structural:summarization, structural:scholar_edition
Genealogical method

The genealogical method investigates links of kinship determined by marriage and descent. The method owes its origin from the book of British ethnographer W. H. R. Rivers titled "Kinship and Social Organisation" in 1911. Genealogy or kinship commonly plays a crucial role in the structure of non-industrial societies, determining both social relations and group relationship to the past. Marriage, for example, is frequently pivotal in determining military alliances between villages, clans or ethnic groups.