Culture and Kinship Flashcards
Theory
Statement which suggests relationship between phenomina
Evolutionism
- Darwin’s theory gaining prominence
- Culture evolves from “lower” to “higher” forms
- The direction of evolution was unilinear
Edward B Taylor
- 3 Stages: Savagery, Barbarism, Civilization
- Did include idea of cultural diffusion
Lewis Henry Morgan
- A lawyer was fascinated with kinship systems
- 7 stages: 1)Lower savagery: fruits and nuts; 2)Middle savagery: fire and fishing technology; 3)Upper savagery: bow and arrow; 4) Lower barbarism: pottery making; 5) Middle barbarism: domestication of plants and animals in the Old world, irrigation cultivation in the New world; 6)Upper barbarism: smelting of iron and use of iron tools; 7)Civilization: phonetic alphabet and writing
Franz Boas
- Positivist: unbiased and objective
- Inductive approach
- Each culture moves along its own unique path
- Significant impact on anthropology: Empirical research; Strongly against gender and racial discrimination & genetic determinism
Inductive approach
data collection -> theory
deductive approach
theory -> data collection
Bronislav Malinowski
- Fieldwork in the Trobriand Islands
- Functionalism
- Two underlying principles: Universal function; Functional unity
Functionalism
No matter how bizarre a cultural item might at first appear, it had meaning and performed some useful function for the individual or the society
Leslie White
- Cultures do evolve from simple to
complex - Universal law: C=ET (complexity = energytechnology)
Julian Steward
- MultiLinear Evolution
- Limited causal principles
- Interaction between culture and environment?
Marvin Harris
- Cultural Materialism
- Material conditions determine human
consciousness & behavior - Relies on scientific method, quantification
Clifford Geertz
- Interpretive Anthropology
- Rejection of the role of theory and scientific
method - Cultural anthropology: like literature & art
- Rejects objectivity & positivism
- Postmodernism: “Truth” is subjective & contextualized
Ethnography
process (fieldwork) and product (research piece)
Field work
participant observation
etic
Outsider’s POV
emic
Insider’s POV
Ethnographic encylopedism
As comprehensive as possible
Theory and description
Fieldwork to test a theory
Interpretive ethnography
Fieldwork that results in a story
Applied Anthropology
Missionary, salvage, or problem solving
Human Adaptation
- Necessary to survive & reproduce
- Humans adapt mainly through culture
- Adaptation: Time and Energy, Tools and knowledge (technology), Resources available
Environment & adaptation
- Environment & adaptation: links complicated
- Carrying capacity: environment limits food production
- Technology helps humans adapt to environment
- Less complex technology does not lower intelligence
- Optimal foraging theory
Five Adaptation Strategies
- Hunting & gathering
- Horticulture
- Pastoralism
- Agriculture/agrarian
- Industrialized
Hunting and Gathering
- Collecting food – exploiting wild plants & animals
- Historically: most common adaptation strategy
Generalizations of Hunting and Gathering
- Low population density
- Nomadic or semi-nomadic
- Contemporary: inhabit marginal areas
- Low levels of social, political, & economic complexity
Neolithic Revolution: Food Production
- Approximately 10,000 BC
- No agreed upon cause
- Leads to a large population increase
- Fertility rates increased (avg. births per woman)
- People became more sedentary (property rights)
- Division of labor increases
Horticulture
- Human power: hoes or digging sticks
- Swidden (shifting) cultivation: slash & burn
- Does not support a high population density
- The most efficient strategy?
- May use tree, seed, and root crops
- May supplement crops with other strategies
Pastoralism
- Keeping domesticated herds
- Groups tend to be mobile (Transhumance: men move with animals; Nomadism: men, women, and children move)
- Pure pastoralism is rare?
- Animals: not just for food
Agriculture / Agrarian
- Animal Power: Intensive cultivation & more complex technology
- Harness more energy than horticulturalists
- Leads to more people, labor, & capital investment
- Necessary but not sufficient for urban societies
- Contributes to more complex and stratified societies
Industrialized Food Production
- Machine Power: Motorized equipment, chemical & biological advances
- Crops sold in complex market economies
- Production comes at a cost
- “As culture changes, things are different, not necessarily better”
Universal Exchange & Economics
Allocate -> Produce -> Distribute
Regulation & allocation
Resources controlled and allocated
Production
Conversion of material resources
Exchange
Distribution of commodities
Allocation
- Food collectors: No ownership of land & resources
- Pastoralism: group ownership of animals (& pastures?)
- Horticulture: Group ownership (kinship or extended group) - Agricultural or industrialized agriculture: Individual property rights (private ownership)
Production
- Obtaining and transforming resources into usable goods
- Not random: systematic, organized, and patterned
Division of labor by gender
- Women: tend crops, gather & prepare food, care for
children, fetch water, collect cooking fuel - Men: hunt, build houses, clear land, herd animals, political functionaries
Division of labor by age
- Children: lacking knowledge & strength,
excluded from some tasks - Elderly excluded from some tasks
Labor specialization
- Least complex societies – age and gender
- More complex societies: significant occupational specialization
Reciprocity
Exchange without use of money
Generalized reciprocity
- Gift giving without expectation of immediate return
- Hunters/gatherers & small scale societies: Predominate form of exchange
- Vital to their economic self interest
Balanced reciprocity
- Goods and services of equivalent value will be
returned within a specific period of time - More formal, greater social distance, stronger obligation to repay
- Major motivation: exchange surplus goods & services for those in short supply
Negative reciprocity
- Exchange between equals in which the parties
attempt to take advantage of each other - Impersonal or hostile relationships
- Money is not used as a medium of exchange
Redistribution
Goods given to a central authority & then distributed
Bridewealth
- Transfer of goods from groom’s to bride’s lineage
as precondition of marriage - All lineages both receive & give goods
Potlatch
- Redistribution among Native Americans of the
Northwest Coast - Host gives away or destroys personal possessions
- Prestige = number of guests & amount given away
Market Exchange
- Buying & selling with standardized currency
- characterized by money, prices, and supply and demand
Defining Family
- No one definition fits all societies
- Family: Social unit, Economic cooperation, Reproduction &/or child rearing, Common residence
Marriage: Socially approved union, regulates sexual & economic rights & obligations
Marriage Exceptions
- Not always “heterosexual”
- Sex not always allowed
- Not always permanent
- Do not always live together
Universal Incest Taboo
- Every society forbids sex between some members of a kinship group
- Most common: forbid sex between mothers & sons, fathers & daughters, brothers & sisters
- Why Universal?: Natural aversion theory, Inbreeding theory, Family disruption theory, Expanding alliances theory
Exogamy
must marry outside of group
Endogamy
must marry within a group
Arranged marriages
Interests of family stronger than individual’s
Levirate
widow marries brother of dead husband
Sororate
widower marries sister of deceased wife
Group Marriage
- Several men & women married to each other at same time
- Uncommon and short lived
Monogamy
- One male and one female at a time
- Western cultures: believed best form of marriage
Polyandry
- One wife, more than one husband
- Found in less than 1 percent of societies
- Often fraternal (husbands are brothers)
- Why?: Shortage of females (infanticide), Economic factors
Polygyny
- One husband, more than one wife
- 7 of 10 societies permit polygyny
- linked to prestige and/or wealth
Bride service
- Men give labor in exchange for a wife
- More common in nomadic societies
- Occurs in about 15% of societies
Dowry
- Given from the bride’s family to the
groom’s family - In some cases – a disincentive to divorce
- 3% of societies in Murdock’s sample
Woman exchange
- Two men exchange sisters or daughters for wives
for themselves, their sons, or their brothers - 3% of societies?
- Perceived even exchange may be difficult
Reciprocal exchange
- Equal exchange between both families
- 6% of societies
Patrilocal
- Live near or with relatives of the husband’s father
- More likely where men hold and inherit property
Matrilocal
- Live with or near relatives of the wife
- More likely where women control or own resources
Avunculocal
Son lives with or near the mother’s brother
Ambilocal
Married couple has a choice to live near or with
relatives of either husband or wife
Neolocal
Couple forms an independent household
Nuclear family
- Parents & children (two generations)
- Found more where ties to kin are weaker
- Found more in geographically mobile societies
Extended families
- More likely where kin ties are more important than
marriage ties - Three generations or brothers with wives
- Common in pastoral, horticultural, & agrarian societies
