In his statement that in the human race no person can live without the realization of his/her cultural ties with others, Ernest Hemingway confirmed the obvious. On a deeper scale, cultural ties are intensified and compounded many times over in the greater realization that sibling ties - blood or marital - are impossible to ignore. If one has siblings, one is bound in one way or another and to one degree or another, to acknowledge and react to them.

If one does not have them, one is compelled to acknowledge and react to their non-existence.

Thus humanity is caught in the steel chain of blood and cultural ties. Blessed (or damned) if the links are close; damned (or blessed) if they are not. In this volume, the complexity of sibling relationships is anatomized and illustrated through time and geography, demonstrating that no aspect of that relationship - order of birth, time lapses between multiple births, age and gender separation, culture in which born - is without consequence.

If one cannot guarantee success in life by choosing her/his parents and ancestors, then she/he cannot escape the consequences of not having picked the proper pecking order among one's siblings, real or nonexistent. This collection of essays written by scholars who have long felt the reality of sibling-presence brilliantly and insightfully help explain the dilemmas and chart the way to a better understanding of these powerful forces.