This important work is addressed to all researchers concerned with classification. It shows the serious limits of the traditional form of analytical classification. The solution it proposes, the inductive population approach, considers all possible cross-classifications in regard to attributes of the phenomena. This approach is theoretically grounded, avoids the tendency to generate excessively abstract constructs, and provides a clear way of linking empirical data with theoretically meaningful attributes of social systems. The last section of the book applies the method to kinship structures.