Kinship and Descent- Lecture (1) Flashcards
What is the original political system?
kinship
What are 3 important functions of kinship?
- secures people’s rights to economic resources
- maintains integrity of economic resources
- offers people protection from others
- provides people with the sense of belonging continuity, and identity
What are the 3 aspects of kinship relations?
- are multifunctional
- participation is involuntary
- membership is overlapping
What offers people protection as an adaption tool?
kinship
Kinship is a ___institution, meaning that people self-organize into it.
social
True or false: Kinship is always constructed biologically?
False
What are two ways kinship relations are created?
Kinship relations created through biological reproduction, but kinship relationships are constructed culturally.
___expectations of kin relationships vary.
Normative
What are descent groups?
Members share descent from a common ancestor through a series of patten-child links
What are 3 types of descent?
1) unilinear descent (patrilineal or matrilineal)
2) ambilineal descent
3) bilateral descent
What type of descent establishes kin group membership exclusively through the male or female line?
unilinear descent
What are patrilineal descent groups?
Male members trace their descent from a common male ancestor. A female belongs to the same descent group as her father and his brother. Authority over the children lies with the father or his elder brother.
Whose descent group is the girl apart of with patrilineal descent? What about this girl’s children?
The girl is a member of her father’s descent group, but her children will not be Because her children will be the children of another man from a different patrilineal group.
What are 2 sources of tension in patrilineal descent groups?
1) the requirement for younger men to defer to older men
2) requirement for women to defer to men, as well as to the women of a household they marry into.
What are matrilineal descent groups?
descent is traced through the female line
True or false: While matrilineal descent groups do not confer public authority on women, women do have more say in decision making than in patrilineal societies
true
Where are matrilineal descent groups common?
In societies where women perform much of the productive work (i.e. horticultural)
What type of descent are the hopi of northeastern Arizona?
matrilineal descent
What is post-marital residence in matrilineal group, Hopi of northeastern Arizona?
matrilocal, as in property inherited matrilocally
Who owns ritual ceremonies in the Hopi?
clans, clan worships their own set of mystical powers, or wuya
What are 2 sources of tension in matrilineal descent groups?
1) husband’s authority lies not in his own household but in that of his sister
2) unsatisfactory marriages may be ended easily, resulting in higher divorce rates than patrilineal societies
What is ambilineal descent?
Individual has an option of affiliating with either the mother’s or the father’s descent group.
True or false: With ambilineal descent, individuals frequently belong to several groups at once.
True
What are 2 functions of ambilineal descent?
1) regulates access to power
2) individual choice of membership is much wider than in unilinear descent
Describe how the on Polynesia, an island of Samoa, the people practice ambilineal descent.
- several ‘aigas (descent groups) in each village
- one chooses membership depending on his current interests
Describe how New York City Jews (of Eastern European background) practice ambilineal descent?
Family circles and cousins clubs
What is bilateral descent?
An individual regards his/her relatives on both sides as equally important. No well defined ‘property holding’ groups exist.
How are relationships traced in bilateral descent?
Rather than lineages and class, tracing relationships produces associates of relatives known as kindred.
What are 3 functions of descent groups?
1) provide aid and security to their members
2) regulates property relationship
3) repositories of religious tradition, with group solidarity enhanced by worship of a common ancestor
What is Western European v.v. Eastern European (Slavic) peasantry an example of with their full inheritance c.s. partible inheritance?
descent groups regulating property relationships
What are the totems representing family clans in the coastal societies of British Columbia an example of?
Repositories of religious tradition, with group solidarity enhanced by worship of a common ancestor.
True or False: matrilineally is not matriarchy.
true
___of matrilineal people live in avuncolocality.
1/3
What is avunculocality?
Young couple moving next to/with the husband’s mother’s brother.
Who controls power, property,and resources in most matrilineal societies?
men
In matrilineal societies, whose children does a male have authority over?
Lineage (male) elder has authority not over his own children, but over his sister’s children.
Fill out the following chart:
UNILINEAL:
Matrilineal: Characteristic___; associated kin group___
Patrilineal: Characteristic___; associated kin group___
AMBILINEAL: Characteristic___; associated kin group___
BILATERAL: Characteristic___; associated kin group___
UNILINEAL:
Patrilineal: through male line; (patri)lineages & (patri)cians
Matrilineal: through female line; (matri)lineages & (matri)clans
AMBILINEAL: through either male or female line; ambilineal descent groups
BILATERAL: equally through both male & female lines; kindred
