Chapter 8: Kinship, Family, Marriage Flashcards
Kinship
- used to describe culturally recognized ties between members of a family
- includes the terms, or social statuses, used to define family members and the roles or expected behaviours family associated with these statuses
Consanguineal Kin
relatives through “blood”
ex. parents and children
Affinal Kin
relatives through marriage
ex. in-laws
Lineal Kin
direct ancestors and descendants
ex. child, parent, grandparent, great-grandparent
Collateral Kin
related but parallel lines of descent
ex. everyone except parents and grandparents (siblings, nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles, and cousins)
Parallel Cousins
mother’s sister’s kids and father’s brother’s kids
Cross Cousin
mother’s brother’s kids and father’s sister’s kids
Theories of Incest Prohibition
- Genetic theory
- Degeneration theory
- Family harmony theory (Freud, Malinowski)
- Aversion theory (Westermarck)
- Social cooperation theory (Tylor)
Functions of Marriage
Edmund Leach (1955) marriage assigns, defines, and organizes:
1. Parental legitimacy
2. Sexual access
3. Labour
4. Property
5. Inheritance
6. Affinal relations
Marriage Rules
- Exogamy
- Endogamy
- Prescriptive rules
- Preferential rules
Exogamy
marrying outside cultural group or caste
Endogamy
marrying within cultural group or caste
Prescriptive Rules
marrying specific people said by family
Preferential Rules
marrying based on economic or social status, age, education, character
Monogamy
- strict: one partner forever (ex. Catholic Church)
- serial: marrying one person at a time
Polygamy
- polygyny: man with multiple wives
- polyandry: woman with multiple husbands (fraternal polyandry: brothers marrying one woman)
3 Marital Transfer of Wealth and Rights
- Bridewealth
- Brideservice
- Dowry
Bridewealth
- husband’s family gives gifts to wife’s family to maintain alliance
- insurance against divorce
Brideservice
husband has to work for wife’s family before marrying her
Dowry
- gifts go to husband’s family
- women seen as an economic burden
- non-fertility could lead to divorce
5 Post-Marital Residences
- Patrilocal (virilocal)
- Matrilocal (uxorilocal)
- Bilocal (ambilocal)
- Neolocal
- Avunculocal
Patrilocal (virilocal)
living with or near husband’s family
ex. Yanomamo, BaKgatla
Matrilocal (uxorilocal)
living with or near wife’s family
ex. Apache, Hopi (USA), Ashanti
Bilocal (ambilocal)
- live with either side of the family back and forth
- brideservice society
ex. Ju/’hoansi, Maya
Neolocal
living away from family
ex. industrial, urban society
Avunculocal
living with husband’s mother’s brother’s family
ex. Trobriand Islanders
Basic Domestic Social Groupings
- family
- household
Family
- group or network of related people
- couple with or without kids and single parents
Household
- basic residential units of society
- can contain members with different lineages
Nuclear Family
- parents who are in a culturally-recognized relationship
- family of orientation = family born into
- family of procreation = family you make
- common in hunter gather societies
ex. marriage, along with their minor or dependent children
Extended Family
- a family of at least three-generations sharing a household
- stem (living w/ grandparents) and joint (living w/ siblings) families
- members have specialized jobs, economic, and defence unit
- adaptable (wont break if someone leaves)
- includes non-kin members
Industrial Family Forms
- new family forms, replaces the extended family in industrial society
- nuclear family
- single-parent
- matrifocal
- blended or modular
- expanded
Descent Groups
- created by these kinship systems and provide members with a sense of identity and social support
- unilineal
- cognatic
Unilineal Descent
- descent through only one line or side of the family
- patrilineal
- matrilineal
Patrilineal
line of relationships between fathers and their children
ex. Yanomamo, Nuer, China
Matrilineal
- line of relationships between mothers and their children
- women are respected but men still have more authority
ex. Iroquois, Trobriand, Ashanti, Minangkabau, Hopi
Cognatic Descent
- bilateral
- ambilineal
Bilateral
descent from both the father’s and the mother’s side of the family
Ambilineal
choosing own lineage
4 Unilineal Descent Groups
- Lineages
- Clans
- Phratries
- Moieties
Lineages
- unilineal descent groups
- corporate descent group of consanguineal kin
- can identify ancestral links
- common ancestor can be demonstrated
- owner of property or usufruct
- unity based on practical concerns
- assigns status to individuals within society
- exogamous (with some exceptions)
Clans
- groupings of lineages - common descent is stipulated rather than demonstrated
- hard to identify ancestral links
- common ancestor is often a mythical figure: totemic ancestor (ex. Wolf, Bear, Turtle)
- dispersed, non-corporate/symbolic unity via totem and ritual
- reciprocal hospitality (ex. Six Nations/Iroquois)
- exogamous: solves the problem of incest avoidance
Phratries
- three or more groupings of clans and arises from population growth and expansion
- weak political or economic functions; BUT, are often exogamous
ex. Hopi of Arizona have 9 phratries with 3-7 clans in each (exogamous)
Moieties
- society organized into two halves (assoc. with dualities, land-water, night-day)
- ritual function, divides communities into two for symbolic/ritual purposes
- exogamous
ex. Tlingit (Wolf and Raven) moieties perform funerary functions for each other
Kindreds
- bilateral descent
- ego-focused
- come together for birthdays or weddings
- non-corporate
- transitory
ex. full siblings, Iban bejali: head hunters come together for revenge
Kindship Problems
diagrams from tut
