Marriage, Family and Domestic Groups

1. Marriage, Family and Domestic Groups

2. Chapter Questions • What are some of the universal functions of marriage and the family? • What are some of the rule that regulate marriage in different societies? • How can these rules be explained?

3. Chapter Questions • How do arranged marriage and romantic love relate to the values of marriage and family in different societies? • What kinds of changes are taking place in the family in the United States? • How does a society’s subsistence strategy influence the shape of the family and the household?

4. Household Forms • Single-person • Nuclear • dominant in foraging and industrial cultures • Polygamous and Extended • dominant in horticultural, pastoral societies • household may contain 50 members • will decline with industrialization?

5. Nuclear Family • A husband, a wife, and their children. • High rates of divorce and remarriage create complicated kinship networks.

6. Composite Family • Aggregates of nuclear families linked by a common spouse. • Example: Polygynous household consisting of one man with several wives.

7. Extended Family • Blood relations extending over three or more generations. • Economic advantages: keeps land intact and provides security in times of crisis. • Provides a sense of participation and dignity for the older family members.

8. Households as Social Units • Spouse/Partner relationships • studies suggest marital satisfaction is strongly correlated to sexual activity • Sibling relationships • Domestic violence • Males as perpetrators, women as victims is found in all cultures • More common where men control wealth

9. Households in Social Change • International immigration • challenges for parents and siblings • Shrinking households in the US • Increasing move away from nuclear households in industrialized cultures

10. Customs and obligations for the relationship between a sexually cohabiting adult male and female, between them and children they produce, and between their kin groups. OR A socially sanctioned form of heterosexual mating and co-residence establishing duties and obligations with respect to sex and reproduction; variant forms are homosexual mating and childless marriages. Definitions of Marriage

11. Marriage Rules: Number of Spouses • All societies have rules about how many spouses a person can have at one time. • Monogamy is the norm only in Europe and north America. • 75% of the world’s societies prefer plural marriage.

12. Basic Forms of Marriage • MONOGAMY: Marriage with one spouse exclusively and for life. • SERIAL MONOGAMY: Marriage with one spouse at a time but with remarriage after death or divorce.   • POLYGAMY: Marriage with more than one spouse at a time.

13. Forms of Polygamy • PolygynyA rule permitting a man to have more than one wife at a time. • Sororal polygynyA form of polygyny in which a man marries sisters • PolyandryA rule permitting a woman to have morethan one husband at a time. • Fraternal polyandryA custom whereby a woman marries a man and his brothers.

14. Functions of Marriage • Regulates sexual access. • Creates a family. • Expands social group.

15. Marriage Customs, rules, and obligations for relationships between: • A sexually cohabiting man and woman • Parents and children • Families of the bride and groom

16. Marriage Regulates Sexual Access Reasons: • Limits sexual competition. • Provides stability for children. • Allows for stable economic exchange.

17. Marriage Establishes Family Structures Marriage provides a stable structure: • The male can provide food and protection. • The female can nurse and nurture the children.

18. Marriage Expands Social Groups • Links different families and kin groups. • Leads to cooperation beyond the primary husband-wife pair. • Allows people to share resources. • Benefits the survival of the species.

19. A marriage is everyone’s business • Arranged marriageThe process by which senior family members exercise a great deal of control over the choice of their children’s spouses. • The obligations of a marriage encompass everyone in the extended family • These binding social and economic alliances are seldom left to chance, or to unmarried young people.

20. Marriage is the Economic and Political Union of Two Families • Bride serviceWork that the groom performs for his bride’s family for a variable length of time either before or after the marriage. • BridewealthGoods presented by the groom’s kin to the bride’s kin to legitimize a marriage. • Dowry Presentation of goods by the bride’s kin to the family of the groom or to the couple.

21. Marriage Rules: Exogamy • Rules specifying that a person must marry outside a particular group. • Almost universal within the primary family group. • Leads to alliances between different families and groups.

22. Marriage Rules: Endogamy • Rules that marriage must be within a particular group. • In India, the caste is an endogamous group. • In the U.S., social classes tend to be endogamous.

23. Marriage Rules: Incest Taboos • Prohibit sexual relations between relatives. • Universal to most cultures. • Exceptions : • Brother-sister marriages among royalty in ancient Egypt • Traditional Hawaiian society

24. Reasons for Incest Taboos • Avoids inbreeding. • Prevents disruption in the nuclear family. • Directs sexual desires outside the family. • Forces people to marry outside the family and create a larger social community.

25. Preferential Marriage Rules • Rules about the preferred categories of relatives for marriage partners: • LevirateThe custom whereby a man marries the widow of a deceased brother. • Sororate When a man’s wife dies, her sister is given to him as a wife.

26. Primary Marriage Rights • Sexual access of husband and wife to each other. • Obligations by one or both parents to care for children born to the union. • Rights of husband and wife to the economic services of the other.

27. In multi-spouse marriages, two wives are more stable than three or more Divorce Bilineal descent cultures have a more fluid system of joining and breaking up Research suggests divorce rate is lower in unilineal descent cultures Gender affects ability to divorce

28. Widowhood and Remarriage • In some cultures, women’s position as a widow is often marked symbolically • modest clothes • asexual • little food intake • Remarriage is dependent on economic factors and gender expectations

29. Chapter 9, Marriage, Family and Domestic Groups Key Terms

30. ExogamyA rule specifying that a person must marry outside a particular group. EndogamyA rule prescribing that marriage must be within a particular group.

31. Cross cousinsThe children of a parent’s siblings of the opposite sex. (mother’s brothers, father’s sisters) Parallel cousinsThe children of a parent's same-sex siblings. (mother’s sisters, father’s brothers)

32. Unilineal descentA rule specifying that membership in a descent group is based on links through either the maternal or the paternal line; but not both. • LevirateThe custom whereby a man marries the widow of a deceased brother.

33. SororateThe custom whereby, when a man’s wife dies, her sister is given to him as a wife. MonogamyA rule that permits a person to be married to only one spouse at a time.

34. PolygamyA rule allowing more than one spouse. PolygynyA rule permitting a man to have more than one wife at a time.

35. PolyandryA rule permitting a woman to have morethan one husband at a time. Soroal polygynyA form of polygyny in which a man marries sisters.

36. Fraternal polyandryA custom whereby a woman marries a man and his brothers. • Arranged marriageThe process by which senior family members exercise a great deal of control over the choice of their children’s spouses.

37. Bride serviceWork that the groom performs for his bride’s family for a variable length of time either before or after the marriage. • BridewealthGoods presented by the groom’s kin to the bride’s kin to legitimize a marriage.

38. DowryPresentation of goods by the bride’s kin to the family of the groom or to the couple. Nuclear familyThe family organized around the relationship between husband and wife. A nuclear family consists of a husband, a wife, and their children.

39. Conjugal tieThe relationship between a husband and wife formed by marriage. Extended familyFamily based on blood relations extending over three or more generations.

40. ConsanguinealRelated by birth. • Domestic groupA household unit, that usually, but not always, consists of members of a family.

41. Neolocal residenceSystem under which a couple establishes an independent household after marriage. • Composite (compound) familyAn aggregate of nuclear families linked by a common spouse.

42. Patrilocal residenceSystem under which a bride lives with her husband’s family after marriage. PatrilineageA lineage formed by descent in the male line.

43. MatrilineageA lineage formed by descent in the female line. • Matrilocal residenceSystem under which a husband lives with this wife's family after marriage.

44. Avunculocal residenceSystem under which a married couple lives with husband's mother’s brother. • Bilocal residenceSystem under which the married couple has the choice of living with the husband's or wife’s family.