Kinship Flashcards
Anthropological interest in relatedness
- Long-standing interest in close relationships that define our lives
- Relatedness is defined as the socially recognized ties that connect people in a variety of ways, such as:
Marriage
Family
Kinship
Friendship
Kinship
Social relationships prototypically derived from the universal human experience of mating, birth and nurturance
Functions of kinship
- how group members are recruited (marriage, birth, adoption)
- where group members live (residence rules)
- how inter-generational links are established (descent)
- how to pass on social positions (succession) or material goods (inheritance)
Kinship studies in the past
First large-scale kinship study was Lewis Henry Morgan’s Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family (1871)
Relatedness through blood and through marriage
Kinship studies in the present
Current kinship studies might focus more on what constitutes a family given the context of new reproductive technologies, increasing numbers of divorce, changing laws about marriage, and the possibilities of DNA testing
Romanticization of “Golden Age” of American Family
- Idea that families in the past – depicted on TV – were more intact, closer, shared the same values
- But in reality, American family has been changing since industrialization
E.g. Lynd and Lynd’s research from 1920s - Examined cross-culturally, the relationship between children and parents/elders always involves some tension
Marriage
- Wide variations across cultures but anthropologists agree that marriage is:
An institution that prototypically involves a man and a woman, transforms the status of the participants, carries implications about sexual access, gives offspring a position in society, and establishes connections between the kin of a husband and the kin of a wife.
May involve more than one man or woman - Marriage involves rights and obligations, establishes roles and alliances, and changes over time
Marriage as a social process
- Anthropologists see marriage as a social process (e.g. forms alliances, reinforces rights and obligations)
- This is why other people often participate in marriage ceremony
- As societal norms change, so do rules around marriage
Bridewealth
The transfer of certain symbolically important goods from the family of the groom to the family of the bride representing compensation to the wife’s lineage for the loss of her labour and for child-bearing capacities
Dowry
Transfer of family wealth from parents to their child (usually a daughter) at marriage
- Potential for tensions and dowry violence
Residence
- Neolocal (major pattern)
- Patrilocal (major)
- Matrilocal (major)
- Avunculocal (major)
- Ambilocal (minor)
- Duolocal (minor)
Neolocal
In a place of the couple’s own choosing
Patrilocal
With/near the husband’s father’s family
Matrilocal
With or near the family in which the wife was raised
Avunlocal
With/near the husband’s mother’s brother
Ambilocal
First with the family of one spouse, then the family of the other
Duolocal
Each partner lives members of his or her own lineage even after marriage
Endogamous marriage
Marriage within a defined social group
Exogamous marriage
Marriage outside a defined social group
Incest taboos
In all societies, some close kin are off limits as spouses or sexual partners, specifically members of the nuclear family
Affinal
Related through marriage
Cosanguines
Related through blood
Levirate
A widow marries her deceased husband’s brother
Sororate
A widower marries a sister (or specific cousin) of his deceased wife