Sex, Marriage, and Family

1. Sex, Marriage, and Family Part I

2. Trobrianders • To attract lovers, young Trobriand men and woman must look as attractive and seductive as possible. • This woman’s beauty has been enhanced by face painting and adornments given by her father.

3. Primate Sexual Relations • Among primates, the human female is unusual in her ability to engage in sexual activity whether she is fertile or not. • This capacity leads to the reinforcement of social bonds between men and women but also to conflicts over sex. • Sexual competition could be a source of conflict if it were not regulated and channeled into stable relationships that are given social approval.

4. Visual Counterpoint • While homosexual behavior is absolutely condemned in some societies, many others are indifferent about such personal practices and openly tolerate individuals who engage in homosexual activities. • In some cultures certain prescribed male-to-male sexual acts are part of male initiation rituals of all boys to become respected adult men.

5. Marriage • The anthropological definition of marriage is: a culturally sanctioned union between two or more people that establishes certain rights and obligations between the people, between them and their children, and between them and their in-laws.

6. Sexual and Marriage Practices among the Nayar • The Nayar are one of many examples of sexually permissive cultures. • A landowning warrior caste, their estates are held by corporations made up of kinsmen related in the female line. • These relatives live together in a household, with the eldest male serving as manager. • Traditionally, Nayar boys began military training around age of 7, and were away from home for significant stretches of time.

7. The Nayar: Three Traditional Transactions • Ritual Husband • Shortly before a girl experienced her first menstruation there was a ceremony that joined her with a “ritual husband” in a temporary union which did not necessarily involve sexual relations.

8. The Nayar: Three Traditional Transactions • Visiting Husband • When a young Nayar woman entered into a continuing sexual liaison with a man approved by her family. • it became a formal relationship that required the man to present her with gifts three times each year until the relationship was terminated. • The man could spend the nights with her, but had no obligation to support her economically. • The woman may have had such an arrangement with more than one man at the same time.

9. The Nayar: Three Traditional Transactions • Acknowledging Paternity • When the woman became pregnant, one of the men with whom she has a relationship must acknowledge paternity by making gifts to the woman and the midwife.

10. Kin Relations • Consanguineal kin: biologically related relatives, commonly referred to as blood relatives. • Affinal kin: people related through marriage.

11. Question • ____________ are relatives by birth, or so-called "blood kin." • Affinal kin • In laws • Conjugal kin • Kith and kin • Consanguineal kin

12. Question • Consanguineal kin are relatives by birth, or so-called "blood kin."

13. Incest Taboo • Rules exist in every society to govern sexuality and, just as marriage in its various forms is found in every culture, so is the incest taboo. • Incest taboo: the prohibition of sexual contract between certain close relatives, usually parent and child and sibling relations at a minimum.

14. Incest Taboo • Anthropologists have long been fascinated by the incest taboo and have proposed many explanations for its cross-cultural existence and variation. • Instinctive Horror: the simplest explanation, based on the idea of ‘human nature’ • Biological Problems: argues that the incest taboo developed in response to abnormal offspring born from incestuous unions. • Attempt and Contempt: argues that the incest taboo originated to direct sexual feelings away from one’s family to avoid disrupting the family structure and relations. • Marry out or Die out: a more accepted argument is that the taboo originated to ensure exogamy.

15. Question • Although the incest taboo is • not found in all societies, anthropologists can satisfactorily explain its occurrence. • found in some form in all societies, anthropologists do not have completely satisfactory explanations for its occurrence. • found in some form in all societies, it sometimes does not include restrictions on sexual relations between parents and children of the opposite sex. • not found in all societies, it always includes restrictions on sexual relations between parents and children of the opposite sex.

16. Question • Although the incest taboo is found in some form in all societies, anthropologists do not have completely satisfactory explanations for its occurrence.

17. Endogamy and Exogamy • Endogamy: marriage within a particular group or category of individuals. • Exogamy: marriage outside the group. • Endogamy and exogamy may operate in a single society, but do not apply to the same social unit.

18. Claude Levi-Strauss • Claude Levi-Strauss saw exogamy as a form of inter-group social exchange in which “wife-giving” and “wife-taking” created social networks and alliances between distinct communities. • Building on this theory, other anthropologists have proposed that exogamy is an important means of building and maintaining political alliances and promoting trade between groups.

19. Question • Marriage within a particular group of individuals is called • incest. • exogamy. • monogamy. • endogamy. • polygamy.

20. Answer: D • Marriage within a particular group of individuals is called endogamy.

21. Distinction BetweenMarriage and Mating • Marriage, in its many forms, provides structure that helps control conflicts. • Mates are secured and held solely through personal effort and mutual consent. • Marriage is a culturally recognized right and is backed by social, political, and ideological factors that regulate sexual relations and reproductive rights and obligations.

22. Question • While mating is biological, marriage is _______________.

23. Question • While mating is biological, marriage is cultural.