Genealogy - Research Article from Encyclopedia of Religion

This encyclopedia article consists of approximately 13 pages of information about Genealogy.

Genealogy - Research Article from Encyclopedia of Religion

This encyclopedia article consists of approximately 13 pages of information about Genealogy.
This section contains 3,774 words
(approx. 13 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Genealogy Encyclopedia Article

GENEALOGY. As formal structure, genealogy is foremost an intellectual discipline. Its concern is with recording and putting into systematic order the histories of families, differentiating them by rules of descent and allocating to each a share of those enduring human valuables that consist of privileges and honors, titles and powers. Although grounded in myth and circumscribed by tradition and, thus, seemingly a rote and rigid subject, genealogy is to be understood rather as a product of informed speculative reasoning about metaphysical, specifically ontological, matters. Its subject matter goes beyond the listing of pedigrees. It identifies and differentiates the forces and generative sources that give shape to and regulate the entire universe of life. From its cosmological concepts, it draws implications for human conduct and for the structure of the social order. Most directly, genealogies connect human families with their mythical origins, joining them as kinfolk within the universal...

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This section contains 3,774 words
(approx. 13 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Genealogy Encyclopedia Article
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Macmillan
Genealogy from Macmillan. Copyright © 2001-2006 by Macmillan Reference USA, an imprint of the Gale Group. All rights reserved.