Managing a Polyethnic Milieu: Kinship and Interaction in a London Suburb

figure of the 'cousin' has come to function as a 'cultural unit' (Schneider 1980a) in a polyethnic and consciously multi-cultural setting. The setting, London's post-migration suburb of Southall, shows young Sikh, Hindu and Muslim South Asians, as well as Afro-Caribbeans and to some extent 'whites', converging upon an emphasis on cousin bonds and cousin claims. This convergence is understood as an internally plural process which, although subject to hegemonic influences, relies upon a variety of 'community'-specific and mutually independent post-migration agenda and thus cannot be reduced to direct dyadic exchanges. Exploring the significance of the cousin as a local multi-'cultural unit', the argument draws both on Schneider's idea of the 'two orders' and on the structural articulation of cousin claims with claims to cross-'community' loyalties. Ethnographic attention to processes of convergence may help studies of kinship to overcome the limitations of regarding ethnic delineations as boundaries of culture.