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Omaha terminology and unilateral marriage on the Sepik
Author(s) -
WILLIAMSON MARGARET HOLMES
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1980.7.3.02a00100
Subject(s) - kinship , terminology , ethnography , new guinea , sociology , value (mathematics) , anthropology , genealogy , gender studies , history , linguistics , ethnology , philosophy , machine learning , computer science
This paper examines the often‐proposed hypothesis that Omaha terminologies and unilateral marriage are necessarily associated. It does so by means of ethnographic evidence from three culturally similar societies of the Middle Sepik region of New Guinea, each of which is characterized by a kinship terminology classifiable as “Omaha.” None of these societies practices unilateral marriage in the conventional sense, and there are important differences in social structure among them that cannot be derived from the Omaha label. An explanation for why the label has no predictive value is offered. [Omaha terminologies, unilateral marriage, symmetrical/asymmetrical marriage relationships, kinship, kwoma, Abelam, latmul]