Elite Byzantine Kinship, ca. 950-1204: Blood, Reputation, and the Genos (Beyond Medieval Europe)

By the end of the twelfth century, the Byzantine genos was a politically effective social group based upon ties of consanguineous kinship, but, importantly, it was also a cultural construct, an idea that held very real power, yet defies easy categorization. This study explores the role and function of the Byzantine aristocratic family group, or genos, as a distinct social entity, particularly its political and cultural role, as it appears in a variety of sources in the tenth through twelfth centuries.