the newer approaches used in examining kinship.  While finding an article, I was surprised by how limited newer anthropological articles on kinship studies were. When I did find anything newer, a lot of the articles were based on biological approaches.    

In our class text, Archaeology of Death and Burial by Parker Pearson (1999), the end of chapter 5 examines some newer approaches in kinship studies.  Biological investigations are becoming a more prominent approach used to uncover kinship of the deceased.  Depending on the remains, for instance if soft tissue is still present or if the teeth are available, scientific examinations are proving useful by providing connections and leading to potential interpretations and meanings in past societal organization and structure.

One example where biological techniques are used is in the examination of DNA.  If there are multiple burials in an area and DNA information is something archaeologists are able to access, anthropologist can determine whether or not the individuals were related biologically.  Another example of these techniques is the examination of teeth.  Teeth can be used to understand the diet of the deceased allowing for the potential to understand class differences through diet - if the diet was the same or similar, this may indicate the individuals were related or close in societal organization.

Examining kinship through archaeological artifacts such as houses or the locations of the deceased in a burial never seemed right to me; there are so many potential interpretations that can arise.  So after reading the research on biological approaches in uncovering kinship, I was beginning to favor the direction of biological techniques as the better approach to questions of kinship...

However...

There are some issues in biological approaches to kinship as well.  For example, it is limited when DNA isn't available... furthermore...

One interesting fact Erin brought up in class was that even if you were able to uncover biological connections amongst the deceased this may not be accurate either.  For instance, biological approaches used in examining DNA of the deceased can indicate whether or not the individuals were blood related, but what if the kinship relations in the society being investigated is not based on blood relations?  What happens if kinship ties are based on social relations and blood relations do not have close (or even any) ties with each other?

So, I'm still torn on how I feel about kinship studies.  Understanding past societal relations are often examined in anthropology, but how can it be examined accurately?  Furthermore, if we use, for instance, nuclear family structures as our template, we are examining a very western notion related to kinship - how can we avoid these types of biases in anthropology?