Portrait of Lord Melvyn Bragg, host of In Our Time

Kinship and descent

In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that the study of kinship is the study of what humans do with these basic facts of life – mating, gestation, parenthood, socialization, siblingship etc.

2 episodes

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  1. Childhood

    Melvyn Bragg examines how perceptions of childhood have changed during the 20th century and discusses whether a clear distinction can always be made between childhood and adulthood.

    9 December 1999

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    Featuring: Christina Hardyment, Theodore Zeldin

     
  2. Marriage

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the history of the institution of marriage from ancient Greeks and Babylonian times to today, and examines how monogamy came to be the favoured mode in the West.

    21 March 2002

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    Featuring: Janet Soskice, Frederik Pedersen, Christina Hardyment