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Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Original Title -- Original Copyright -- Dedication -- TABLE OF CONTENTS -- Foreword -- Preface -- I. Problem and Theory -- II. The Milieu -- III. Structure of Kin Knowledge -- IV. Patterns of Interaction -- V. Bonds of Marriage -- VI. Class and Community -- VII. Legislation and Welfare -- VIII. Modernization and Kin Network -- Appendices -- (i) Kinship Terminology -- (ii) Subcastes -- (iii) Bedagu and Gotra -- (iv) Genealogies -- (v) Glossary -- (vi) Abbreviations of Journal Titles -- Bibliography -- Index

The present dissertation is concerned with the KIN oracle, a symbolic divination technique produced by the Hittite in the 2nd mill. B.C. and developed only in the Hittite cultural milieu. Like other omens of the Ancient Near East, the Hittite oracles were considered to be messages from the gods. The Hittite solicited omens included Extispicy, Augury, the Bed Oracle, the ḪURRI-Bird Oracle, the Snake Oracle, and the KIN Oracle. Although many studies have already explained how the different divination systems worked, the KIN oracle frame still remains difficult to understand in all of its features. In this research the KIN cuneiform sources and its oracular structure have been analyzed in all respects and enriched with tables, patterns, and pictures in order to better understand the work carried out. As far as the KIN is concerned, this research provides several different analytic implications both for Hittite and divination studies.

SummaryHuman consanguinity is often attributed to poverty, lack of education and social insecurity. Nevertheless, kin unions continue to be arranged in socioeconomically transformed societies. This study examined the structure of families and marriages in the rich tribal society of the United Arab Emirates, which has had a high gross domestic product for the last two generations and currently has one of the highest in the world. The respondents were 217 national medical students whose families are proportionally distributed to the population of the country emirates. The rate of parental consanguinity (defined as a union of any two cousins) was 36%. The social status and mean size of consanguineous and non-consanguineous families were not significantly different. In non-consanguineous families, polygamy was more common and the number of half-siblings per family was higher. The extended families were on average 7% larger among non-consanguineous families. In contrast, for the extended families of the participants' grandparents, non-consanguineous families were smaller than their consanguineous counterparts. Participants from consanguineous families indicated that marriage of either a son or daughter was more difficult to arrange than did participants from non-consanguineous families. Though consanguineous parents had their offspring marry consanguineously more often than non-consanguineous parents, the numbers of married offspring in the two groups of families were not different. Consanguineous parents have more difficulty than non-consanguineous parents in finding spouses for themselves and for their offspring, and they arranged kin marriages for their children more often.

"Über 'Raum' und 'Räume' raunen mancher Wissenschaften VertreterInnen vielerlei. Dabei geraten ab und zu unterschiedliche Raum-Konzepte in Verwirrung. Was gesellschaftswissenschaftliche Disziplinen aus gesicherten theoretischen Konzepten der Physik und Mathematik lernen können, entwickelt Rainer Fischbach." (Autorenreferat)