On Speaking Terms - Avoidance Registers and the Sociolinguistics of Kinship

Why are kin, in societies all over the world, divided into “joking” and “avoidance” relations? With a particular focus on avoidance relationships, On Speaking Terms argues that in order to understand cross-cultural convergences in the patterning of kinship-keyed comportments, we must attend to the sociolinguistic codes through which kinship relationships are enacted.