Raymond FIRTH, We the Tikopia (1936); Marriage and the Classificatory System of Relationship (1930). While the double system of classification often involves a reinforcement of ties, it may also create contradictions insofar as two peoples' kin and name relationships can involve different and sometimes opposed sets of obligations. Raymond Firth, commenting on ... the Pacific island of Tikopia, maintains that choices in ambiguous kin term situations are governed by strategic interests such as economic and political gain or sometimes by just a simple desire to reduce confusion (Firth 1930). (http://umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/tutor/case_studies/san/san_names.html). Specifically, a person can be "mother's brother" (who has a special role in taking care of a child), or brother-in-law.

Edmund LEACH, Political Systems of Highland Burma (1954). Leach criticized the structural approach in social anthropology: structures (rules, customs) reflect ideology but not actual practice. In reality, people rarely follow the "rules" of culture, language, etc. all the time and in all contexts. For example, Leach showed that if there is a "rule" that in a marriage the husband must be of a higher status than the wife, it is impossible for this rule to be followed in all cases.

This is similar to Firth's argument: people will always say that marrying a cousin is "taboo", for example, but still there are many cousins who marry. The important question here is how the cousins define their relationship.

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