Chapter 20 Flashcards
With unilineal descent, sex with cross cousins is proper, but sex with parallel cousins is considered incestuous. Why?
Parallel cousins are considered closer relatives than cross cousins.
The incest taboo is almost culturally universal, but
not all cultures define incest the same way.
There is no simple or universally accepted explanation for the fact that nearly all cultures ban incest. However, the most accepted explanation for the incest taboo is
that following rules of exogamy is adaptively advantageous.
What term refers to the culturally sanctioned practice of marrying someone within a group to which one belongs?
endogamy
Which of the following is an example of a rule of endogamy?
the Nazi law forbidding Aryans from marrying anyone but other Aryans
How do the rules of endogamy function in society?
They tend to maintain social distinctions between groups.
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
woman-woman marriage provide a socially approved way to deal with problems for which heterosexual marriages offer no satisfactory solution.
To understand royal endogamy, it is useful to distinguish between the manifest and latent functions of customs and behavior. The manifest function of a custom refers to the reasons people in a society give for it. Its latent function is
an effect the custom has that the society’s members don’t mention or recognize.
A cross-cultural study that systematically compared romantic love in many cultures found
evidence that romantic appears to be universal, although romantic love and marriage do not necessarily go together.
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.
What is the term for the marital exchange in which the bride’s family or kin group provides substantial gifts when their daughter marries?
dowry
Divorce tends to be more common
in matrilineal than in patrilineal societies.
What is the name of the custom by which a widower marries the sister of his deceased wife?
sororate marriage
Which of the following best defines polygyny?
the type of marriage in which there is more than one wife
Which of the following statements about polyandry is most likely true?
It is a cultural adaptation to mobility associated with male travel for trade, commerce, and warfare. And can also be associated with land inheritance.
