Family, Gender and Kinship in Australia: The Social and Cultural Logic of Practice and Subjectivity

This ethnographically-based exploration draws on sociological, historical and demographic data to provide a comprehensive analysis of family, gender and kinship in Australia, which informs modern kinship and gender at large. Allon Uhlmann charts the cultural basis that underlies kinship practices and argues that the Australian family is characterized by deep cultural and social continuities rather than the common view that the family is undergoing substantial change. He further shows how the modern family both shapes, and is shaped by, broad social and economic processes. This analysis provides greater insight into this critical field of practice as well as showcasing a novel analytical approach to practice that is rooted in the sociology of practice and in the anthropology of cognition. The book also suggests changes to the way in which social scientists currently treat family and kinship.

Allon J. Uhlmann is Assistant Professor in Anthropology at the University of Missouri in St. Louis, USA.