Ladislav Holy was Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews and the author of several publications including Kinship, Honour and Solidarity: Cousin Marriage in the Middle East (1989). He died in 1997.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. First principles
2. Kinship, descent and marriage
3. Kinship and the domestic domain
4. Descent and the public domain I: lineage theory
5. Descent and the public domain II: matrilineal and cognatic descent
6. Marriage and alliance
7. Universality of kinship and the current practice of kinship studies
Notes
Index

This authoritative introductory text takes into account the changes in the conceptualisation of kinship brought about by new reproductive technologies and the growing interest in culturally specific notions of personhood and gender.
Holy considers the extent to which Western assumptions have guided anthropological study of kinship in the past. In the process, he reveals a growing sensitivity on the part of anthropologists to individual ideas of personhood and gender, and encourages further critical reflection on cultural bias in approaches to the subject.