8. marriage and family

purpose of marriage systems

• social control

  • sexual relations

  • reinforces social bonds

  • avoid conflict

• needs structure

marriage: culturally sanctioned union between two or more people that establishes rights and obligations. between the people who marry, their children, and their in laws.

incest taboo

• rules that every society has to govern sexuality based on blood relation. variably defined based on the culture.

forms of marriage

• endogamous: marriage within the group

  • ex. royal families to keep wealth.

  • ex. catholic family that wants their child to marry another person who is catholic.

• exogamous: marriage outside of the group

  • ex. royal families to get more power and wealth.

  • ex. someone who is black marrying someone who is hispanic.

• monogamy - two people

• polygamy - when people have multiple spouses

• polygyny - when people have multiple wives

• polyandry - when people have multiple husbands

• cousin marriages -

  • cross cousin - children of a mother’s brother or father’s sister

  • parallel cousin - children of a father’s brother or mother’s sister

• same sex marriage - concerning property and labor

marriage and economic exchange

• bride wealth, labor

  • where the groom provides wealth to the bride’s family

  • dowry - woman’s inheritance at the time of marriage is given to her husband/her husband’s family

    • sometimes men will kill their wives to remarry and collect another dowry

divorce

• divorce is less common in areas with arranged marriages because it’s more than two people, it’s a political and economical alliance between families

family and household

• nuclear family - mother, father, children

• extended family - includes cousins, grandparents, etc.

• nontraditional families -

• nonfamily households -

• patrilocal - move in with father’s side of the family

• matrilocal - move in with mother’s side of the family

• neolocal - new residence

• ambilocal - can choose either family

culture and marriage