Midterm Glossary Flashcards
affinal *
related through marriage, in-law
age-set
a lifelong affiliation of similar-aged persons who pass through various life stages together as a unit; characteristic of East African pastoral societies
altruistic acts
individual behaviors that enhance others’ reproductive success while simultaneously reducing one’s own
ambilocal
postmarital residence pattern where married couple choose to live with or near the kin of either groom or bride
avunculocal *
near the household of the groom’s mother’s brother(s). viri-avunculocal
bilateral kinship *
the recognition of kin connections through both parents; bilateral kinship is a universal characteristic.
bilateral society
a society that traces kin connections over the generations through both males and females, but without the formation of descent groups.
bridewealth
the transfer of wealth from the kin of the groom to the kin of the bride at marriage, aka bride-price
clan
a group or category of people who claim to share descent through a common ancestor, but whose genealogical links with one another are obscured and no longer traceable; the common ancestor of the group is often a mythical figure. Can be patrilineal or matrilineal.
class endogamy
marriage within a given social class
cognatic descent
descent based on any combination of male or female links.
consanguineal
related through descent (or blood ties)
corporate group
a group of people who collectively share rights, privileges, and liabilities
cross cousins
one parent’s opposite sex siblings child
descent
a kin group based on descent (patrilineal, matrilineal, or cognatic), relationship defined by connection to ancestors
domestic cycle
general stages in the process of family reproduction particular to a given society; as domestic groups move through phases of establishment, expansion, and decline, the composition and structure of these groups will fluctuate.
domestic group
people who live together and share resources for their subsistence, aka family and household (family = child rearing, household = unit of economic cooperation)
dowry
wealth that accompanies a bride to her marriage
endogamy
marriage inside a certain social group or category
exogamy
marriage outside a certain social group or category
fraternal polyandry
a marriage union in which two or more brothers share one wife
genitor
the biological father of a child
ghost marriage
the practice whereby a partrilineal kinsmen takes a wife in the name of a deceased man to have children by the woman in that man’s name.
Hawaiian kinship terminology
a type of kinship terminology that uses one term for all relatives of the sam sex and generation
hominid
a family level classification of primates that includes apes and humans
hypergamy
marriage of woman upward into a higher status group
interbreeding depression
the detrimental effect over time of high levels of interbreeding to the fitness of a population that has a high frequency of deleterious mutations.
inclusive fitness
the process whereby an individual enhances his or her reproductive success through altruistic acts that favor the fitness of others who share some genes in common with that individual, as in the case of close relatives.