Chapter 11

Question 1

________ means to marry someone similar.

Answer 1

Homogamy

Question 2

Marriage outside one’s own group is called

Answer 2

exogamy.

Question 2

In a ________, descent bifurcates the community so that everyone belongs to one half or the other.

Answer 2

moiety

Question 3

In most cultures, people avoid incest by

Answer 3

following rules of exogamy.

Question 3

In a 2013 Pew Research Center survey, 88 percent of Americans ranked ________ highest among reasons to get married

Answer 3

love

Question 3

Which of the following statements is true of lobola?

Answer 3

It is insurance against divorce

Question 3

In the ________ system, substantial gifts to the husband’s family from the wife’s group are offered.

Answer 3

dowry

Question 3

The custom of a widow marrying the brother of her deceased husband is known as

Answer 3

the levirate.

Question 3

In some cultures, a substantial ________ may decrease the divorce rate for individuals.

Answer 3

lobola

Question 4

When a woman has more than one husband at the same time, it is referred to as

Answer 4

polyandry.

Question 4

In the case of the Nuer, in which there was a female husband, what was significant was

Answer 4

the social construction of kinship.

Question 4

In ________, a person has two or more spouses simultaneously.

Answer 4

a plural marriage

Question 4

What is another name for polygamy?

Answer 4

plural marriage

Question 4

In South Sudan, a Nuer woman can marry a woman if her father has only daughters but no male heirs. This is done to maintain the patrilineage. The “wife” has sex with one or more men until she gets pregnant. The children born are then accepted as the offspring of both the female husband and the wife. What is important in this example is

Answer 4

social rather than biological paternity, illustrating how kinship is socially constructed.

Question 5

In the context of the Indian caste system as an example of endogamy, Indian castes are grouped into five major categories called

Answer 5

varnas.

Question 5

All cultures have taboos against ________, sexual relations with someone considered to be a close relative, although precisely what constitutes a close relative varies across cultures.

Answer 5

incest

Question 5

The term ________ refers to a child’s biological father.

Answer 5

genitor

Question 5

In a society with two exogamous lineages or moieties, who is the preferred cross-cousin bride for a male ego?

Answer 5

MBD (mother’s brother’s daughter)

Question 6

In societies with unilineal descent, sex with cross cousins is proper, but sex with parallel cousins is considered incestuous. Why?

Answer 6

Parallel cousins are considered relatives but cross cousins are not.

Question 6

The incest taboo is almost culturally universal, but

Answer 6

not all cultures define incest the same way.

Question 6

Children of two brothers or two sisters are referred to as

Answer 6

parallel cousins.

Question 6

The rise in female employment in the United States, especially in professional careers, when coupled with ________, has dramatically increased household incomes in the upper classes. This pattern has been one factor sharpening the contrast in household income between the richest and poorest quintiles of Americans.

Answer 6

homogamy

Question 6

Anthropologist Edmund Leach (1955) observed that, depending on the society, several different kinds of rights are allocated by marriage. According to Leach, marriage can—but doesn’t always—accomplish each of the following EXCEPT

Answer 6

give either or both spouses rights over the latent and manifest functions of the other.

Question 7

Which of the following statements about same-sex marriage in the United States today is true?

Answer 7

The 2015 Supreme Court case of Obergefell v. Hodges legalized same-sex marriage in the United States.

Question 7

Which of the following statements about polyandry is most likely true?

Answer 7

It is a cultural adaptation to mobility associated with customary male travel for trade, commerce, and military operations.

Question 8

Sexual relations with a close relative are known as incest.

Answer 8

True

Question 8

In certain African cultures, women have been permitted to marry other women.

Answer 8

True

Question 8

Ease of divorce varies across cultures.

Answer 8

True

Question 8

Native American “Two-Spirits” were permitted to marry men.

Answer 8

True

Question 8

Cultures have different definitions and expectations of relationships that are biologically or genetically equivalent. In other words, kinship is socially constructed.

Answer 8

True

Question 8

Polygyny is much more common in patrilineal than in matrilineal societies.

Answer 8

True

Question 8

Dowries are most common in societies in which women occupy an elevated status position.

Answer 8

False

Question 8

Serial polygamy is the practice of having more than one wife, but never more than one at the same time.

Answer 8

False

Question 8

Although briefly popular after its introduction, online dating never became a significant part of the marriage market

Answer 8

False

Question 8

Exogamy is adaptively advantageous because it

Answer 8

creates new social ties and alliances.