FAMILY AND KIN TIES IN BRITAIN AND THEIR SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS.

The article presents a symposium on family and kin ties in Great Britain and their social implication. Kinship in Britain, pervasive, intangible, still largely unstudied, with its significance either not appreciated or in danger of being overestimated, such was the background to the conference on family and kin ties in Britain and their social implications, that was held in London under the joint auspices of the British Sociological Association and the Association of Social Anthropologists. One finding of the conference was the decision by the British Sociological Association to set up a small Working Party to pursue the subject further, in particular by discussion of work in progress. One major question discussed was methods in kinship study. Exchanges of view seem to indicate that methods and techniques in vogue at present are reasonably satisfactory. As regards substantial propositions regarding kinship in Britain, it is clear that yet, Britain lacks adequate body of broad comparative data.