Social Mobility and Kinship: A Reexamination of the Hypothesis1

In: American anthropologist: AA, Band 71, Heft 2, S. 261-270

Abstract

Two hypotheses relating occupational mobility to kinship involvement are examined: (1) the interaction hypothesis, which argues that the occupationally mobile, either upward or downward, have less involvement with their kin, and (2) the median hypothesis, which argues that occupational mobility has no uniformly depressing effect on kinship involvement but rather that kinship involvement is simply an additive function of the class of origin and the class of destination. The median hypothesis is supported. On the other hand, the interaction hypothesis is supported in the case of religious mobility. The implications of these different findings are explored.