Exploring Twins »

Elizabeth A. Stewart lectures on the sociology of Soviet/Russian society at the London School of Economics. Her research interest in the social analysis of twinship arose from the birth of hew own twins.

Exploring Twins presents an analysis of twinship considered as a specifically social phenomenom. Drawing upon a wide range of interdisciplinary, historical, and cross-cultural data, Elizabeth Stewart argues that in both traditional and modern societies, twinship represents a recurrent anomaly that calls into question the assumptions around which different types of society are organized.

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Stewart, a mother of twins and a member of the Twins and Multiple Births Association and the International Society for Twin Studies, examines the social dimensions of twinship. She identifies cross- cultural and disciplinary conceptions and discourses of twinship, analyzes twinship in relation to major models of social analysis, and presents empirical data on current perceptions of twinship in contemporary Western society. Her conclusions are based on original research involving a survey of parents of twins and of the general public. Stewart teaches sociology at the London School of Economics. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Part I
• Myths about Twins
• The Comparative Constitution of Twinship: Antrhopological and Ethnographic Perspectives
• Twins in Literature, Films, Television and the Press
• Heredity and Environment: The Classic Twin Method
• Measuring Twinship: Psychologists on Twins
• The Divided Self: The Psychoanalytic Approach
• Part II
• The Social Construction of Twinship I: Family, Parents and Siblings
• The Social Construction of Twinship: We Two Together
• 'Are They Identical?': Twins' Parents Questionnaire and General Public Questionnaire
• Thinking Twinship: Childhood and the Formation of Self and Identity
• Towards the Social Analysis of Twinship
• Concluding Remarks
• Appendices