This collection reaffirms the importance of kinship, and of studying kinship, within the framework of social anthropology.

The contributors examine both the benefits and burdens of kinship across cultures and explore how relatedness is inextricably linked with other concepts which define people's identities — such as gender, power and history. With examples from a wide range of areas including Austria, Greenland, Portugal, Turkey and the Amazon, it covers themes such as:

• how people choose and activate kin
• leadership, spiritual power and kinship
• inheritance, marriage and social inequality
• familial sentiment and economic interest
• the role of kinship in Utopian communes

Dividends of Kinship
provides a timely and critical reappraisal of the place of familial relations in the contemporary world. It will be of interest to undergraduates, postgraduates and academics in anthropology, and across the social sciences.