Marriage and Family Organizations

marriage

a partnership between families who join in a relationship based on an exchange

3 characteristics of marriage

1. sexual access between marriage partners

2. regulation of the sexual division of labor

3. support and legitimacy of children in society

sexual access between marriage partners

• does not mean extramarital affairs are not expected

• some societies accept when people take lovers outside of marriage

regulation of the sexual division of labor

• some regulations can be biological with the result being childbirth and nursing

• most regulation is culturally based and contributes to group survival

• this can also result in different tasks being performed by different sexes and how resources can be shared

support and legitimacy of children in society

• needed to grow up physically and emotionally stable

• provides an environment that supports child development

• children are considered legitimate heirs

monogamy

marriage between two people

why is monogamy in most industrial western nations

• European settlers and colonizers imposed strict religious rules

• works best in countries that rely on independence training to raise their children

  • children grow to act in their own best interest

polygamy

marriage practice out of having two or more spouses

why do individuals practice polygamy?

can have social, economic, and political functions:

• benefits for producing and raising children

• keeping land holdings together

• labor distribution

polygyny

having two or more wives at the same times

polyandry

practice in which a women takes two or more husbands, less common but practiced in smaller number of societies

why do people practice polyandry?

biocultural perspective:

• limits number of offspring, pass on fewer genes, less likely to have surplus men

• beneficial in places where limits on population growth help the group survive

exogamy

practice in which marriage partners must come from different groups. depending on cultural norms, may have to be from outside one’s clan or lineage

sororate

husband may marry the wife’s sister if the wife dies

levirate

right to marry the husband’s brother if the husband dies

endogamy

requiring the marriage partners to be from the same social group

why is incest taboo?

• psychological: children raised together develop sexual aversion towards one another (westermarck effect)

• social: need for clear-cut roles in society. if a women marries her son and they have a child, is the infant a son or grandson? role confusion and not knowing how to interact with people undermines successful social interaction

• political: marriage outside of family creates relationships with others contribute to stability of larger society, gives social and economic stability, and political alliances

• biological: reducing gene pool results in a loss of genetic diversity, higher potential for genetic diseases and risk to longevity of species, biological threat to survival is possible at center with social, political, and psychological reasons developing to support it in human society

nuclear family

parents and children normally living together in the same household

family of orientation

family in which one is born and grows up

family of procreation

formed when one marries and as children

neolocality

• marries couples live in a separate location from parents

• most prevalent residence pattern in North American

patrilocality

• married couple lives with the husband’s family

• associated with patrilineal descent

• more common than matrilocality

matrilocality

• married couple lives with the wife’s family

• associated with matrilineal descent

• less common than patrilocality

ambilineal descent

people choose the descent group to which they belong

• membership is achieved

• membership is fluid

• people can change their descent-group membership or belong to two or more groups at the same times

ambilocality

married couple can choose which family they want to live with

kinship calculation

how people in a society determine their kin relationship

• expressed through:

  • kin terminology

  • interaction with

  • living with our near

  • inheritance

genealogical kin types

actual genealogical relationship

kin terms

social construction of kinship in a given culture

lineal relative

ego’s direct ancestors and descendants

collateral relative

relative outside ego’s direct line

affinals

relatives by marriage

lineal kinship

four parental kin terms:

• M

• F

• FB=MB (uncle)

• MZ=FZ (aunt)

bifurcate merging kinship terminology

splits the mother’s side from the father’s side, but also merges the same-sex siblings of each parents

• M=MZ (mother)

• F=FB (father

• MB (uncle)

• FZ (aunt)

generational kinship terminology

• uses the same term for parents and their siblings

• does not distinguish between mother’s and father’s side

  • M=MZ=FZ (mother)

  • F=FB=MB (father)

bifurcate collateral kinship terminology

• separate terms are used for each of six kin types of the parental generation:

  • M

  • F

  • MB

  • MZ

  • FB