Kinship and Social Organisation

"Kinship and Social Organisation" by W. H. R. Rivers is a book of lectures that seeks to untangle how kinship words and social structures are linked, especially the classificatory ways of defining relationships. Rivers wants to show that marriage customs in different societies mold kinship terms. Right from the start, the book tells us that Rivers wants to investigate the connection between kinship words and social organization. He starts with how some cultures use relationship terms for whole groups of people instead of just one person. Rivers then references insights from other scholars, like Lewis Morgan to show us that using kinship terms isn't random; it's heavily influenced by how a culture is structured and how it works.