1. Marriage and Family

2. Unit Learning Objectives  Identify Leach’s argument for what marriage can, but does not always, accomplish.  Describe incest and exogamy.  Differentiate between parallel and cross cousins, and how this distinction relates to exogamy in groups with Unilineal descent patterns.  Identity endogamy and its role in socially stratified societies.  Analyze how marriage functions as a form of group alliance and identity the role of dowries and lobola.  Identity types of plural marriages and the conditions that they favor.

3. What is Marriage?  No definition is broad enough to apply (easily) to all societies and situations  Variation in who marriage unites  Besides the notion of ‘love’, what aspects of culture is marriage associated with?

4. What is Marriage?  Universal form or type of marriage does not exist  Primary functions are observed in all culture  _______________________________  Evolved various systems to perform these functions

5. What is Marriage? Functions of Marriage  1. Marriage forms: _________________  Provide for the material needs, social support, and enculturation of children  _____________________

6. What is Marriage? Functions of Marriage  2. Marriage defines the _____________ ___________________________________  Regulation of _____________________between the married couple and __________________  Allocation of _________________________

7. What is Marriage? Functions of Marriage  3. Marriage creates ___________________  Incest taboo  Establishment of trade relationships or political alliances

8. Marriage: Comparative Perspective  Exogamy  1.  2.  Incest:  _________________________________________  How is ‘close relative’ defined? Is this socially constructed?

9. Marriage: Comparative Perspective Focus: Cousins  Cross & Parallel Cousins  Cross: ______________  Opposite of______  Parallel: ______________  Ego’s _____________ Sexual relations with ‘cousins’ influenced by unilineal descent Example: ________________

10. Marriage: Comparative Perspective  Incest Avoidance  Besides the biological component  Gene flow – exchange of genes between population boundaries, increases genetic diversity  What are the cultural factors?  1.  2.

11. ‘Appreciating Anthropology’: ‘Come Join My Band, Baby’  What are the cultural factors?  1.  2.  p258: “Recognition of _______________cooperation between neighboring bands.”

12. Marriage: Comparative Perspective  Endogamy  Rules requiring individuals to marry some member of their own social group or category  _______________________________  Example: _________________________

13. Marriage: Comparative Perspective  Endogamy: Maintained in two main ways  1. _______________________________  Affinal relationships kept within  Reinforcing ties within groups while decreasing interactions between the groups

14. Marriage: Comparative Perspective  Endogamy: Maintained in two main ways  2. ______________________________  Symbolically expresses and strengthens the exclusiveness of group  Example: ___________________________

15. Marriage: Comparative Perspective  Marriage alliances :  Marriage establishes lasting social relationships and bonds  Beyond the married couple:  ______________________________________

16. Marriage: Comparative Perspective  1. Arranged marriages  ______________________________________  Importance of advantageous relationships  Remember: Nanda’s article on an arranged marriage in India

17. Marriage: Comparative Perspective  2. Levirate:  Usually a __________of deceased husband  Relations between the intermarried kin groups are __________________

18. Marriage: Comparative Perspective  3. Sororate :  Her kin group is _______________________with another woman, for which no additional ________________________  Example - __________

19. Marriage Exchanges  Dowry :  Share of a woman’s inheritance that she takes into her marriage

20. Marriage Exchanges  Lobola:  Seen in patrilineal societies  Importance:

21. How Many Spouses?  Cultures vary on the number of spouses an individual is allowed to have at a time  Four possibilities  Monogamy  Polygyny  Polyandry  Group Marriage Variations of polygamy (i.e. plural spouses)

22. Polygyny  Form of marriage in which a man may have more than one wife  Benefits  1.  2.

23. Polygyny  No single explanation for polygyny  1.  2.  3.  4.

24. Polyandry  Form of marriage in which a woman may have more than one husband  Documented in only about a dozen societies  1.  2.

25. Polyandry  Mostly observed in South Asia peoples  1.  2.

26. Required Reading: When Brothers Share a Wife