You are invited to the virtual launch of a special issue titled »Kinship Trouble: Traversing Interdiscipliary Boundaries between Archaeology, Archaeogenetics and Socio-cultural Anthropology,« which will soon appear in the »Cambridge Archaeological Journal«. The event will take place on 14 April, between 5pm and 7pm (CEST) and will be hosted by the Royal Anthropological Institute. The presentation of selected papers and the aims of this special issue will be followed by a Q&A.

Speakers

Sabina Cveček (Field Museum of Natural History, Austrian Academy of Sciences)

Maanasa Raghavan (University of Chicago)

Penny Bickle (University of York)

Alex Bentley (University of Tennessee)

Krystal Tsosie (Arizona State University)

Sandra Bamford (University of Toronto)

Rosemary Joyce (University of California, Berkley)

What is »kinship trouble«? When and where did it emerge, and why does it matter now? This virtual launch introduces an interdisciplinary special issue of the »Cambridge Archaeological Journal« that places these questions at the center of contemporary debate. Kinship Trouble: Traversing Interdisciplinary Boundaries between Archaeology, Archaeogenetics and Socio-cultural Anthropology, co-edited by Sabina Cveček, Maanasa Raghavan, and Penny Bickle, brings together leading socio-cultural anthropologists, archaeologists, biological anthropologists, and ancient DNA scientists to address the conceptual, methodological, and ethical challenges of reconstructing past kin relations. The term 'kinship trouble' captures both the tensions sparked by recent archaeogenetic breakthroughs and the limits of reducing kinship to biological relatedness, while also opening space to rethink kinship as a social, relational, and ethical phenomenon. Developed from interdisciplinary sessions at the American Anthropological Association (Toronto 2024) and the Archaeological Institute of America (Chicago 2025), the issue models sustained dialogue across fields that do not always share the same conceptual language by grounding the discussion in theoretical underpinnings and multi-regional case studies from the constituent fields. The virtual launch will offer an accessible overview of its central themes: ethical collaboration, integrating biological and social approaches, and understanding kinship as an act of care and (non)mutuality of being. Scholars across anthropology, archaeology, and the life sciences are warmly invited to join this conversation about how we study relatedness and why it matters for understanding human diversity past and present.

To join, please register