4.0422 Kinship (2/37)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Fri, 24 Aug 90 22:29:56 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0422. Friday, 24 Aug 1990.

(1) Date: Fri, 24 Aug 90 08:21:18 EDT (28 lines)
From: Frank Dane <FDANE@UGA>
Subject: Re: 4.0419 Names & Kinship Knowledge

(2) Date: Fri, 24 Aug 90 08:50:06 CDT (9 lines)
From: ed waldron <UD081917@NDSUVM1>
Subject: Re: 4.0419 Names & Kinship Knowledge

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 Aug 90 08:21:18 EDT
From: Frank Dane <FDANE@UGA>
Subject: Re: 4.0419 Names & Kinship Knowledge

re: surnames and kinship--I don't care to press this point too far,
but it occurs to me that the development of using surnames is
contemporary with the development of hygenic bathing and/or
extensive use of perfumes. Anyone with better knowledge of
the Middle Ages (perhaps all of you) should feel free to support
or contradict this idea.

What may be pressed is the point that surnames became more important
as the size of villages became larger and intervillage travel
became more accessible to the general population. Current
mating/dating practices lead me to infer that Middle Age individuals
were also more likely to form relationships within a limited
geographical area and/or within occupational categories. Thus, it
makes sense that surnames, if they aided kinship identification,
would be based on village/town or occupational identification.

Anyone who has spent any time in the Southern US and has observed
the practice of assessing kinship (Isn't she Billy Bob's cousin
on his mother's side?) as an integral part of everyday conversaion
would be convinced that assessing kinship remains an important
aspect of life, regardless of the toic of conversation or the
activity at hand.

Frank Dane, Mercer University
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------15----
Date: Fri, 24 Aug 90 08:50:06 CDT
From: ed waldron <UD081917@NDSUVM1>
Subject: Re: 4.0419 Names & Kinship Knowledge

A simple note on surnames and kinship: We in this country (and
hemisphere) should remember that many surnames were, in fact,
artificially forced upon a large group of people as property
identification marks, *not* kinship marks.