Review of "Kinship in Southeastern Asia (stedt monograph 6)"

• Main Author: Burling, Robbins
• Other Authors: University of Michigan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2024
• Subjects: Arts and Humanities
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/177703
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In the early 1950s, as an anthropology student at Harvard with a growing interest in both kinship and Southeast Asia, I heard about a dissertation with the title “Kinship in Southeastern Asia” written by an earlier Harvard student named Paul Benedict. The topic seemed to be mine, so I sought out the chamber in Harvard‟s Widener Library where the sacred Harvard dissertations were kept under lock and key, accessible only by careful application to the guardians. I spent the better part of an afternoon browsing around Benedict‟s formidable opus. It was the first unpublished dissertation that I had ever tried to read but, sadly, with the passing of the years, my memory of its contents grew steadily more dim until, at last, I could remember nothing but my conclusion as I left the room where the book was shelved: “If he could get a PhD for that, then I shouldn‟t have too much trouble getting one myself.”