Solving the Problem of Cooperation

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Solving the Problem of Cooperation
Marriage and Family (Chs. 19, 20) Kinship and
Descent (Ch. 21)
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Genealogical Space
that space that contains all human beings
Kindred
everyone related to ego.
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Social Anthropology
Genealogical Space
Descent consanguineal
Males
Females
Generation consanguineal
Marriage affinal
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Kinship and Descent
Concerning the matter of relatives consanguineal
affinal term of address term of reference
These are Cultural Universals relatives
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Kinship and Descent
The investigation of kinship terminology begins
with a distinction between kin types and kin
terms. Kin types refer to the basic uncategorized
relationships that anthropologists use to
describe the actual contents of kinship
categories. They are supposedly culture free,
etic components. Kin terms are the labels for
categories of kin that include one or more kin
types. They are emic structures and vary across
cultures.
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Kin Types Primary components and letter
symbols Mother M
Father F Sister Z
Brother B Daughter D
Son S Husband H
Wife W

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Rules of Descent
Matrilineal
Unilineal
Patrilineal
Bilineal (Bilateral)
Double
Ambilineal
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Bilineal descent
Eskimo Kinship
Similar to American system
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Matrilineal descent
Crow, Trobriand Islanders, Navajo
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Patrilineal descent
Omaha, Bakhtiari, Nuer, Traditional China
13
Lineage - descent group w/common ancestor
Fission - splitting of group
Clan - same as lineage w/o known common
ancestor (Mendi of New Guinea)
Totemism - relation to common ancestral spirit
Phratry - two or more clans w/common ancestor
Moiety - half of a society divided by descent
Kindred - consanguineal relatives of single
individual
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Rules of Residence
Neolocal
Associated with bilineal descent
Matrilocal
Associated with matrilineal descent
Patrilocal
Associated with patrilineal descent
Ambilocal
Associated with bilineal descent
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Formation of Groups

• Marriage and Family

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Marriage and Family
Marriage a relationship between one or more
men (male or female) and one or more women (male
or female) recognized by the society as having a
continuing claim to the right of sexual access to
one another (Haviland 2003514).
Marriage one variable in the formation of
kinship groups (affinal relatives). The other
is descent (consanguineal relatives).
The notion of marriage as a sacrament and not
just a contract can be traced St. Paul who
compared the relationship of a husband and wife
to that of Christ and his church.
(http//marriage.about.com/cs/generalhistory/a/mar
riagehistory.htm)
In a 2005 book, Marriage, a History From
Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered
Marriage, Coontz writes Almost every marital
and sexual arrangement we have seen in recent
years, however startling it may appear, has been
tried somewhere before. (p. 2)
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Marriage and Family
Affines - relatives by marriage
Consanguineal kin - relatives by birth
Conjugal bond bond between married individuals
Incest taboo - very strong prohibition against
mating within particular group.
19
Rules of Marriage
Monogamy
One spouse
Endogamy
Marry inside group
Polygamy
Multiple spouses
Marry outside group
Exogamy
Among the Buddhist people of the mountainous
Ladakh District of Jammu and Kashmir, who have
cultural ties to Tibet, fraternal polyandry is
practiced, and a household may include a set of
brothers with their common wife or wives. This
family type, in which brothers also share land,
is almost certainly linked to the extreme
scarcity of cultivable land in the Himalayan
region, because it discourages fragmentation of
holdings.
Multiple wives
Polygyny
Strong prohibition against marriage inside group
Incest taboo
Polyandry
Multiple husbands
Children are offspring of the group
Group marriage
Multiple spouses, one at a time
Serial marriage
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Marriage and Family
Levirate - brother marriage
Sororate - sister marriage
Either of the above may be anticipatory
Fictive marriage
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Marriage and Family
Parallel-cousin ( Cousin) Marriage
ego's father's brother's children or mother's
sister's children.
Cross-cousin (X-Cousin) Marriage
ego's father's sister's children or mother's
brother's children.
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Marriage and Family
Cross-cousin (X Cousin) Marriage
ego's father's sister's children or mother's
brother's children.
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Marriage and Family
X Cousin Marriage in Matrilineal Societies
Sometimes prescriptive (should)
Sometimes proscriptive (must)
adoption
fictive
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Marriage and Family
Stephanie Coontz, author of The Way We Really
Are Coming to Terms with America's Changing
Families and The Way We Never Were American
Families and the Nostalgia Trap, wrote Many
people hold an image of how American families
used to be at some particular point in time,
and they propose that we return to that ideal.
In fact, however, there have been a wide variety
of family forms and values in American history,
and there is no period in which some ideal
family predominated. The Way We Never Were
American Families and the Nostalgia Trap (1992)
Kathleen Gough specialized in cross cultural
studies of the family and attempted this
universal definition of family (a definition that
applies to all societies) A married couple or
other group of adult kinsfolk who cooperate
economically and in the upbringing of children,
and all or most of whom share a common dwelling.
Family in anthropological terms, it is a group
composed of a woman, her dependent children, and
at least one adult man joined through marriage or
blood relationship (Haviland 2003 537).
Note on co-operation Human beings, indeed all
social animals, are innately co-operative.
So far The family continues to be the most
universal form of human social organization.
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Marriage and Family
Family
relatives
Nuclear families independence training
Extended families dependence training
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Marriage and Family
Traditional functions of families
Emotional nurturance
Women in Civilian Labor Force In 190020.6 of
total 43.5 single women and 5.6 of married
women. In 200269.6 of total67.4 single women
and 61.0 of married women. U.S. Census Bureau -
Marital Status of Women in the Civilian Labor
Force 1900-2002.
Sex control
Economic Co-operation
Physical nurturance
Enculturation
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Trends in Marriage and Family
i.e. modern genetics

• Related to technology

Brave New World of Designer Children
Genetic implications Choosing or avoiding
physical ability or disability Choosing or
avoiding behavioral ability or disability Ravitsky
, Ethics and Education The Ethics of Shaping
Human Identity http//www.mssm.edu/msjournal/69/v6
9_5_page312_316.pdf