Friendship Descent And Alliance In Africa

Friendship, descent and alliance are basic forms of relatedness that have received unequal attention in social anthropology. Offering new insights into the ways in which friendship is conceptualized and realized in various sub-Saharan African settings, the contributions to this volume depart from the recent tendency to study friendship in isolation from kinship.

In drawing attention to the complexity of the interactions between these two kinds of social relationships, the book suggests that analyses of friendship in Western societies would also benefit from research that explores more systematically friendship in conjunction with kinship. Review: The volume captures the complex nature of friendship among various ethnic groups in Africa in different social contexts and situations.

On the basis of rich ethnography, the volume manages to offer a comparative perspective on an often neglected form of relationship and proves that the study of friendship sheds light on important societal issues... The edited volume contributes not only to the establishment of the study of a neglected field in anthropology but also to one of the core questions in social theory. * African Spectrum All in all this volume is a good read for those interested in friendship and other social relations beyond mere kinship.

Guichard's thorough review of the literature is important in itself and combined with the other chapters the book gives us a not just broad but also deep, as well as rare, contribution to the study of African friendship. * ARAS ...a well-crafted project that proves the importance of friendship and other purportedly non-kinship relationships, while clearly illustrating the porous boundaries between friend and kin.

A few other anthropologists have looked at friendship of late, and we can hope that this book inspires more examination of more cultural areas where relationships are also undoubtedly being invented and contested in terms of and in contrast to family bonds. * Anthropology Review Database