Family Matters
Lesson 9:
Marriage and the Family
The Family
• A social unit of related people
• The main function is to bear and raise children
• Biologically, this behavior would be selected for
• Family units
• Conjugal
• Nuclear
• Extended
How are we related?
• Kin are people we call relatives
• Consanguine – “Blood” relatives
• Are we actually related by blood?
• Affine – “In-Laws”
• Related by marriage
• How else can we be related?
Ancestry through Descent
• Descent groups are permanent social units
whose members claim a common ancestry
• Lineage
• Knows all ancestors back to the first ancestor and
can recite these ancestors
• Clan
• People who claim to be descended from the same
ancestor but cannot recite these ancestors
• Example – Family last names
Ways of Tracing Descent
• Bilateral
• Emphasizes both sides of the family
• Unilineal
• Emphasizes ties to one side of the family
• Two types – Patrilineal and Matrilineal
Patrilineal Descent
• Emphasizes a person’s ties to their father
• Pater is Latin for “father”
• Males are essential to maintaining the
patrilineage
• With only daughters the line dies out
• Marriage
• Not a matter of a man getting a wife
• Bringing a child bearer into the family
Patrilineal Kinship Chart
Family
Not Family
Matrilineal Descent
• Emphasizes a person’s ties to their mother
• Mater is Latin for “mother”
• Not the opposite of patrilineal
• A group of males who are related to each other
through the female line
• A man inherits his property from his mother’s brother
• The biological father is an outsider because he is a
part of another matrilineage
Matrilineal Kinship Chart
Not Family
Family
Does Biology Prove Bilateral
Descent is Right?
• Many in the US would use biology to justify
Bilateral Descent
• We are biologically related by chromosomes
Using the Chromosomes
46
Mom
11
23
23
12
Dad
19
4
3
1
1
0
Marriage
• Can be defined in many ways, but we’re not going
to define
• Instead we will look at the various marriage
practices throughout the world
How do we select potential marriage
partners?
• By capture
– Bride kidnapping not practiced anymore
• By arrangement
– The most common method
– Either match maker or parents make the match
• By choice
– Not as common as you may think
Does an exchange need to take place?
• Bride service
– The groom will work for the bride’s family before
marriage
• Bride wealth
– Exchange from the groom or groom’s family to the
bride’s family
– Not “buying the bride”
• Dowry
– Wealth given to the bride from her family
How many spouses are we permitted?
• Monogamy
– One spouse at any given time
– Serial Monogamy?
• Polygamy
– Multiple spouses at any give time
– Two Types:
• Polygyny – one man with multiple wives
• Polyandry – one woman with multiple husbands
Who can marry whom?
• Within or outside groups
– Endogamy – marriage within
– Exogamy – marriage outside
– Marriages can be both at the same time
• Within or outside one’s sex
– A hot button issue in the U.S.
– There are cross-cultural examples
• Female husband among the Nuer
Exam Review Questions
•
•
What are the terms for the following marriage practices?
– Within groups/outside groups? Single/multiple spouses? Marriage exchanges?
What is descent?
– What are the three ways for tracing descent?