The Grand Game of Marriage: An Anthropological and Computational Challenge in an Area of Frontier

Abstract

According to Schneider (1984: 4, 119-120), anthropological studies of kinship are anchored in a Doctrine of the Genealogical Unity of Mankind which has distorted ethnographic perception and consecrated a non-subject. This Doctrine can be summarized as follows: in all human cultures kinship concerns the acknowledgement of natural ties among individuals, thus warranting its universal translation in genealogical terms. This article counters Schneider’s criticism on two fronts: inquiring if the genealogical method should necessarily be understood as a means of translation; and challenging whether the definition of the genealogical method requires such a Doctrine in the first place. In parallel, drawing considerations from ethnographic research concerning the Enawene-Nawe, this article, within the horizon of the alliance theory, argues in favor of the rehabilitation of the genealogical method, which in the present century cannot dismiss computational tools. This, considering that “the first task of anthropology, prerequisite to all others, is to understand and formulate the symbols and meanings and their configuration, that a particular culture consists of” (Schneider 1984: 196, emphasis in the original).