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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | An ethnosemantic analysis of /Gui relationship terminology |
Author: | Ono, Hitomi |
Year: | 1996 |
Periodical: | African Study Monographs: Supplementary Issue |
Issue: | 22 |
Pages: | 125-143 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Botswana |
Subjects: | San social networks semantics |
External link: | http://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2433/68373/1/ASM_S_22_125.pdf |
Abstract: | This article reconsiders the relationship terminology of the /Gui San in the Xade area (Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Botswana), based on data collected over a total of four months in 1993-1994. A brief review of the recent lexical data on /Gui kinship terms from G.B. Silberbauer (1981), A. Barnard (1992) and J. Tanaka (1980) is followed by an examination of the distinction in usage between terms of address and terms of reference. Focusing on terms of reference, the author describes their semantic domain and introduces the distinctive semantic features which differentiate a sextet of /Gui kin categories from each other. /Gui relationship terminology functions to classify ego's contemporaries rather than to establish a genealogical relationship between ego and the ancestors. Distinctive features which differentiate /Gui relationship categories are 'generation' and 'the appropriateness of sexual behaviour'. Sexual partnerships are among the variables that decide the nature of the relationships of people in future generations. Bibliogr., notes, sum. |