From Triads to Pentads

Robert Parkin taught anthropology at Oxford from 2002 to 2017, when he retired. He previously taught at the University of Kent and the Free University of Berlin. His main research interests are the tribal populations of India, kinship, the history of French anthropology, and politics and identity along the German-Polish border.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsIntroductionPart I: StructuralismChapter 1. On the Notion of StructureChapter 2. Hierarchical Opposition and Some Other Types of RelationPart II: Georges Dumézil and Indo-European ComparativismChapter 3. Debating DumézilChapter 4. Quadripartion of Society in Early Tibetan SourcesChapter 5. The Ideology of the Indo-Europeans: Dumézil’s Theory and the Idea of a Fourth FunctionChapter 6. The Category of Substance: A Maussian Theme RevisitedChapter 7. Why did Odysseus Become a Horse?Part III: The Tetradic Theory of KinshipChapter 8. A Dance of RelativesChapter 9. Tetradic Theory: An Approach to KinshipChapter 10. Assimilation of Alternate GenerationsChapter 11. Tetradic Theory and Omaha SystemsChapter 12. The Division of Labour and the Notion of Primitive Society: A Maussian PerspectiveConclusionIndex