Kinship and Family

1. Kinship and Family

2. FAMILY

3. Questions… • What Is Marriage? • What Is Family? • What Is the Difference Between Family and Household?

4. Sexual Relations • Among primates, the human female is unusual in her ability to engage in sexual activity whether she is fertile or not. • Every society has rules that govern sexual access.

5. Marriage • A relationship between one or more men (male or female) and one or more women (female or male) who are recognized by society as having a continuing claim to the right of sexual access to one another.

6. Kin Relations • Consanguineal kin • Relatives by birth; so-called “blood” relatives. • Affinal kin • Relatives by marriage.

7. Incest Taboo • The prohibition of sexual relations between specified individuals, usually parent-child and sibling relations at a minimum • Ex: King Tutankhamun and other members of Egypt’s famous 18th Dynasty (~1350-1300 BCE) genetically identified as products of incest • National Geographic feature

8. Endogamy and Exogamy • Endogamy • Marriage within a particular group or category of individuals. • Exogamy • Marriage outside the group.

9. Reasons for Marriage • Monogamy is the most common form of marriage, primarily for economic reasons. • In most of the world, marriage is not based on romantic love, but on economic considerations. Forms of marriage…

10. Forms of Marriage • Monogamy:Marriage in which both partners have just one spouse • “mono”=one, “gamy”=marriage • Serial Monogamy: A marriage form in which an individual marries or lives with a series of partners in succession.

11. Forms of Marriage • Polygamy:One individual having multiple spouses at the same time • “poly” =many, “gamy”=marriage • Polygyny:Marriage of a man to two or more women at the same time; a form of polygamy • “poly”=many, “gyny” =women • Polyandry: Marriage of a woman to two or more men at one time • “poly” =many, “andry” (from andros) =men

12. Forms of Marriage • Group marriage:Marriage in which several men and women have sexual access to one another. • Fictive Marriage: Marriage by proxy to the symbols of someone not physically present to establish the social status of a spouse and heirs. • Commonly involves citizens who are incarcerated, deployed in the military, residing in a foreign country, or otherwise prevented from being physically present at the formal ceremony.

13. Polygyny • Marriage of a man to two or more women at the same time; a form of polygamy. • Ex: Togo, West Africa (Kotokoli tribe, practitioners of Islam)

14. Polyandry • Marriage of a woman to two or more men at one time; a form of polygamy. • Ex: Pahari culture in the Himalayas (India) –woman married to 3 brothers:

15. Choice of Spouse • Sometimes choosing a spouse rests not with the individual but with parents and elders: • Ex: Child marriage in India: • http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/places/culture-places/beliefs-and-traditions/india_childmarriage.html

16. Choice of SpouseCousin Marriage • In some societies, certain cousins are the preferred marriage partners. • Parallel cousin marriage • Aparallel cousin is the child of a father’s brother or a mother’s sister. • In some societies, the preferred spouse for a man is his father’s brother’s daughter, known as patrilateral parallel-cousin marriage. • Cross-cousin marriage • Across cousin is a child of a mother’s brother or a father’s sister • Some societies favor matrilateral cross-cousin marriage—marriage of a man to his mother’s brother’s daughter, or a woman to her father’s sister’s son.

17. Kinship Diagram • Anthropologists use diagrams to illustrate kinship relationships.

18. DivorceA concept many of us in U.S. society may be familiar with… • How many of us come from a divorced household? • How many know of at least one couple that is divorced?

19. DivorceA concept many of us in U.S. society may be familiar with… The Figures: In the U.S.: Some 50% of first marriages end in divorce –twice the 1960 divorce rate but slightly less than the high point in the early 1980s.

20. DivorceA concept many of us in U.S. society may be familiar with… Factors contributing to divorce: • Many marriages are based on ideals of romantic love or the idealization of youth. • Establishing an intimate bond in a society in which people are taught to seek individual gratification is difficult (as is the case in our postindustrial society).

21. Family • Two or more people related by blood, marriage, or adoption. • The family may take many forms, ranging from a single parent with one or more children, to a married couple or polygamous spouses with offspring, to several generations of parents and their children.

22. Family • Two or more people related by blood, marriage, or adoption. • Nuclear family  • A group consisting of one or more parents and dependent offspring, which may include a stepparent, stepsiblings, and adopted children.

23. Family • Two or more people related by blood, marriage, or adoption. • Extended family • A collection of nuclear families, related by ties of blood, that live in one household.

24. Household • Basic residential unit in which economic production, consumption, inheritance, child rearing, and shelter are organized and carried out. • Non-family may live in a household together (i.e. a ruler and his servants. Other examples?)

25. Four Basic Residence Patterns • Patrilocal: Married couple lives in the locality associated with the husband’s father’s relatives. • Matrilocal: Married couple lives in the locality associated with the wife’s relatives. • Ambilocal: Married couple may choose either matrilocal or patrilocal residence. • Neolocal: Married couple may establish their household in a location apart from either the husband’s or the wife’s relatives.

26. KINSHIP

27. What Is Kinship? Kinship is a social network of relatives within which individuals have rights and obligations. Kinship is especially important in societies where institutions such as a centralized government, a professional military, or financial banks are absent or ineffective. Descent groups are a major type of Kinship category…

28. What Is a Descent Group? A descent group is a kind of kinship group in which being in the direct line of descent from a real or mythical ancestor is a criterion of membership. Provides aid and security to members. Stores religious tradition. Keeps group members together by worship of a common ancestor.

29. Descent Groups • Unilineal descent • Descent that establishes group membership through either the mother’s or the father’s line, but not through both!!! • Matrilineal descent • Descent traced exclusively through the female line to establish group membership. • Patrilineal descent • Descent traced exclusively through the male line to establish group membership.

30. Unilineal Descent Groups • Lineage • Descended from a common ancestor who lived four to six generations ago, and in which relationships among members can be stated genealogically. • Clan • Often consisting of several lineages, whose members claim common descent from a remote ancestor, usually legendary or mythological.

31. Descent Integrated in the Cultural SystemProblems with changing societal values • When traditional cultural systems meet new politically-introduced societal ideas of right and wrong, conflicts of morality occur: • Ex: Honor Killings in Northern Albania

32. Patrilineal Descent Groups • Male members trace their descent from a common male ancestor. • A female belongs to the same descent group as her father and his brother. • …but her offspring do not • Authority over the children lies with the father or his elder brother.

33. Patrilineal Descent Diagram

34. Matrilineal Descent Groups • Descent is traced through the female line. • A male belongs to the same descent group as his mother and her sister. • …but his offspring do not. • Does not confer public authority on women, but women have more say in decision making than in patrilineal societies. • Common in societies where women perform much of the productive work.

35. Matrilineal Descent Diagram

36. Related Terms • Fission: The splitting of a descent group into two or more new descent groups. • Totemism: The belief that people are related to particular animals, plants, or natural objects by virtue of descent from common ancestral spirits.

37. Kindred • Membership is determined not by descent from a common ancestor (as in descent groups) but by the fact that they share a living relative (EGO). • A small circle of paternal and maternal relatives. • A kindred is never the same for any two persons except siblings.

38. The Kindred

39. Kinship Terminologies • The Hawaiian system • The Eskimo system • The Iroquois system

40. Eskimo System • System of kinship terminology, also called lineal system, that emphasizes the nuclear family by specifically identifying the mother, father, brother, and sister, while lumping together all other relatives into broad categories such as uncle, aunt, and cousin.

41. Eskimo System

42. Hawaiian System • Kinship reckoning in which all relatives of the same sex and generation are referred to by the same term.

43. Hawaiian System

44. Iroquois SystemIt’s complicated… • Kinship terminology wherein a father and father’s brother are given a single term, as are a mother and mother’s sister, but a father’s sister and mother’s brother are given separate terms. • Parallel cousins are classified with brothers and sisters, while cross cousins are classified separately, but (unlike Crow and Omaha kinship) not equated with relatives of some other generation.

45. Iroquois System