Re-thinking Family
Week Three
Hegemony - Gramsci
 According to Antonio Gramsci the ruling classes will use
whatever means available to ensure its status.
 A hegemonic position is legitimized as a “common sense”
 This consent is achieved through science and the control of
morality in society
 Scientific validation is a powerful form of social control that
ensures the continuation of hegemonic structures
Weston- Families we choose
 The cultural positioning of gay people outside both law
and nature has generated one type of response which
appropriates these terms to prost exclusion from the
realm of kinship (pg. 4)
 Although people in the US tend to imagine kinship as a
discrete and private domain, many ostensibly nonfamilial arenas are infused with heterosexist
presumptions and regulated by kinship
 Examples?
Weston: Central Question
 Why are gay families also called families we choose?
 Why is their a distinction between “real” (marriage and
blood) fictive kinship (chosen/non-marriage) relations?
 Unlike purely symbolic analyses, this one situates narratives
and representations in particular historical contexts, and
grounds ideological change in lived experience.
Symbolic Anthropology
 Culture is an independent system of meaning
deciphered by interpreting key symbols and rituals
(Spencer 1996:535).
 2 premises:
1. "beliefs, however unintelligible, become
comprehensible when understood as part of a
cultural system of meaning"
2. Actions are guided by interpretation.
Symbols aid in interpretation.
Is Marriage Hegemonic?
Marriage, Adulthood and Family
Family and State
 “One of the most fundamental interests of the state is the
establishment and preservation of the family unit. Consistent
with this interest is the state’s duty to protect its
impressionable youth from influences which are antithetical
to this vital interest”
Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)
 The Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA is a federal
law of the United States passed by Congress and signed
by President Bill Clinton on September 21, 1996.
 Allows each state to deny Constitutional marital rights
between persons of the same sex which have been
recognized in another state.
 Defines marriage as "a legal union of one man and one
woman as husband and wife" A “spouse "refers only to a
person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife."
DOMA
 The purpose is to normalize heterosexual marriage on a
federal level and permit each state to decide for itself
whether to recognize "same-sex unions."
 40 state deny the legal recognition of same-sex
marriages, which is more than the needed number of
states required to amend the United States Constitution.
 Six states currently have established laws recognizing
some form of same-sex unions, and twelve states ban any
recognition of same-sex unions including civil unions.
Democracy and Marriage
 Opponents of same-sex marriage assert that the issue should be
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decided democratically through the legislative process, rather than
through the judicial process.
Gay rights advocates argue that the democratic process denies
them a fundamental right.
The system of checks and balances requires that the judiciary
protect the fundamental rights of minority groups against the
tyranny of the majority
Advocates argue that the judiciary should strike down gender
restrictive marriage laws in the same way they struck down
racially restrictive marriage laws.
Both supporters and opponents of same-sex marriage accuse the
other side of trying to "legislate morality."
San Francisco, 2004
 The city of San Francisco began issuing marriage licenses
to same-sex couples in February 2004
 Preliminary injunction issued by the Supreme Court of
California which declared the licenses invalid later that
year.
 Some states have proactively, by legislation or
referendum, determined that they will not recognize
same-sex marriages.
 In response to the growing number of legal and political
challenges, some proponents of DOMA have proposed
the Federal Marriage Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution
Legal Right to Marry
 The Netherlands was the first country to allow same-sex
marriage in 2001. Same-sex marriages are also legal in
Belgium, Canada, Norway, South Africa and Spain,
 Massachusetts and California all equal marriage.
 In 2005, Spain became the first country in the world to
recognize same-sex marriage on equal terms while at the
same time allowing gays to adopt and receive artificial
insemination on the same terms as heterosexuals.
 .
Legal Right to Marry
 Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, New
Jersey and Vermont grant persons in same-sex unions a
similar legal status to those in a civil marriage by domestic
partnership, civil union or reciprocal beneficiary laws.
Personhood - Carsten
 Personhood is related to procreation
 Personhood links concepts of house and gender
 Personhood can be used to critique kinship studies
 Marcel Mauss- development of the category of the self,
demonstrates how personhood are culturally and historically
produced.
 Personhood is embedded within a normative framework.
Western equality and quasi-sacred
Research Papers
Your paper must address the following:
 Apply theories learned in class.
 How would a particular theorist interpret specific
newspaper and magazine articles or the events described
within them?
 Choose several concepts from our readings and films
apply to your analysis.
 Changing ideas. How are new technologies reforming
ideas about family, community and kinship?
 Short personal reflection. How do the arguments
presented in the readings add to or change your own
perspective on the issues represented in the media?