the substance of kinship and the heat of the hearth: feeding, personhood, and relatedness among Malays in Pulau Langkawi

Abstract

Malays on the island of Langkawi become complete persons, that is, kin, through living and consuming together in houses. Identity and substance are mutable and fluid. These perceptions suggest a processual view of kinship and personhood. They challenge anthropological definitions of kinship, which focus on procreation and which assume a universal division between the “biological” and the “social.” [Malay, kinship, personhood, feeding, social, biological]