Ch.8 Kinship and Marriage Terms

Question 1

affinal kin

Answer 1

relatives created through marriage

Question 2

ambilineal descent

Answer 2

a type of cognatic descent system in which individuals choose a lineage upon adulthood (often marked by marriage)

Question 3

bilateral descent

Answer 3

a type of cognatic descent system that traces relatedness equally through both the mother’s and father’s lines

Question 4

brideservice

Answer 4

a duty of the groom to work for the bride’s kin for a certain period of time before or after marriage

Question 5

bridewealth (brideprice)

Answer 5

an amount of money, possessions, or property given by the groom and his kin to the wife and her kin before, at, or after the wedding

Question 6

cognatic (nonunilineal) descent

Answer 6

a system of descent that reckons identity through both maternal and paternal ancestors

Question 7

consanguineal kin

Answer 7

relatives related by birth

Question 8

cross-cousin marriage

Answer 8

a preference for marriage between cross cousins. A cross cousin is the child of one’s mother’s brother or father’s sister

Question 9

descent

Answer 9

a social rule that assigns identity to a person based on his or her ancestry

Question 10

dowry

Answer 10

the practice of a bride’s family providing resources, wealth, or gifts to the groom and his family upon marriage

Question 11

dual descent

Answer 11

a form of unilineal descent in which descent is traced through both the mother’s and fathers’s lines. The person belongs to two separate families

Question 12

fictive kinship

Answer 12

kinship relationships that are real but not based on marriage or descent

Question 13

incest taboo

Answer 13

prohibition against marriage or sex between two categories of related persons

Question 14

kinship

Answer 14

the ways in which people selectively interpret the common human experiences of reproduction and nurturance

Question 15

marriage

Answer 15

a publicly recognized social or legal union that created a socially sanctioned context for sexual intimacy, establishes (in whole or in part) the parentage of children, and creates kinship

Question 16

marriage exchange

Answer 16

the practice of exchanging material resources between families before, at, or after a wedding

Question 17

matriarchy

Answer 17

social rule by woman

Question 18

matrilineal descent

Answer 18

a form of unilineal descent in which descent is traced through the female line

Question 19

monogenesis

Answer 19

the idea that only one parent (usually the father) creates life

Question 20

neolocal residence

Answer 20

the practice of a newly married couple living separate from both partner’s parents

Question 21

parallel-cousin marriage

Answer 21

a preference for marriage between parallel cousins.

A parallel cousin is the child of one’s parent’s same-sex sibling (mother’s sister’s child or father’s brother’s child)

Question 22

patriarchy

Answer 22

social rule by men

Question 23

patrilineal descent

Answer 23

a form of unilinear descent in which descent is traced through the male line

Question 24

polyandry

Answer 24

the marriage of one women to two or more husbands

Question 25

polygamy (plural marriage)

Answer 25

a form of marriage in which one person is married to two or more other persons

Question 26

polygyny

Answer 26

the marriage of one man to two or more wives

Question 27

primogeniture

Answer 27

priority of the firstborn

Question 28

segment

Answer 28

a faction within a lineage

Question 29

teknonymy

Answer 29

the practice of referring to adults with children as the mother/father of the child in place of the parent’s given name

Question 30

unilineal descent

Answer 30

a descent system that traces relatedness exclusively or predominantly through one parent

Question 31

uxorilocal residence

Answer 31

the practice of a newly married couple living with or near the bride’s family