Marriage, Family, Kinship

MAKING US, MAKING THEM

Incest taboo
The prohibition of sexual relations
between specified individuals, usually
parent-child and sibling relations at a
minimum
All cultures have an incest taboo
The absence of a rule among other
primates suggests perhaps an adaptive
response for humans

Social Explanation Levi-Strauss

Incest promotes exogamy
Seeking a mate outside ones own group
Seeking others to become us
Denotes them vs. us
Establishes & maintains alliances
Promotes genetic admixture & variation
Preserves family roles
Guards against socially destructive conflict

The Incest Taboo: The Threshold of

Culture
Levi-Strauss: the incest taboo is in origin
neither purely cultural nor purely natural,
nor is a composite mixture of elements
from both nature and culture. It is the
fundamental step because of which, by
which, but above all in which, the transition
from nature to culture is accomplished.
It brings about and is in itself the advent of a
new order.

Incest taboo, Exogamy, Endogamy

Exogamy seeking people to have sexual
relations outside ones group
Seeking others to become us

Endogamy mating or marriage within a

group to which one belongs
Most societies are endogamous groups

Exogamy & incest imply endogamy

3 basic models for (structures which lie
underneath)

Endogamy Implies Exogamy

Exogamy links groups together
Endogamy keeps groups apart
Rules of endogamy help maintain social,
economic, & political distinctions &
preserve limitations to the access of
wealth & resources

Marriage, Family, Kinship

Marriage
rules of sexual access
form of exchange establishes alliances
accords a child born to the woman under circumstances
not prohibited by the rules of the relationship full birthstatus rights common to normal members of his society or
social stratum.

family -- smallest, organized unit of kin and non-kin

who interact daily, providing for the domestic needs
of children and ensuring their survival
descent group -- who one is related to beyond
marriage
Alliance -- relations between descent groups

Marriage and the Family

Marriage
A relationship between one or more men
(male or female) and one or more women
(female or male) recognized by society as
having a continuing claim to the right of
access to one another
All societies have marriage
About the social control of sexuality

Or Marriage.
Marriage is a relationship established
between a woman and one or more
persons which provides that a child born
to the woman under circumstances not
prohibited by the rules of the relationship,
is accorded full birth-status rights common
to normal members of his society or social
stratum.

Forms of Marriage
Monogamy = marriage between two
partners
Polygamy = plural marriage = an individual
has more than one spouse
Polygyny = one man many wives
Polyandry = one woman many husbands

No marriage
Serial monogamy = preferred practice in
the West?

Forms of Marriage
Levirate & sororate
Levirate = a widow marries dead husbands
brother
Sororate = a widower marries dead wifes
sister

Keeps inheritance within the same group

Forms of Marriage
Cousin marriage
Patrilateral parallel-cousin marriage =
marriage of a man to his fathers brothers
daughter
Or of a woman to her fathers brothers son
Preferred form in Bali

Hint: parallel refers to sex linking relative

Property is retained in the male line of
descent
Often related to more property ownership

Forms of Marriage
Cousin marriage
Matrilateral cross-cousin marriage
Marriage of a woman to her fathers sisters
son
Or of a man to his mothers brothers
daughter

Less about property than about ties of

solidarity between groups

Levi-Strauss on Marriage as
Exchange
Levi-Strauss: "It's not the man that
marries the maid, but field marries field,
vineyard marries vineyard, cattle marries
cattle
a set of rights the couple & their families
obtain over one another, including rights to
the couple's children

Marriage and wealth exchange

Bridewealth
payment to wife and/or wifes family
pays for loss of daughter

Dowry
payment to husband and/or husband family
correlated to low women gender status
pays for adding women to descent group

buying & selling of commodities is a

one time event
bridewealth establishes an enduring
bundle of reciprocal rights & obligations
between relatives of the couple that will
last as long as the marriage lasts

MARRIAGE EXCHANGES
marriage means alliances
people don't just take a spouse they
assume obligations to a group of in-laws
often more a relationship between groups
than one between individuals-marriage
involves

Levi-Strauss and women as objects

of exchange
marriage systems - a form of exchange - "that
as soon as I am forbidden a woman, she
thereby becomes available to another man,
and somewhere else a man renounces a
woman who thereby becomes available to
me." (Levi-Strauss:51)
wife givers & wife takers

nevertheless, as exchange marriage implies

reciprocity = obligations assumed in creation
& maintenance of alliances

Marriage and the Family

Variation in forms of marriage related to
variations in forms of family
Nuclear family = parents and children
Extended family = 3 or more generations
Joint family or collateral household =
siblings, their spouses and children
Forms of family change over time, over life
cycle

Forms of Family & Subsistence

Forager band = group of nuclear families
Industrial economy = also nuclear family
Neither foragers nor industrial societies tied to the
land
Emphasis on mobility, small-size, self-sufficiency

Cultivators and Horticulturalists = extended,

joint, collateral households
Extended family associated with sedentary
cultivation, herding & private property
Keeps property in family
Provides needed labor

Family in Canada, Europe, US

A unit bounded biologically & legally

Associated with property
Economic self sufficiency
Associated with emotional life
Associated with a space inside a home
Emerges in complex state-governed societies

Keep neighbors out compared to others

that add children & neighbors as kin

Post-Marital Residence Patterns

Patrilocal
Matrilocal
Bi-local
Neolocal
Avunculocal living with mothers brother or
fathers sister
Virilocal living with husbands relatives
(patrilineal descent)
Uxorilocal living with wifes relatives
(matrilineal descent)

Post-Marital Residence Patterns

70% of all societies patrilocal
Matrifocal households women headed
households with no permanently resident
husband-father
Patrifocal 3 men and a baby?
Post-marital residence patterns change
during life cycle of marriage, over time

Kinship Patterns
Relations of descent (endogamy)
Consanguineal relationships (sanguine = red)
Relations of blood

Relations of alliance (exogamy)

Affinal relationships (affinity)
Through marriage (in-laws)

Kinship & Descent

For many societies kinship & descent lines
are the main way people organize
themselves
The relationships we establish with others
and within our biological group and
outside our group are coded in kin terms

kin terms
sometimes mark specific relationships,
sometimes lump together several
genealogical relations
lineal relatives - ancestor, descendent on
direct line of descent to or from ego
collateral kin - all other biological kin,
siblings, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles
affines - relatives by marriage

Kinship Symbols

A circle

represents a female

A triangle

represents a male

An equal sign

represents a marriage

A vertical line

represents descent or parentage

A horizontal line

represents a sibling bond.

Relationships are traced through a central individual labelled EGO.

kinship diagram

Descent
Unilineal Kinship and Descent
unilineal descent groups, either patrilineages or
matrilineages according to the prevailing descent
rule
over twice the number of descent system (70% of all
groups considered in one sample) follow unilineal
kinship rules (Murdock 1949:59
In many societies unilineal descent groups assume
important corporate functions such as land
ownership, political representation and mutual aid and
support

Unilineal Descent
Patrilineal systems are much more common than matrilineal
ones, occurring at roughly twice the incidence
the "tribes" of Israel were patrilineages and ancient Greek
and Roman family organization.
Matrilineal systems are less frequent but are still
ethnographically important.
West African Ashanti kingdom developed within a matrilineal society
heir to the throne is not the king's (Asantehene's) own child but his
sister's son
Early British emissaries to Ashanti learned about this family system
the hard way
supported several of the Asantehene's sons to be educated in
England only to realize that the allies they had so carefully cultivated
were not in line to assume the throne.

Lineal and Collateral Kin

Lineal Kin - ancestors or

descendants
Collateral Kin - sibling branches

Matrilineal and Patrilineal Kin

Patrilineal , or agnatic, relatives are
identified by tracing descent exclusively
through males from a founding male
ancestor.
Matrilineal , or uterine, relatives are
identified by tracing descent exclusively
through females from a founding female
ancestor.

Matrilineal and Patrilineal Kin

Patrilineal Kin - linked through males.

Matrilineal Kin - linked through
females
Cross Relatives - cross sexed linked

Patrilineage -- male ego

Patrilineage female ego

Matrilateral and Patrilateral Kin

Patrilateral Kin
Matrilateral
Kin

cross relatives
kin on each side, who are neither patrilineal or
matrilineal
cross cousins are of particular importance,
especially for some marriage systems
Cross cousins can be identified as the children
of opposite sexed siblings (of a brother and
sister) and parallel cousins as the children of
same sexed siblings (of two brothers or two
sisters).

Dual Descent or Ambilineal

Descent

Bilateral Descent
Also called cognatic descent
Canada, US, Europe
ego sees his or her relatives on both sides
as being of equal closeness & relevance
the degree of closeness is based on
generational distance separating the
individuals (our system)

Bilateral Kindred
a person's bilateral set of relatives who
may be called upon for some purpose
no two persons belong exactly to the
same kin group
ego centered with kindred of close
relatives spreading out on both your
mother's and father's sides
connected only because of you

Strengths of Bilateral System

Overlapping membership
Widely extended, can form broad
networks
Flexible
Useful for groups that do not live in same
place
Useful when valued resources are limited

Structures of Descent
lineages (patri & matri) - common ancestor
clan several lineages common ancestor, usually
large groups that are associated with mythical
ancestors
phratry - unilineal descent group composed of a
number of supposedly related clans
moieties - means half, when an entire society is
divided into 2 unilineal descent groups
many societies have 2 or more types of descent
groups in various combinations
some have lineages & clans, others may have
clans & phrateries but no lineages

Lineage
a corporate descent group whose members
trace their genealogical links to a common
ancestor
corporate = shares resources in common

own property
organize labour
assign status
regulate relations with other groups

endures beyond individual members

Clan
a non-corporate descent group whose
members claim descent from a common
ancestor without knowing the genealogical
inks to that ancestor
often produced through fission of lineage
into newer, smaller lineage

characteristics of the clan

greater genealogical depth than lineage
lacks residential unity (in contrast to
lineage)
a ceremonial unit that meets on special
occasions
handle important integrative functions
may regulate marriage outside clan

clans are often dependent on

symbols as integrative feature
totem: a symbol of a clans mythical origin
that reinforces clan members common
descent
totem from Ojibwa ototeman; he is a
relative of mine

totemism defined by A.R. RadcliffeBrown

a set of customs and beliefs by which
there is set up a special system of
relations between the society and the
plants, animals, and other natural objects
that are important in the social life
among the Haida of west coast Canada
Bear, Killer Whale, Cannibal Spirit, Salmon,
and Beaver

Phratries and Moieties

less common forms of descent groups
phratry: a unilineal descent group composed of
at least two clans that supposedly share a
common ancestry, whether they do or not
if a society is broken into only two large groups
(clan or phratry), each group is referred to as a
MOIETY
moieties, phratries, clans and lineages
from most inclusive to the least inclusive
all typically associated with exogamy

Functions of Kinship and Descent

function as primary groups
institutions which normally recruit personnel by the criterion of inherited
status

group's unity and character reflect bonds formed upon

common origin and identity and which address the general
welfare of the membership rather than a specific and
intentionally defined objective
type of functions varies crossculturally
include the major activities of economic, political, and
religious life
In a general sense, the kinship unit often constitutes a
corporate group which becomes a legal entity in itself and is
assigned collective rights on behalf of its members and their
estates