Download or read book Kinship and Politics in Athens, 600-400 B.C. written by Robert J. Littman and published by Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers. This book was released on 1990 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In ancient Athens kinship and politics were inseparable. This book studies that relationship through the methods of anthropology. The political, social and religious systems of sixth and fifth century B.C. Athens are shown as functions of a patrilineal kinship system. In the earlier period the patrilineal kinship descent groups were the political system. As the city developed, the descent groups no longer defined the state, but their vitality persisted as politicians recruited their party members and allies from their own and allied kinship groups.