Marriage and Family

1. Marriage and Family

2. Identify Leach’s argument for what marriage can, but does not always, accomplish. Describe incest and exogamy. Differentiate between parallel and cross cousins, and how this distinction relates to exogamy in groups with Unilineal descent patterns. Identity endogamy and its role in socially stratified societies. Analyze how marriage functions as a form of group alliance and identity the role of dowries and lobola. Identity types of plural marriages and the conditions that they favor. Unit Learning Objectives

3. No definition is broad enough to apply (easily) to all societies and situations Variation in who marriage unites Besides the notion of ‘love’, what aspects of culture is marriage associated with? What is Marriage?

4. What is Marriage? • Universal form or type of marriage does not exist • Primary functions are observed in all culture • _______________________________ • Evolved various systems to perform these functions

5. What is Marriage?Functions of Marriage • 1. Marriage forms: _________________ • Provide for the material needs, social support, and enculturation of children • _____________________

6. What is Marriage?Functions of Marriage • 2. Marriage defines the _____________ ___________________________________ • Regulation of _____________________between the married couple and __________________ • Allocation of _________________________

7. What is Marriage?Functions of Marriage • 3. Marriage creates ___________________ • Incest taboo • Establishment of trade relationships or political alliances

8. Exogamy • 1. • 2. • Incest: • _________________________________________ • How is ‘close relative’ defined? Is this socially constructed? Marriage: Comparative Perspective

9. Cross & Parallel Cousins • Cross: ______________ • Opposite of______ • Parallel: ______________ • Ego’s _____________ Marriage: Comparative PerspectiveFocus: Cousins Sexual relations with ‘cousins’ influenced by unilineal descent Example: ________________

10. Incest Avoidance • Besides the biological component • Gene flow – exchange of genes between population boundaries, increases genetic diversity • What are the cultural factors? • 1. • 2. Marriage: Comparative Perspective

11. What are the cultural factors? • 1. • 2. • p258: “Recognition of _______________cooperation between neighboring bands.” ‘Appreciating Anthropology’:‘Come Join My Band, Baby’

12. Endogamy • Rules requiring individuals to marry some member of their own social group or category • _______________________________ • Example: _________________________ Marriage: Comparative Perspective

13. Endogamy: Maintained in two main ways • 1. _______________________________ • Affinal relationships kept within • Reinforcing ties within groups while decreasing interactions between the groups Marriage: Comparative Perspective

14. Endogamy: Maintained in two main ways • 2. ______________________________ • Symbolically expresses and strengthens the exclusiveness of group • Example: ___________________________ Marriage: Comparative Perspective

15. Marriage: Comparative Perspective • Marriage alliances: • Marriage establishes lasting social relationships and bonds • Beyond the married couple: • ______________________________________

16. Marriage: Comparative Perspective • 1. Arranged marriages • ______________________________________ • Importance of advantageous relationships • Remember: Nanda’s article on an arranged marriage in India

17. Marriage: Comparative Perspective • 2. Levirate: • Usually a __________of deceased husband • Relations between the intermarried kin groups are __________________

18. Marriage: Comparative Perspective • 3. Sororate: • Her kin group is _______________________with another woman, for which no additional ________________________ • Example - __________

19. Dowry: • Share of a woman’s inheritance that she takes into her marriage Marriage Exchanges

20. Lobola: • Seen in patrilineal societies • Importance: Marriage Exchanges

21. Cultures vary on the number of spouses an individual is allowed to have at a time • Four possibilities • Monogamy • Polygyny • Polyandry • Group Marriage How Many Spouses? Variations of polygamy (i.e. plural spouses)

22. Polygyny • Form of marriage in which a man may have more than one wife • Benefits • 1. • 2.

23. No single explanation for polygyny • 1. • 2. • 3. • 4. Polygyny

24. Polyandry • Form of marriage in which a woman may have more than one husband • Documented in only about a dozen societies • 1. • 2.

25. Mostly observed in South Asia peoples • 1. • 2. Polyandry

26. Required Reading: When Brothers Share a Wife