© 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. Mirror for Humanity Conrad Phillip Kottak Fifth Edition Chapter 8 Families, Kinship, and Marriage

© 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. Overview Families and kinship Descent Marriage –Marital rights and same-sex marriage –Plural marriages Divorce

© 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 8 Families, Kinship, and Marriage Nuclear and extended families –Nuclear family – parents and their children –Family of orientation – family in which one is born and grows up –Family of procreation – formed when one marries and has children –Nuclear family organization is widespread but not universal –In some societies, other social units (e.g., extended families, descent groups) assume functions of nuclear family Zadrugas – large extended families among the Muslims of western Bosnia Tarawads – matrilineal extended-family compounds among the Nayars of southern India

© 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 8 Families, Kinship, and Marriage Industrialism and family organization –Nuclear family is the only well defined kin group for many North Americans –Neolocality Most prevalent residence pattern among middle-class North Americans Married couples are expected to establish a new place of residence

© 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 8 Families, Kinship, and Marriage Industrialism and family organization –Expanded family households (including nonnuclear relatives) are more common among lower-class North Americans Extended family household – three or more generations Collateral household – siblings and their spouses and children –Expanded family households are an adaptation to poverty – enable relatives to pool resources

© 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 8 Families, Kinship, and Marriage Changes in North American kinship –Other domestic arrangements outnumber the “traditional” American household (nuclear family) more than three to one –Increases in: Number of women joining the workforce Age of first marriage Divorce rate Number of single-parent families –Percentage of married adults has decreased –Trend toward smaller families and living units detectable in the United States, western Europe, and other industrial nations

© 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 8 Families, Kinship, and Marriage The Family among foragers –Two basic social units in traditional foraging societies: nuclear family and band –Nuclear families are usually more stable than bands –Typically, the band exists only seasonally – breaks up into nuclear families when resources become scarce –Both industrial and foraging societies – mobility and an emphasis on small, economically self- sufficient family units promote the nuclear family as a basic kin group

© 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 8 Families, Kinship, and Marriage Descent groups –Descent group – a permanent social unit whose members claim common ancestry –Two types of unilineal descent: Patrilineal descent – people automatically have lifetime membership in their father’s group Matrilineal descent – people automatically have lifetime membership in their mother’s group –Patrilineal descent is much more common than matrilineal descent

© 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 8 Families, Kinship, and Marriage Descent groups –Descent groups may be lineages or clans Lineage – a descent group whose members can demonstrate their common descent from an apical ancestor (demonstrated descent) Clan – a descent group whose members claim common descent from an apical ancestor but cannot demonstrate it (stipulated descent) –Totem – a nonhuman (animal or plant) apical ancestor of a clan –Local descent groups – branches of descent groups that live in different villages

© 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 8 Families, Kinship, and Marriage Lineages, clans, and residence rules –Descent groups are permanent, enduring units whose members have access to lineage estates –Patrilineal and matrilineal descent, and associated post-marital residence rules, ensure that about half the people born in each generation will spend their lives on the ancestral estate

© 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 8 Families, Kinship, and Marriage Lineages, clans, and residence rules –Two different unilocal rules of post-marital residence: Patrilocality –Married couples (and their children) live in the husband’s community –Associated with patrilineal descent Matrilocality –Married couples (and their children) live in the wife’s community –Associated with matrilineal descent, so less common

© 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 8 Families, Kinship, and Marriage Marriage –No single definition of marriage can account for all of the cross-cultural diversity in marriages –Exogamy Practice of seeking a spouse outside one's own group Forces people to create and maintain a wide social network – nurtures, helps, and protects one's group during times of need –Incest Sexual relations with a close relative Incest taboo is a cultural universal What constitutes incest varies cross-culturally

© 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 8 Families, Kinship, and Marriage Marriage –Endogamy Mating or marriage within a group to which one belongs Most cultures are endogamous units, and classes and ethnic groups within a society may also be quasi-endogamous

© 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 8 Families, Kinship, and Marriage Marriage –Caste system of India Extreme example of endogamy Castes – stratified groups in which lifelong membership is ascribed at birth Occupational specialization often distinguishes castes Belief that intercaste sexual unions lead to ritual impurity for the higher-caste partner – helps to maintain endogamy and ensure the pure ancestry of high-caste children Castes are endogamous, but many are internally subdivided into exogamous lineages

© 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 8 Families, Kinship, and Marriage Marital rights –According to Leach, marriage can (but does not always): Establish the legal father of a woman’s children and the legal mother of a man’s Give either or both spouses a monopoly in the sexuality of the other Give either or both spouses rights to the labor of the other Give either or both spouses rights over the other’s property Establish a joint fund of property for the benefit of the children Establish a socially significant “relationship of affinity” between spouses and their relatives

© 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 8 Families, Kinship, and Marriage Marital rights and same-sex marriage –No logical reasons why same-sex marriage could not allocate all of the rights enumerated by Leach –Because same-sex marriage is illegal throughout most of the United States, same-sex couples are denied many of the rights and benefits enjoyed by different-sex couples –Same-sex marriages have been recognized in various historical and cultural settings Native American berdaches Woman-woman marriages among the Igbo and Lovedu in Africa

© 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 8 Families, Kinship, and Marriage Marriage Across cultures –In nonindustrial societies, marriage often is more a relationship between groups than one between individuals –Bridewealth Customary gift before, at, or after the marriage from the husband and his kin to the wife and her kin Compensates the bride’s group for the loss of her companionship and labor Also known as progeny price – makes the children born to the woman full members of her husband’s descent group Common in patrilineal groups Insurance against divorce: as the value of bridewealth increases, marriages become more stable

© 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 8 Families, Kinship, and Marriage Marriage Across cultures –Dowry A marital exchange in which the wife’s group provides substantial gifts to the husband’s family Correlates with low female status Much less common than bridewealth

© 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 8 Families, Kinship, and Marriage Marriage Across cultures –Durable alliances Sororate marriage – a widower marries one of his deceased wife’s sisters (or another woman from her group if a sister is not availabe) Levirate marriage – a widow marries one of her deceased husband’s brothers Sororate and levirate highlight the importance of marriage as an alliance between groups

© 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 8 Families, Kinship, and Marriage Divorce –Ease of divorce varies cross-culturally Marriages that are political alliances between groups are harder to break up than are marriages that are more individual affairs Bridewealth discourages divorce Replacement marriages (levirate and sororate) help to preserve group alliances Divorce is more common in matrilineal and matrilocal societies (e.g., the Hopi) Divorce is harder in patrilocal societies – women are reluctant to leave their children, who are members of their fathers’ lineages

© 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 8 Families, Kinship, and Marriage Divorce –Foraging societies: Factors favoring divorce: –No descent groups, so the political alliance functions of marriage are less important –Foragers tend to have few material possessions – makes the process of dissolving a joint fund of property easier Factors opposing divorce: –Durable ties between spouses because the family is an important year-round unit with a gender-based division of labor –Few alternative spouses because of sparse populations

© 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 8 Families, Kinship, and Marriage Divorce –Contemporary Western societies: Divorce may occur when sex, romance, and/or companionship fade Factors opposing divorce: economic ties, obligations to children, concern about public opinion, inertia

© 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 8 Families, Kinship, and Marriage Plural marriages –Polygamy – marriage to more than one spouse at a time –Polygyny – a man has more than one wife Even in cultures that encourage polygyny, monogamy tends to be the norm due to roughly equal sex ratios Promoted by the custom of men marrying later than women (more widows than widowers) Various reasons for polygyny: –Inheritance of a widow from a brother –May increase prestige or household productivity –An infertile wife remains married to her husband after her descent group provides a substitute wife

© 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 8 Families, Kinship, and Marriage Plural marriages –Polyandry – a woman has more than one husband Very rare – almost exclusively in South Asia (Tibet, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka) Cultural adaptation to mobility associated with customary male travel for trade, commerce, and military operations Ensures there will be at least one man at home to accomplish male activities

© 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 8 Families, Kinship, and Marriage Plural marriages –Polyandry Fraternal polyandry – effective strategy when resources are scarce –Expanded polyandrous households allow brothers to pool resources –Restricts the number of wives and heirs, so land can be transmitted with minimal fragmentation