Chapter 11 Flashcards
________ means to marry someone similar.
Homogamy
Marriage outside one’s own group is called
exogamy.
In a ________, descent bifurcates the community so that everyone belongs to one half or the other.
moiety
In most cultures, people avoid incest by
following rules of exogamy.
In a 2013 Pew Research Center survey, 88 percent of Americans ranked ________ highest among reasons to get married
love
Which of the following statements is true of lobola?
It is insurance against divorce
In the ________ system, substantial gifts to the husband’s family from the wife’s group are offered.
dowry
The custom of a widow marrying the brother of her deceased husband is known as
the levirate.
In some cultures, a substantial ________ may decrease the divorce rate for individuals.
lobola
When a woman has more than one husband at the same time, it is referred to as
polyandry.
In the case of the Nuer, in which there was a female husband, what was significant was
the social construction of kinship.
In ________, a person has two or more spouses simultaneously.
a plural marriage
What is another name for polygamy?
plural marriage
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
social rather than biological paternity, illustrating how kinship is socially constructed.
In the context of the Indian caste system as an example of endogamy, Indian castes are grouped into five major categories called
varnas.
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.
incest
The term ________ refers to a child’s biological father.
genitor
In a society with two exogamous lineages or moieties, who is the preferred cross-cousin bride for a male ego?
MBD (mother’s brother’s daughter)
In societies with unilineal descent, sex with cross cousins is proper, but sex with parallel cousins is considered incestuous. Why?
Parallel cousins are considered relatives but cross cousins are not.
The incest taboo is almost culturally universal, but
not all cultures define incest the same way.
Children of two brothers or two sisters are referred to as
parallel cousins.
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.
homogamy
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
give either or both spouses rights over the latent and manifest functions of the other.
Which of the following statements about same-sex marriage in the United States today is true?
The 2015 Supreme Court case of Obergefell v. Hodges legalized same-sex marriage in the United States.
Which of the following statements about polyandry is most likely true?
It is a cultural adaptation to mobility associated with customary male travel for trade, commerce, and military operations.
Sexual relations with a close relative are known as incest.
True
In certain African cultures, women have been permitted to marry other women.
True
Ease of divorce varies across cultures.
True
Native American “Two-Spirits” were permitted to marry men.
True
Cultures have different definitions and expectations of relationships that are biologically or genetically equivalent. In other words, kinship is socially constructed.
True
Polygyny is much more common in patrilineal than in matrilineal societies.
True
Dowries are most common in societies in which women occupy an elevated status position.
False
Serial polygamy is the practice of having more than one wife, but never more than one at the same time.
False
Although briefly popular after its introduction, online dating never became a significant part of the marriage market
False
Exogamy is adaptively advantageous because it
creates new social ties and alliances.
