MIDDLE INDIAN KINSHIP SYSTEMS - A CRITIQUE OF PFEFFER,GEORG INTERPRETATION

The question of how the kinship systems of the tribes of middle India should be interpreted is examined with explicit reference to the work of Georg Pfeffer. It is argued that his hypotheses of the existence of four- and eight-line kinship terminologies in the region do not corre spond to the evidence but reflect instead an excessive reliance on the dictates of structuralist theory. These terminologies are best seen a s modified two-line prescriptive ones, broadly intermediate between th ose of south and north India.