Social Organization

1. Social Organization

2. Marriage, Family, Kinship • Marriage • rules of sexual access • form of exchange – establishes alliances • accords a child full birth-status rights common to normal members of his society or social stratum. • family -- smallest, organized unit of kin and non-kin who interact daily, providing for the domestic needs of children and ensuring their survival • descent group -- who one is related to beyond marriage • Alliance -- relations between descent groups

3. Forms of Marriage • Monogamy = marriage between two partners • Polygamy = plural marriage = an individual has more than one spouse • Polygyny = one man many wives • Polyandry = one woman many husbands • No marriage • Serial monogamy = preferred practice in the West?

4. Other Forms of Marriage • Same Sex Marriages • A Nuer woman who is unable to have children is sometimes married as a "husband" to another woman who then is impregnated by a secret boyfriend.  • The barren woman becomes the socially recognized father and thereby adds members to her father's patrilineal kin group

5. Other Forms of marriage: Ghost Marriage • A Nuer man may marry a woman as a stand-in for his deceased brother • the children that are born of this union will be considered descendents of the dead man -- the "ghost" is the socially recognized father • allows the continuation of the family line and succession to an important social position • A Nuer woman of wealth may marry a deceased man to keep her wealth and power • there will be no living husband, though she may subsequently have children • She is, in effect, a widow who takes care of her husband's wealth and children until they are mature

6. Forms of Marriage • Levirate & sororate • Levirate = a widow marries dead husband’s brother • Sororate = a widower marries dead wife’s sister • Keeps inheritance within the same group

7. Levi-Strauss on Marriage as Exchange • Levi-Strauss: "It's not the man that marries the maid, but field marries field, vineyard marries vineyard, cattle marries cattle” • a set of rights the couple & their families obtain over one another, including rights to the couple's children

8. Marriage and wealth exchange • Bridewealth • payment to wife and/or wife’s family • pays for loss of daughter • Dowry • payment to husband and/or husband family • correlated to low women gender status • pays for adding women to descent group

9. MARRIAGE EXCHANGES • marriage means alliances • people don't just take a spouse they assume obligations to a group of in-laws • often more a relationship between groups than one between individuals-marriage involves

10. are people buying their wives? Or how is a wife like a T.V.? • the price is negotiated & rights are not given to the husband until the deal is done • if the woman proves barren or troublesome the goods are often refunded • women have voice in the transactions • women also has rights of her own in the marriage relationship (commodities don't) • the woman & her kinfolk can also end the marriage if husband does not meet obligations

11. buying & selling of commodities is a one time event • bridewealth establishes an enduring bundle of reciprocal rights & obligations between relatives of the couple that will last as long as the marriage lasts

12. Levi-Strauss and women as objects of exchange • marriage systems - a form of exchange - "that as soon as I am forbidden a woman, she thereby becomes available to another man, and somewhere else a man renounces a woman who thereby becomes available to me." (Levi-Strauss:51) • wife givers & wife takers • nevertheless, as exchange marriage implies reciprocity = obligations assumed in creation & maintenance of alliances

13. Marriage and the Family • Variation in forms of marriage related to variations in forms of family • Nuclear family = parents and children • Extended family = 3 or more generations • Joint family or collateral household = siblings, their spouses and children • Forms of family change over time, over life cycle

14. Forms of Family & Subsistence • Forager band = group of nuclear families • Industrial economy = also nuclear family • Neither foragers nor industrial societies tied to the land • Emphasis on mobility, small-size, self-sufficiency • Cultivators and Horticulturalists = extended, joint, collateral households • Extended family associated with sedentary cultivation, herding & private property • Keeps property in family • Provides needed labor

15. Family in Canada, Europe, US • A unit bounded biologically & legally • Associated with property • Economic self sufficiency • Associated with emotional life • Associated with a space inside a home • Emerges in complex state-governed societies • Keep neighbors out compared to others that add children & neighbors as kin

16. The Modern Euro-North American Family • Family = nurturance, biofunction, love & affection, cooperation, enduring relationships, unconditional • Market = sale of labour, negotiate contractual relations of business, competitive, temporary, contingent relations, law & legal sanctions • family as last refuge against the state (domestic issues & police) • family and litigation today - family becoming contract

17. Post-Marital Residence Patterns • Patrilocal • Matrilocal • Bi-local • Neolocal • Avunculocal – living with mother’s brother or father’s sister • Virilocal – living with husband’s relatives (patrilineal descent) • Uxorilocal – living with wife’s relatives (matrilineal descent)

18. Post-Marital Residence Patterns • 70% of all societies patrilocal • Matrifocal households – women headed households with no permanently resident husband-father • Patrifocal – 3 men and a baby? • Post-marital residence patterns change during life cycle of marriage, over time

19. KINSHIP STUDIES

20. SUFFIXES • Lineal – line of descent • Local – place of residence • Lateral – of or relating to the side • Archy – government

21. KIN TYPES • Consanguineals • Affinals • fictive kin • Lineals • Collaterals

22. DESCENT TERMS • Bilateral • Unilineal • Matrilineal • Patrilineal • Cognatic

23. Endogamous Groups & Marriage Partners

24. Kinship & Descent • For some societies kinship & descent lines are the main way people organize themselves • Kinship societies • The relationships established within the biological group and outside the biological group are coded in kin terms

25. Kinship Patterns • Relations of descent (endogamy) • Consanguineal relationships (sanguine = red) • Relations of blood • Relations of alliance (exogamy) • Affinal relationships (affinity) • Through marriage (in-laws)

26. kinship and descent • kinship as an idiom • a way of expressing social relations and the exchanges, rights, and obligations implied • selective • each system emphasizes different relations • kinship principles define social groups • produces forms of social stratification • locate people within those groups • position people and groups in relation to one another both in space and time

27. kin terms • sometimes mark specific relationships, sometimes lump together several genealogical relations • lineal relatives/consanguines - ancestor, descendent on direct line of descent to or from ego • collateral kin - all other biological kin, siblings, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles • affines - relatives by marriage

28. Relationships are traced through a central individual labelled EGO.

29. kinship diagram

30. UNILINEAL DESCENT (unilateral) • descent group membership figured exclusively through female or male side • matrilineal descent • patrilineal descent

32. Matrilineal and Patrilineal Kin • Patrilineal , or agnatic, relatives are identified by tracing descent exclusively through males from a founding male ancestor. • Matrilineal , or uterine, relatives are identified by tracing descent exclusively through females from a founding female ancestor.

33. Patrilineage -- male ego

34. Patrilineage – female ego

36. cross relatives • kin on each side, who are neither patrilineal or matrilineal • cross cousins are of particular importance, especially for some marriage systems • Cross cousins can be identified as the children of opposite sexed siblings (of a brother and sister) and parallel cousins as the children of same sexed siblings (of two brothers or two sisters).

38. Bilateral Descent • Also called cognatic descent • Canada, US, Europe • ego sees his or her relatives on both sides as being of equal closeness & relevance • the degree of closeness is based on generational distance separating the individuals (our system)

39. Strengths of Bilateral System • Overlapping membership • Widely extended, can form broad networks • Flexible • Useful for groups that do not live in same place • Useful when valued resources are limited

40. Extensions of kin groups • lineage • matrilineage • patrilineage • segmentary lineage • clan • phratry • moiety • kindred

41. Structures of Descent • lineages (patri & matri) - common ancestor • clan – several lineages common ancestor, usually large groups that are associated with mythical ancestors • phratry - unilineal descent group composed of a number of supposedly related clans • moieties - means half, when an entire society is divided into 2 unilineal descent groups • many societies have 2 or more types of descent groups in various combinations • some have lineages & clans, others may have clans & phrateries but no lineages

42. Lineage • a corporate descent group whose members trace their genealogical links to a common ancestor • corporate = shares resources in common • own property • organize labour • assign status • regulate relations with other groups • endures beyond individual members

43. Clan (or sib) • a non-corporate descent group whose members claim descent from a common ancestor without knowing the genealogical inks to that ancestor • often produced through fission of lineage into newer, smaller lineage

44. characteristics of the clan • greater genealogical depth than lineage • lacks residential unity (in contrast to lineage) • a ceremonial unit that meets on special occasions • handle important integrative functions • may regulate marriage outside clan

45. clans are often dependent on symbols as integrative feature • totem: a symbol of a clan’s mythical origin that reinforces clan member’s common descent • totem from Ojibwa ototeman; he is a relative of mine

46. Phratries and Moieties • less common forms of descent groups • phratry: a unilineal descent group composed of at least two clans that supposedly share a common ancestry, whether they do or not • if a society is broken into only two large groups (clan or phratry), each group is referred to as a MOIETY • moieties, phratries, clans and lineages • from most inclusive to the least inclusive • all typically associated with exogamy

47. Bilateral Kindred • a person's bilateral set of relatives who may be called upon for some purpose • no two persons belong exactly to the same kin group • ego centered with kindred of close relatives spreading out on both your mother's and father's sides • connected only because of you