Kinship structures, then, are not normative, but is actually consisted of the mother and child alone, illustrating how the role of males have been gradually decreasing to being 'suppliers' of sperm cells for the women's use in assisted reproduction.
Studies from Carsten and Stone demonstrate the aspects demonstrated in Kahn's research. Carsten's research centers primarily on the kinship system extant in Malaysia, while Stone looks at how females have managed to gradually increase and assert their role in human society, eventually having their own choice to actively participate in the process of reproduction or not.
Carsten's analysis of the Malaysian kinship system shows that the concept of family goes beyond the traditional distinction of blood relations -- that is, people consider an individual as part of the family even though they are not related in blood. Being considered...
Thus, kinship system in the country is created through either biological or social relations. Suffice it to say that Carsten puts more emphasis on the role that social ties have in influencing kinship among Malaysians than biological relations. Stone's analysis, meanwhile, reflects Kahn's study in terms of her focus on the empowering role that women have in being able to choose to reproduce even without the commitment that relationship entails. In her analysis, she illustrates how, throughout history, women have come full circle to being mere reproducers to having a choice and will to decide to become mothers or not: "These ideas have passed sequentially through stages she labels "virtuous womanhood," "educated motherhood," "wife-companion,"and, finally, "woman as person."
