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Declaring Kinship – Some Remarks on the Indeterminate Relation between Commensality and Kinship in Western Kenya

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  3. Vol. 70, Issue 2
  4. pp. 143–158

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Schellhaas, S., Schmidt, M., Odhiambo, G. Declaring Kinship – Some Remarks on the Indeterminate Relation between Commensality and Kinship in Western Kenya. Sociologus, 70(2), 143-158. https://doi.org/10.3790/soc.70.2.143
Schellhaas, Sebastian; Schmidt, Mario and Odhiambo, Gilbert Francis "Declaring Kinship – Some Remarks on the Indeterminate Relation between Commensality and Kinship in Western Kenya" Sociologus 70.2, , 143-158. https://doi.org/10.3790/soc.70.2.143
Schellhaas, Sebastian/Schmidt, Mario/Odhiambo, Gilbert Francis: Declaring Kinship – Some Remarks on the Indeterminate Relation between Commensality and Kinship in Western Kenya, in: Sociologus, vol. 70, iss. 2, 143-158, [online] https://doi.org/10.3790/soc.70.2.143
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Declaring Kinship – Some Remarks on the Indeterminate Relation between Commensality and Kinship in Western Kenya

Schellhaas, Sebastian | Schmidt, Mario | Odhiambo, Gilbert Francis

Sociologus, Vol. 70 (2020), Iss. 2 : pp. 143–158

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Article Details

Publisher Name
Duncker & Humblot
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3790/soc.70.2.143
Language
English
Pages
15
Keywords

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Author Details

Dr. Sebastian Schellhaas, Vogelsbergstraße 13a, 60316 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

Dr. Mario Schmidt, Lerchenweg 8, 57462 Olpe, Germany.

Gilbert Francis Odhiambo, P.O. Box 52428 – 00200 Nairobi, Kenya.

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Abstract

Based upon ethnographic fieldwork in Western Kenya, this article re-evaluates the widespread assumption that commensality constructs or, at least, earmarks kin or kin-like relations. In contrast to such generalizations, our ethnographic data suggests that the relation between kinship and social practices such as eating together is culturally not predetermined in Western Kenya. This understanding of the relation between social practices and kinship as indeterminate allows the inhabitants of Kaleko, a small marketplace in Western Kenya, to use different and conflicting strategies of ‘declaring kin’. These conflicting strategies include assertions of biological kinship, refusals to clarify the specific kin-relation and evocations of love and care. Understanding kinship as an effect of strategic practices of individuals and not of cultural norms or social practices has analytical repercussions for an analysis of marriage customs and infertility.

Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
Sebastian Schellhaas / Mario Schmidt / Gilbert Francis Odhiambo: Declaring Kinship – Some Remarks on the Indeterminate Relation between Commensality and Kinship in Western Kenya 1
Abstract 1
1. Introduction 1
2. Reordering the Material Substrate of the Social 5
3. The Presence of the Not-Yet Born – Declaring Kin 7
4. Justifying Marriage 9
5. Sometimes Eating Alone is Just as Good as Eating Together 1
References 1

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