Ch. 7 Families, Kinship, & Marriage

Question 1

NUCLEAR Family of Orientation vs. Procreation

Answer 1

NUCLEAR FAMILY – Traditional Mom, Dad, kids structure accounts for only 1/5th (20%) of American homes.

• Due to single parents, divorce, same-sex partners, etc.
• FORAGERS and INDUSTRIALIZED tend to have NUCLEAR FAMILIES due ot their mobility and emphaisis on small, economically self-sufficient family units.
• FORAGERS traditionally are part of both a NUCLEAR FAMILY and a BAND.
  
  • The BAND, which is typically LESS STABLE than a NUCLEAR FAMILY, exists only seasonally, breaking up into NUCLEAR FAMILIES when RESOURCES become scarce.

FAMILY of ORIENTATION is the nuclear family in which you are born and grow up.

FAMILY of PROCREATION is the nuclear family established when you marry and have kids.

• Adults in Brazil see their Family of orientation as most important, while adults in the USA tend to focus on their Famiy of Procreation.

Family of Orientation and Procreation are both NUCLEAR FAMILY (meaning with a nucleus) types.

• Other family types include Extended Families (+cousins, aunts, uncles) and Descent Groups (Clans).

Question 2

Neolocality

Answer 2

Postmarital residence pattern in which a couple establishes a new place of residence rather than live near either set of parents.

• Neolocality is associated with INDUSTRIALISM, which allows for geographic mobility and encourages family isolation from the Famiy of Orientation.

Question 3

Extended Family Household

Answer 3

Expanded household including 3 or more generations.

• In North America, this is most common among lower class families who share housing to pool resources.
• The COLLATERAL HOUSEHOLD includes siblings, their spouses, and their children.

Question 4

Descent Group

Answer 4

A permenent social unit whose members claim common ancestry. Fundamental to tribal society, and are thus common as LINEAGES or CLANS

• In both LINEAGES and CLANS is the belief that members have descended from the same APICAL ANCESTOR – the person who stands at the apex or top of their ancestry.
  
  • _​_A LINEAGE is a decent group whose members can demonstrate (name the ancestor chain leading back to) their common descent from an APICAL ANCESTOR (DEMONSTRATED DESCENT).
  • A CLAN is a decent group whose members claim common descent from an APICAL ANCESTOR but cannot demonstrate it (STIPULATED DESCENT).
• This is common among NON-industrial Food producers.
  
  • Where the NUCLEAR family is important among INDUSTRIALIZED and FORAGING societies.
• When a Descent group’s APICAL ANCESTOR is nonhuman (animal or plant), it is called a TOTEM.
• Descent groups can have both LINEAGE and CLANS and also have branches that live in different villages.

Question 5

Patrilineal Descent

Answer 5

Unilineal (one line) descent rule in which people join the FATHER’S group automatically at birth and stay throughout life.

• The children of the group’s MEN join the group, but the children of the group’s WOMEN are excluded (And would presumably join their father’s group).
• Patrilineal Descent is THREE times more prevalent than Matrilineal Descent.

Question 6

Matrilineal Descent

Answer 6

Unilineal (one line) descent rule in which people join the MOTHER’S group automatically at birth and stay throughout life.

• The children of the group’s WOMEN join the group, but the children of the group’s MEN are excluded (And would presumably join their Mother’s group).

Question 7

Patrilocality vs Matrilocality

Answer 7

PATRILOCALITY – Customary residence with the HUSBAND’S relatives after marriage so that children grow up in their father’s community

MATRILOCALITY – Customary residence with the WIFE’S relatives after marriage.

• Matrilocality is much less common.

Question 8

Exogamy

Answer 8

Mating or marriage outside one’s kin group, the purpose of which is two-fold:

• Genetic Diversificaiton
• Creating allies and kinship with other groups

Question 9

Incest

Answer 9

Sexual relations with a close relative.

• The definition of INCEST varies from culture to culture.
• The “instinctive horror” theory of incest argues that Homo sapiens are genetically programmed to avoid incest, but this theory has been refuted as some cultures show acceptance of the practice.

Question 10

Endogamy

Answer 10

ENDOGAMY – Marriage between people of the same social group. exists e

• Most societies have some sort of informal ENDOGAMY where classes and ethnic groups tend to intermarry.
• This is less common than EXOGAMY.
• the CASTE system in INDA (abolished in 1949) are stratified groups in which membership is ascribed at birth and is lifelong.
  
  • Those who still follow this system marry within their own caste.

Question 11

Lobola or Bridewealth

Answer 11

LOBOLA or BRIDEWEALTH – A customary gift before, at, or after marriage from the husband and his kin to the wife and her kin.

• This gift compensates the Wife’s family for the loss of her companionship and labor.
  
  • Also called PROGENY PRICE: Makes the children born of the woman full members of her husband’s descent group.
  • Only exists in PATRILINEAL societies.
  • Insurance against divorce.
  • With bridewealth, a woman’s ability to bear children is essential to the stability of her marriage.
• BRIDEWEALTH is much more common than a DOWRY, which is a gift from the wife’s family to the husband’s family.

Question 12

Dowry

Answer 12

DOWRY is a substantial gifts to husband’s family from wife’s group.

• In societies with bridewealth, a woman’s ability to bear children is essential to the stability of

her marriage

• A LOBOLA is a customary gift before, at, or after marriage from the husband and his kin to the wife and her kin.
  
  • Unlike the LOBOLA, which places great value on the woman, a DOWRY implies that the woman is a BURDEN and the Dowry is supposed to compensate the Husband and his family for assuming this burden.

Question 13

Sororate

Answer 13

Custom by which a widower (Husband) marries the sister of the deceased wife.

• This allows the marriage between two groups to ENDURE, and it prevents the need to return a LOBOLA.

Question 14

Levirate

Answer 14

Widow marries the brother of her deceased husband.

• This is more RARE than SORORATE, where the WIDOWER automatically gets to mary his deceased wife’s sister (or equivalent) – and it is NOT automatic.

Question 15

Plural Marriage (Polygamy)

Answer 15

POLYGYNY – Marriage of a man to 2 or more women at the same time.

• Even when polygyny encouraged most people tend to be monogamous because there are roughly equal sex ratios in society.
• Reasons for polygyny:
• Men marrying later than women
• Inheritance of a widow from a brother
• Increase prestige or household productivity
• Infertile wife

POLYANDRY – Marriage of a woman to 2 or more men at the same time.

• Very rare, almost exclusively in South Asia (Tibet, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka)
• Cultural adaptation to mobility associated with customary male travel for trade, commerce, and military operations.
• Ensures at least one man at home to accomplish male activities.
• Fraternal Polyandry is when brothers with few resources have a single wife.
  
  • Expanded polyandrous households allow brothers to pool resources
  • Restricts number of wives and heirs, so land transmitted with minimal fragmentation

NOTE: Most NON-Industrial food-producing societies (unlike foraging and Industrialized societies) allow for PLURAL MARRIAGES.

Question 16

Foraging Families

Answer 16

• Foraging families tend to join BANDS, which include relatives of either the mother or father.
  
  • But even within those bands, they may still retain a NUCLEAR family.

Question 17

Unilineal Descent

Answer 17

UNILINEAL DESCENT refers to the descent of generations from a SINGLE LINE, either MALE (Patrilineal) or FEMALE (Matrilineal).

Question 18

Parental Definitions

Answer 18

GENITOR refers to the BIOLOGICAL FATHER.

PATER refers to the SOCIALLY RECOGNIZED FATHER, who may or may not be the GENITOR.

MATER refers to the SOCIALLY RECOGNIZED MOTHER.

Question 19

Tarawads and Zadrugas (Family Organization)

Answer 19

The NUCLEAR FAMILY that we know and love in the Industrialized world is widespread. but not universal.

ZADRUGA – Among the Muslims of Western Bosnia, NUCLEAR FAMILIES were EMBEDDED within large EXTENDED FAMILIES called ZADRUGAS, each headed by a male household head and his wife.

TARAWAD – The Nayars of Southern India lived in matrilineal exteded family compounds called TARAWADS, each headed by a senior woman.

Question 20

Marriage

Answer 20

MARRIAGE – There is no single definition of marriage that is adequate to account for all of the diversity found in marriages cross-culturally. Definition includes:

• A man and woman such that the children born are recognized as legitimate offspring – not a universally valid definition.
• Many societies have norms of plural marriage or same-sex marriage.
• Some societies focus on civil marriage, while others focus on religious marriage.
• Some societies focus on biological paternity, while others focus on social paternity.
• Outside Industrial societies, marriage often is more a RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GROUPS than one between individuals.
  
  • ​SORORATE and LEVIRATE highlight the importance of marriage as an alliance between groups.

Question 21

Same-Sex Marriage and Marital Rights

Answer 21

Several kinds of rights may be allocated by marriage.

1. They establish the legal father of a woman’s children and the legal mother of a man’s.
2. They give either or both spouses a monopoly in the sexuality of the other.
3. They give either or both spouses rights to the labor of the other.
4. Marriage can give either or both spouses rights over the other’s property.
5. They establish a joint fund of property—a partnership—for the benefit of the children.
6. They establish a socially significant “relationship of affinity” between spouses and their relatives.

• There are no logical reasons why same-sex marriage cannot allocate all of the rights discussed.

Question 22

Divorce

Answer 22

• The ease of divorce varies across cultures.
• Marriages that are political alliances between groups are harder to break up than are marriages that are more individual affairs.
• Substantial BRIDEWEALTH (LOBOLA) discourages divorce, and replacement marriages (levirate and sororate) also help to preserve group alliances.
• Divorce is more common in matrilineal and matrilocal societies (e.g., the Hopi of the American Southwest) because the women can simply kick the man out of the group if she so desires.
• Divorce is harder in patrilocal societies, as a woman may be less inclined to leave her children, who as members of their father’s lineage would be expected to remain with him.