This article focus on the critical contribution of Bourdieu to the studies of kinship, particularly the so-called matrimonial switches and celibacy. His interpretations on the endogamic Berber marriage and the celibacy in the French peasantry allowed him to formulate the criticism on the juridical formality and the "genealogical" perception of kinship. In such studies, Bourdieu puts aside the notion of rule to consider kinship a practice. At the same time, still based on the concept of habitus, the author understands the matrimonial switches as a game, more than a structure, and that granted him permission to move from the idea of society to that one of countryside. Bourdieu also criticizes a naïve perception of the "native point of view," pointing towards the distinction between the public and private discourse.
Matrimonial switches; Celibacy; Pragmatic kinship; Berber kinship; Peasant Maison; Game; Countryside