Thesis (Ph. D.)--Panepistēmion Iōanninōn, 1980. / Summary in English. Includes bibliographical references (p. [339]-355) and index.

We present a framework for learning abstract relational knowledge with the aimof explaining how people acquire intuitive theories of physical, biological, orsocial systems. Our approach is based on a generative relational model withlatent classes, and simultaneously determines the kinds of entities that existin a domain, the number of these latent classes, and the relations betweenclasses that are possible or likely. This model goes beyond previouspsychological models of category learning, which consider attributesassociated with individual categories but not relationships between categories.We apply this domain-general framework to two specific problems: learning thestructure of kinship systems and learning causal theories.

We follow our cow and forget our home'. This statement encapsulates the problems that this thesis addresses in relation to the three interdependent themes of identity, movement and survival. This study is concerned with Fulani identities and mobility in Greater Accra, Ghana. It is ultimately about Fulani survival across space and through time. It involves an understanding of where people are coming from, where they have travelled to and the environments in which they have grown up, been educated, married, borne children and worked. The units of analysis are the lives, stories and experiences of individuals, as well as the communities and ultimately ethnic group of which they form a part. The account thus addresses the 'personal troubles' of individual women and men, both young and old, as well as wider 'public issues' taken up by the Ghanaian state and press. These issues are also observed to be the subject of debate and concern in the Fulani community in Greater Accra. This thesis concerns itself with the sites and circumstances in which Fulani consider themselves to be the same or different. The markers of Fulani identity, as recognized by Fulani and non-Fulani alike, are examined. The factors are investigated that allow them, as a distinct ethnic category, to maintain and perpetuate this identity and viability in Greater Accra. The analogy of 'construction sites' is useful for considering these different, explicit and implicit events and recurring processes, through which people reproduce themselves as Fulani (of various kinds). These sites are locations as well as contexts of action. They are social circumstances (with personnel, power relations, procedures etc.) such as ethnic associations, public gatherings and common rites of passage. The recurring processes include genealogical reckoning of kinship and endogamous marriage transactions, and the ways in which ties of descent and filiation are used to enhance individual survival and family development goals.

This thesis is concerned with development of some methods and concepts by which kinship behaviour in Western urban societies may be studied quantitatively, and with the data derived from an experimental application of them. Questionnaires filled out by 185 students in the introductory course in Anthropology were analyzed. In the light of this analysis, the inadequacies of some definitions and uses of the term "kindred" are demonstrated, and the concepts of "potential kindred" and "effective kindred" are suggested. In an approach to the investigation of the importance of kin relationships, kin terminology and the naming of children are considered, and a "kin-use index" is derived for the quantitative expression of dependence upon kin for support. Findings stress the importance of the nuclear family, and suggest a matrilateral bias in kinship knowledge and behaviour. The influence of propinquity and separation upon kin relationships is explored by means of an application of the concept of pheric distance and the development of a numerical index of interaction between kinsmen. Again the findings show a nuclear family pattern with a matrilateral bias. Also considered in this connection are findings that suggest an uxorilocal pattern of residence. In conclusion, the implications of the findings are discussed in comparison with the model of American kinship presented by Talcott Parsons, and some suggestions about the application of modified versions of the methods and concepts used in this study are made. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

<p><strong>ABSTRACT</strong></p> <p>The landscape of Child Welfare inOntariohas changed over the past several years. One area of significant change is that increasingly children are placed with relatives (kin) when it has been determined that they cannot be safety cared for by a parent or guardian. This change was brought about by new legislation and with it came a number of standards and processes to guide front line workers work with kin.</p> <p>The purpose of this research study was to gain a better understanding of how this change impacted front line workers. The research focused on what influenced the work and considered individual, institutional and systemic factors. It was undertaken in order to gain a clearer appreciation of the successes and challenges in working with kinship caregivers.</p> <p>Five child welfare workers who work directly with kinship services caregivers were interviewed. Qualitative research methods were utilized so that participants could share the direct experience of their work. This research used a Critical and Interpretive social science framework to gain a better understanding of the systemic and societal influences that guide the work.</p> <p>The findings suggest that while this work is highly regarded and valued by the participants, they struggle with their role in supporting and advocating for kin. On one hand, they support kin but on the other, they present as worried about such care. They question what is behind the Ministry Of Children and Youth Services movement to greater consideration of kin. They bring forward very important concerns about inequities in the distribution of resources to support children who are not able to live with their parents or guardians.</p> / Master of Social Work (MSW)

<p>Our study has its starting point in the Swedish social legislation (Socialtjänstlagen) and more specifically in the 6th chapter's 5th paragraph. That paragraph regulates that social workers should try to find a kinship care placement when they are about to do a placement of a child. Our purpose is to examine how social workers, before they do a placement of a child, understand the informal kinship that is not relatives, if they consider the informal kinship and if certain circumstances have an impact on the consideration. To get this information we have done five interviews with social workers. Recent studies show that social workers in past years have begun to think more positively of people's kinships and that they more often use the resources of the kinship. Our results shows that the social workers contact the informal kinship before they do a placement, they have positive attitudes towards these types of placements, they have similar understandings of who should be considered in the informal kinship, they do this consideration in most cases and many circumstances has an impact on this consideration. To get a deeper understanding of the results we analyzed them with social constructivism and the sociology of law.</p>

Our study has its starting point in the Swedish social legislation (Socialtjänstlagen) and more specifically in the 6th chapter's 5th paragraph. That paragraph regulates that social workers should try to find a kinship care placement when they are about to do a placement of a child. Our purpose is to examine how social workers, before they do a placement of a child, understand the informal kinship that is not relatives, if they consider the informal kinship and if certain circumstances have an impact on the consideration. To get this information we have done five interviews with social workers. Recent studies show that social workers in past years have begun to think more positively of people's kinships and that they more often use the resources of the kinship. Our results shows that the social workers contact the informal kinship before they do a placement, they have positive attitudes towards these types of placements, they have similar understandings of who should be considered in the informal kinship, they do this consideration in most cases and many circumstances has an impact on this consideration. To get a deeper understanding of the results we analyzed them with social constructivism and the sociology of law.

In this dissertation, I use separation and divorce as the lens through which I examine the impact of modernization and globalization on the intimate lives and the health and well-being of low income women of African descent in rural Northeast Brazil. I argue that trends such as shifts in the gendered division of labor in a growing eco-tourism economy, and the spread of the modern notion of romantic love and companionate marriage through popular telenovelas, are directly related to dramatic increases in separation and divorce in Brazil. I further argue that social inequality affects individual perceptions and experiences of divorce, and the embodied distress low-income Afro Brazilian women endure with marital failure is also an expression of social suffering.

This thesis is concerned with the heart of Caithness, the northernmost region of mainland Scotland. Based on 18 months participant observation in the coastal village of Lybster and the surrounding area, it explores concepts of kinship and belonging. The thesis examines characters, places, and events in both everyday and ritual settings. I trace the creation and maintainence of community, and the construction and blurring of the boundaries of belonging as well as paths of social transformation. I examine how Caithnessians perceive themselves as 'strangers' in their own nation, thus creating increasingly localized ties that bind. Significant in all of this, in a locality where migration has historically been important, is an analysis of how 'others' and their identities play a constitutive role in the self-identification processes of Caithnessians. I consider ascribed and achieved ways of belonging - the genealogical and performative journeys that are involved in fitting into this locality. I examine the contradictions, nuances, and negotiations that are evident in definitions of selves and others and the constitutive relationship between them. All of this is part of a wider investigation into how people conceptualise themselves and others. I argue that what I have called ‘island-mindedness’ characterises the identities of this mainland population and leads to a side-stepping of national identity. In the context of current research on the nation, such ethnographic illumination of the complexity of notions of identity in specific regions is essential for a rounded anthropological understanding of Scotland. By offering a close exploration of a community based on kinship, this thesis aims to illuminate new ways of approaching the nuances of everyday life. I suggest that it is in the encounters of everyday life - more than in claims and categories - that identity work and kinship are most complex and most meaningful.