S/S/21. What makes a father?

This essay will analyse a number of different ethnographic accounts of the role of father and kinship, focusing on the relationship between social paternity and biogenetics. This essay will propose that the concept of the father is socially constructed. However, this analysis will not neglect the biogenetic basis of certain cultures ideas of kinship. Indeed, biogenetic ideas often legitimise the position of the father, but alone, they do not constitute a sufficient basis for the makings of a father.