Marriage kinship and descent

Marriage

• culturally sanctioned union between two or more people

• establishes certain rights and obligations between them, their children, and their in-laws

Endogamy

marriage within a group or category of people

Exogamy

marriage outside a group or category of people

Polygamy

one person having multiple spouses

Polygyny

a man married to two or more women

polyandry

a woman married to two or more men

Biological/evolutionary reason for marriage

• ensure cooperation between parents for long-term k-selection child rearing

• reduce conflict over mates, regulate sexual behavior

Economic reasons for marriage

• form alliances between groups, allowing the sharing of resources

social contract theory of marriage

• creates clear lines of descent, inheritance, and kinship

• stabilizes relationships by socially and legally recognizing unions

structural functionalist theory

regulates reproduction

Organizes the division of labor

establishes familial roles and obligations

nuclear family

one or two parents and their dependent offspring

patrilocal residence

married couple lives with husbands father

matrilocal residence

married couple lives with wife’s mother

neolocal residence

married couple establishes a household in a new location

avunculocal residence

married couple lives with husbands mothers brother

ambilocal residence

couple joins either wife’s or husbands family

what determines residence pattern

Whoever owns/controls the primary means of subsistence is the household the couple resides in

• man owns, patrilocal

• woman owns. matrilocal

• neither, neo

kinship

system of relationships that determine

• Who is considered family

• What roles and obligations people have to each other

consanguinial kin

blood related

affinal kin

related through marriage

fictive kin

not based on blood or marriage

legally or culturally recognized as having certain roles or obligations
adoption

godparents

Descent

socially recognized links between people and their ancestors

• determines group membership and inheritance

parallel cousins

offspring of parents same sex siblings

cross cousins

offspring of parents opposite sex siblings

kin symbols

mo
fa
z sister
s son
br
d
w
h

crow kinship system

• All males in the father’s matrilineage are called by the same term regardless of generation

• siblings and parallel cousins are called by the same term differs by gender

• all women in the mother’s matrilineage in the same gen are called by the same term

• all women in the fathers matrilinegae regardless of gen are called the same term

• men in the mothers matrilinegae in the same gen are called the same team

• offspring of males in the same gen in the mothers matrilineage are called by the same term

Hawaiian naming system

• siblings and all cousins share a term

• all males in parents gen share a term

• all females in parents’ gen share a term

• typically bilateral

descent group

any kin group whose members share a real or fictional common ancestor

lineage

a unilineal kin group that has a common ancestor that everyones relationship to can be exactly traced

clan

extended unilineal kin group, often consisting if several lineages where the common ancestor is more remote, cannot be exactly traced, and is often legendary or mythological

unilineal descent

traced through the male or female line

patrilineal

matrilineal

bilateral descent

traced through both the male and female line equally

relationship between power and descent system

patrilineal systems, men are head of household and have political power

women move into husbands household and become effectively part of his kin group

matrilineal

women are heads of households, men still typically hold political power

often has weaker ties to wifes household and still active in their sisters households and transfer property to sisters sons not their own

Turkana (kenya)

• pastoralists

• marraige depends on economic status

• practice polygyny to care for a large number of animals a family keeps

• Only wealthy men engage in polygyny

• groom gives bride price to bride’s family to make up for the loss of her labor and to prove his ability to provide for his wife

• previous wives can influence a husbands choice in a new wife but cannot formally disapprove

Pygmies (Bambuti) DRC

• practice exogamy by marrying outside of the band to create alliances and access to land for hunting/gathering

• practice sister exchange: two women swap bands to marry, increasing ties between bands and preventing the depletion of a single sex

• division of labor: women gather food, build housing, men hunt

• fits with compatibility with childcare and expandability theory

Haryana ( india)

• people marry from diff villages, same caste, preferably cross cousins

• patrilcoal residence, grandparents are head of household

• son establishes a neolocal household in the city for wage labor and educational opportunities for the future children

• family will lose money and labor from him and his wife

Greek-Americans

• Marriage is arranged through a male suitor asking the woman's parents

• believe arranged marriages are more stable than love marriages

• traditionally interconnectedness, marry within the group

• live in a neolocal nuclear household, inherited from the wife’s parents

Hamar ( ethiopia)

• co wives help each other woth childcare, domestic work and field work

• husband views sons as better because they stay in the household and help with work

• has two wives to help with work and as a symbol of wealth, as opposed to his father’s poverty

• patrilocal

Navajo

• matrilineal

• use crow system.

• matriarchal

• cannot marry someone in mother's or fathers clan

• women are main providers

• call relatives by kinterm and not name

• organized by clan

yanomamo

• use Iriquois system

• patrilineal

• organized by lineage

• son in-laws give food to wifes family

• still obligated to help blood family

• small fights between individual people can evolve into warfare because affinal and consaguineal kin are obligated to help

Trobriand islanders

• mothers brother is the socially sanctioned father to her kids

• matrilineal

• men hold political power, inherited through mothers line

• man gives yams to his sisters household to earn prestige

• has little authority in his wife’s household, more in his own

Kypseli

• bilateral kinship with emphasis on patrilineal authority

• inheritance and family name is typically passed through the male line

• first daughter inherits mothers home

• children get first names from both sides of the family

• first sone inherits fathers occupation

• rigid gender divides a

Polyandry in Tibet

• pastoralists/ subsistence agriculture

• main function of polyandry is preserving wealth by not splitting up land between brothers, and population control

• emic view is preserving wealth and preventing family fission

• The oldest brother is usually the head of the household

• Many younger brothers do not establish own household because of their inability to maintain the same standard of living

• prevents sepeare wives from attempting to pool resources to their own children

• favoritism shown by the wife to a particular brother can cause family fission, overall trying to suppress individualism

female husbands

• practiced by the nandi in kenya

• enables property to be passed down when there are no sons

• the woman socially transitions to male

• has a wife, socializes with men and takes on male tasks

• sex between female husband and wife if forbidden, both are allowed t have relationships outside of the marriage, any children the wife has is considered the husbands

• everyone views and threats them like a man

• experiment found the female husbands were just had competitive as the biological men

• semi-pastoral, cultivators

property passes from mother to son

Lesbian mothers

• ART is used to help lesian couples have biological children

• david is parented by two moms and older brothers donor

• all of them see him as part of their linegae

• not considered part of donors linegae

• wishes his brothers donor was his as well

• legal issues concerning donors who attempt to gain custody of children after they are born

• issues over being overlooked as the non-bio mother

• legal issues over custody after divorce between bio and nonbioas mother when the other mother did not adopt, whose child is it more

Birth other

other person involved in creation of child but not intended parent

Genetic asymmetry

only one parent is genetically related to the child

Assistive reproductive technology

assists fertility when natural conception is not possible

Suckling

• when a woman suckles an infant, if they are a stranger they turn into a cousin, if they are a cousin they turn into a sibling for their own children

• sanctioned by religious authorities

• parallel cousins are preferable for marriage, keep wealth in the patrilineage

• creates alliances between households

• it is the act of suckling that creates kin, not the transfer of milk

Asantahene in ghana

• eligibilty for role comes from linegage, but still must be approved for role by the current asanathene

• he and the leaders of tribes are not allowed to run for state politics

• advocates for tradition through clothes, language, and political practices

• is Christians, though, and only has one wife

• able to appeal to World Bank to personally receive funds outside of the government

• is able to solve disputes between groups outside of the government’s judicial system

• wants tribal leaders to be able to have a bigger role in advocating for their communities

• Reveres the golden stool, and the importance of traditional religious leaders in politics

• Importance of not just Western education but from sitting in others royal courts