Why do anthropologists focus so much energy on studying kinship?
Although the study of kinship may seem somewhat trivial to some Americans, if you are interested in studying the culture of people all over the world it is an important first step to recognize that everyone is necessarily related to someone. How people of different cultures choose to classify the people they are related to has a great deal of influence on the interactions that shape a person’s life and can be very informative to the anthropologist. In addition, in nonindustrial societies, much human interaction between between people that consider themselves to be related, so kinship takes on a more important role.
