Week 5 Flashcards
Why is it important to consider our environment through a cultural perspective?
It is important to consider our environment through a cultural perspective because our culture shapes how we perceive and experience out natural environment and is formed by our relationship to the environment.
What does the holistic approach to studying the environment do?
It seeks to simultaneously understand all the interactions of political, cultural and economic factors to fully explore the complexity of human-environment interactions
What does a multi-species ethnography attempt to do?
It attempts to de-centre the human and emphasize agency of non-human life in application to various engagements to these relations
What is kinship?
Kinship is the network of relatives in a particular familial environment. It is culturally constructed, performed and formalized. There are variations across cultures as each has their own set of rules.
What is kinship based on?
It is based on succession, inheritance, rules of descent
What is descent?
It is the assignment of relatedness traced through common ancestry via one or both parents descent groups
What are descent groups?
They are groups of kin who are lineal descendants of a common ancestor extending beyond two generations
Why is kinship important within culture?
It is important because it forms the basis for many social factors including: domestic life, enculturation of children, property transfer, political and ritual offices, religious affiliation, warfare, structure and use of power
What are affinal relationships?
They are relationships created through marriage
What are cosanguineal relationships?
They are relationships of descent
What does the genealogical method of studying kinship describe?
It describes kinship as a genealogical relationship through the use of charts to describe the cultural classifications of kin relations
How did kinship evolve into the concept we know today?
The genealogical method was criticized int he 1960s as kin is not only biologically or blood based. Instead, it was suggested that kinship be viewed through a lens of care and nurturing as the biological/blood view cannot be applied to other/current cultures due to its eurocentric origins and its dismissal of queer families, divorced families, adoptive families, etc.
What is exogamy?
It is when individuals marry outside of their group.
What is endogamy?
It is when individuals marry within their group and reinforces certain social cohesion factors over others
What kind of rules can be found for marriage and sexual relations within the cultures that define them?
Number of spouses
How spouses are chosen
Limitations of choice
Rules of remarriage
Formally or informally dissolving marriages
What is the incest taboo?
It is the most universal rule on sex and/or marriage. Many cultures ban sex between parents and children, and brothers and sisters. There are also some societies that ban sex between certain categories of cousins
Why does the incest taboo exist?
It exists because, biologically speaking, it prevents inbreeding which can lead to birth defects and also, psychologically speaking, some theories argue either that humans have an innate sexual aversion to those with whom they are raised or that sexual competition among siblings or parents and children would create disruption and kin role confusion in the family.
What is matrilineal descent?
It is a form of lineage that traces kinship relations through the mother’s side of the family
What are some of the characteristics of matrilineal societies?
Gives prominent roles to women in public ceremonies
Traces ancestry through the female line
Involves a complex social system in which women and men share power and control based on the principle of interdependence and mutual responsibility
What is patrilineal descent?
It is a form of lineage that traces kinship relations through the father’s side of the family
