Chapter 19 Flashcards
What term refers to the kind of descent in which people choose the descent group that they join?
ambilineal
Anthropologists are interested in kinship calculation, which is
the system by which people in a society reckon their kin relationships.
What does it mean that kinship, like race, is culturally constructed?
Some genealogical kin are considered to be relatives whereas others are not, and the rules underlying such considerations vary across cultures.
What does ego represent in a depiction of a kinship system?
the point of reference used to determine which kin terms are applicable to certain individuals
What kind of kinship is most common in the contemporary United States?
bilateral kinship
Understanding kinship systems is an important part of anthropology because
kinship ties are important to the people anthropologists study; they are a key component of people’s everyday social relations.
In what kind of kinship calculation are kin ties traced equally through males and females?
bilateral
What makes up ego’s nuclear family of orientation?
parents and siblings
Which term refers to the family in which a child is raised?
family of orientation
Although nuclear families are found in many societies around the world, this phenomenon is not a cultural universal.
true
Women in matrilineal societies tend to occupy elevated status positions.
true
Gender stratification tends to be extremely pronounced in patrilineal-patrilocal societies.
true
Traditionally, in some areas of the former Yugoslavia, several nuclear families were embedded in an extended family household called a zadruga. Among the Nayar in southern India, it was typical for people to live in matrilineal extended family compounds called tarawads. Descriptions of these two culturally specific cases highlight how
there are many alternatives to the nuclear family.
A descent group consists only of a married couple and their children.
false
In unilineal descent, one’s ancestry is traced through only one line of descent.
true
