Methodological reflections on some contributions of the systemic family therapy to an anthropological study of family

Abstract

The migratory phenomenon has been dealt from different historical, sociological, demographic and anthropological studies. Several times these approaches only offer partial answers to the issues involved in migration. Our research was focused on the study of Cape Verdean immigrant groups in Argentina, providing models about the organization and interaction of these groups in order to explore critical topics such as immigration and family, identity and ethnicity, among others.
After long years of work, we have adjusted methodologies, especially those resulting from the traditional anthropology, looking for alternatives, “recycling” premises, guidelines and techniques from other disciplines, such as psychology (in particular family therapy of systemic orientation).
In this work, we reflect on some methodological issues, especially the use of genograms implemented in the kinship study and Cape Verdean family in a migratory context, whose analysis was one of the objectives considered in the research project on the mentioned group in Argentina.