The basic social building blocks in most societies are kinship systems and/or household forms:
(families).

They are very important units for cross-cultural understanding
• variations of marriage (cross-culturally)
• issues of sexuality and reproductive capacity of women and men.
• gender relations
• domestic violence
• divorce patterns
• changes in household and kinship systems

Household forms
•
Nuclear
•
--a couple (usually a man and a woman) living together with or without their unmarried children.
•
Extended families
•
---nuclear family plus later generations
(the children of the children also live in the household )

In North America nuclear families are declining rapidly
• women independency
• work patterns
• high rate of divorce

Most people belong to at least two nuclear families in their lifetime .
• family of orientation and
• family of procreation.

Plural marriages
• Or Polygamy
• a
. Polygyny : more than one wife
• b.
Polyandry : more than one husband

The practice of men marrying later than women promotes Polygyny among the
Kanury people of Bornu, Nigeria
(Cohen 1967)
• between 18 and 30 years of age
• women between 12-14
• more widows than widowers

Polyandry is more rare than polygyny
•
Found in
•
Tibet,
• parts of India,
•
Nepal
• and Sri-Lanka .
•
Fraternal polyandry

Bridewealth and Dowry
Bridewealth compensates the wife’s group for the lost of companionship and labour.
Dowry, on the other hand, is a marital exchange in which the wife’s kin provides gifts to the husband’s family.

Polyandry
• The case of the
Pahari people of the
Himalayas in India
• West and Central regions differences
• shortage of females in west Pahari.
•
Infanticid e
• joined the Buddhist nuns

Discussion Questions
•
Why do you think “fraternal polyandry” is socially acceptable in Tibet but not in our society?
• What are the pros and cons of arranged marriages versus freedom of choice?

B ridewealt h and Dowry