On kinsip studies in the final decades of the 20th century

Abstract

As a classical field of anthropological studies, gender studies have not remained outside the process of critical considerations and deconstruction of theoretical and analytical categories and the values of the discipline which characterizes the contemporary anthropological theory. As in the case of changes in the general theory and practice of anthropology, the reasons which have led to a transformation in the gender studies, are the result of theoretical arguments and controversies within the discipline, but to a significant degree, from outsider influences as well- the factors which are exterior in relation to the anthropology as a discipline. The contradictory character of the contemporary period in gender studies is being emphasized, with an effort to give the answer to the question what did the phrase "gender crisis" denote and whether the crisis signifies a broad trait of anthropological studies at that point in time. The article pays particular attention to the analysis of the criticism of the theoretical i methodological formalism of the classic kinship theories and to the perspectives aimed to prove that " kinship does not exist",