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Kinship, affinity and connectedness : exploring the role of genealogy in personal lives

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Kramer, Anne-Marie Caroline. (2011) Kinship, affinity and connectedness : exploring the role of genealogy in personal lives. Sociology, Vol.45 (No.3). pp. 379-395. ISSN 0038-0385

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Abstract

Drawing on the 2008 Mass Observation Directive 'Doing Family Research', this article explores the role of genealogy in personal lives from the perspective of genealogists and non-genealogists in the UK. Analysing the ends to which genealogy is put, it finds that genealogy is a key kinship practice, mapping connectedness, offering a resource for identity-work, and allowing belonging in time. Engaging with anthropological work on kinship, relatedness and remembrance and with recent sociological work on identity and affinity, this article explores how family history as a creative and imaginative memory and kinship practice is simultaneously used to map affinities and connectedness, enact relatedness, and produce self-identity. It argues that examining the role of genealogy and the genealogical imaginary reveals that conventional as well as non-conventional kinship produces partial and insecure identities. This compels everyday personal engagement with the meaning and legacy of inheritance for collective and individual identification and identity.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: C Auxiliary Sciences of History > CS Genealogy
H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Divisions: Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Belonging (Social psychology), Genealogy, Kinship, Group identity, Identity (Psychology)
Journal or Publication Title: Sociology
Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd.
ISSN: 0038-0385
Official Date: June 2011
Volume: Vol.45
Number: No.3
Page Range: pp. 379-395
Identification Number: 10.1177/0038038511399622
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Access rights to Published version: Restricted or Subscription Access
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URI: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/40008

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