Da li su postojala 'na srodstvu zasnovana društva'? - o (de)konstrukciji jednog antropološkog koncepta

Abstract

Koncept 'društva zasnovanog na srodstvu' (kin-based society) počiva na pretpostavci da je u društvima bez države srodstvo predstavljalo osnovni i dovoljan princip društvenog i političkog organizovanja. Razvijen u okviru evolucionističke paradigme, ovaj koncept je tokom istorije discipline dobijao različite oblike u zavisnosti od teorijske orijentacije antropologa i njihovog shvatanja samog pojma 'srodstvo'. Teoretičari tako različitih orijentacija, od Riversa preko Malinovskog, Redklif-Brauna, Evans-Pričarda, Fortesa do Levi-Strosa, delili su istu ideju i smatrali su da srodstvo predstavlja osnov socijalne organizacije u ovom tipu društva, iako se nisu uvek slagali oko definicije tog pojma, niti oko toga koja vrsta srodničkih odnosa ima tu snagu i poseban kvalitet da integriše i organizuje čitavo društvo. Rasprave su se vodile pre svega oko toga da li odnosi 'krvnog' ili afinalnog srodstva predstavljaju osnovni faktor formiranja i reprodukovanja društvenih veza. Imajući u vidu da je u savremenoj antropologiji odbačena ideja da srodnički odnosi mogu predstavljati osnovu društvenog, ekonomskog i političkog povezivanja u bilo kom tipu društva, pa i u društvima bez klasa, kasta i države, u radu se razmatraju pretpostavke na kojima je ovaj koncept konstruisan i potom doveden u pitanje i osporen.

Concept of a 'kin-based society' relies on the assumption that, in stateless societies, kinship served as a fundamental and sufficient principle of social and political organization. Developed within the evolutionary paradigm, this concept has acquired different forms during the discipline's history, depending on the theoretical orientation of various anthropologists and their understanding of the notion of 'kinship'. Speaking from significantly different theoretical positions, anthropologists ranging from Rivers to Malinowski and Radcliffe-Brown, to Evans-Pritchard, Fortes and Levi-Strauss, all maintained that kinship formed a basis of social organization, although they did not always agree on the definition of the concept and the type of kinship relations that had this special quality of integrating and organizing the whole of society. The debates were primarily about whether it was consanguinity or affinity that served as a fundamental factor of forming and reproducing social relations. As modern anthropology rejects the idea that kinship relations can form the basis for social, economic and political integration in any type of society, including those without the state, class or caste system, this article considers the assumptions underpinning the construction of the concept witch for long played such an important role in the discipline's knowledge but later came to be seriously challenged.