The Seeds of Kinship Theory in the Abrahamic Religions

  • Carol Delaney
Chapter
First Online:
Part of the Contemporary Anthropology of Religion book series (CAR)

Abstract

In the Abrahamic religions, Delaney suggests that all kinship is spiritual due to beliefs about procreation found in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scriptures. The creative power of God is symbolically transferred to men in procreation. The male provides the seed, which encapsulates the soul and identity of a child, while the female is imagined as either fertile or barren, like the earth, that which was created by God. This monogenetic belief generates definitions of “father” and “mother,” patriarchal descent, and gender relations across all three of the Abrahamic religions.

Keywords

Cultural Unit Birth Mother Origin Story Folk Theory Patriarchal Family 
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Copyright information

© The Author(s) 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  • Carol Delaney
    • 1
  1. 1.Stanford UniversityStanfordUSA

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