本文從David Schneider 批判傳統親屬人類學研究的基礎上，以及南島民族社會文化和大洋洲母系社會的比較研究中，重新檢視關於阿美族年齡階級組織的研究文獻。筆者質疑依地緣和親屬原則的分類來瞭解阿美族社會文化體系的適當性，進而建議將阿美族部落社群視為一擴大性的親屬體系，其中透過成年禮不斷繁衍以父子關係為基礎的年齡階級組織和會所，與呈現母親意象的家戶群體之間有著頻繁緊密且廣泛的交換關係，這反映在阿美族人對人的生命過程和四季循環的社會文化安排中。

In this paper, I draw on the critique of traditional anthropological assumptions about kinship and recent analyses of politico-ritual leadership in the Pacific to reconsider the age-set organization of the Amis. Rather than relying on assumptions as to what constitutes ‘kinship’ and ‘non-kinship’ relations in the earlier view of traditional Amis society, I advocate here a broader analytical perspective that encompasses both the kinship system of the domestic maternal-focused houses and the supposedly non-kinship, locality based male-focused communal age-set organisation as a total kinship system. This paper thus departs significantly from most of the previous literature on the Amis by representing the age-set system as constituted of metaphorical fathers and sons based on indigenous notions and ritual practices.