Chapter 20
Sex, Marriage and Family
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What Is Marriage?
 What Is Family?
 What Is the Difference Between
Family and Household?
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Control of Sexual Relations
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In societies which lack effective birth control
methods; sexual control becomes
increasingly important
Every society has rules that govern sexual
access.
These “rules” can certainly vary depending
on the society. Most all groups of people will
have some regulations on sexual access in
respect to:
 Gender, Age, Marital Status, Social
Status, etc.
Marriage
Marriage has been a long standing
tradition that allows sexual access
between to partner to be established.
 Marriage is a culturally sanctioned
union between two or more people
that established rights and obligations
between them and their children, and
also in-laws. Rights and obligations
include but are not limited to, sex,
labor, property, child rearing,
exchange,and status
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A positive aspect of marriage is the
restriction of sexually transmitted
diseases (STD) that is can bring. This
is provided that the culture adheres to
it’s cultural marriage sanctions of no
sex outside of the marriage.
 In cultures where sexual relationships
are limited to the marriage and this is
“followed” there is a significant
decrease of STD’s.
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Marriage
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Although it may seem that monogamous
sexual relationships are most common to
citizens of the United States the reality is that
most cultures, worldwide, do not prohibit the
act of sexual relationships to marriage or
even to a monogamous relationship for that
matter.
Sexual and Marriage Practices
among the Nayar
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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. They will be away
from home for most other their young adult
life.
The Nayar: Three Traditional
Transactions
1.
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.
 Neither individual has obligations to one
another, although upon adulthood if her
first “husband” should die she and her
children (not his) would be expected to
mourn for him.
The Nayar: Three Traditional
Transactions
2.
Visiting Husband
 When a young Nayar woman enters into a
continuing sexual liaison with a man approved
by her family. This becomes a formal
relationship that requires the man to present
her with gifts three times each year until the
relationship is terminated.
 The man can spend the night(s) with her, but
has no obligation to support her economically.
 The woman may have had such an
arrangement with more than one man at the
same time.
The Nayar: Three Traditional
Transactions
3.
Establishing Child Birth Rights
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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.

Once a man has accepted possible paternity of
a child he may remain interested in the child's
welfare but holds no real obligations to the
child or the mother.
Kin Relations & The Nayar
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Among the Nayar families are comprised of
consanguineal kin- biologically related
relatives, or blood relatives. This does not
include the “husband” who has claimed
paternity to a child which would be known as
affinal kin- or people related through
marriage.
Incest Taboo
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Similar to marriage determining sexual
rights among certain individuals the incest
taboo establishes the prohibition of sexual
relations between specified individuals,
usually parent-child and sibling relations at
a minimum.
Although differing among society throughout
time, most all societies will have some
prohibition of sexual relationships with
parents and children or siblings.
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The basic idea of the incest taboo is that it
is against human nature to have and act
upon a sexual attraction to one of these
closely relatives (parent, sibling, child).
Several supporting points on why the incest
taboo exists:
 Biology
 Familiarity
 Competition
Endogamy
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Furthering marriage as a sexual access
regulator is the idea of endogamy or
marriage within a particular group or
category of individuals.
Some cultures may specifically adhere to
the idea that one must marry within a
specified group. This group might be
defined by the culture as (in-laws, family,
ethnic, or by religion)
Exogamy
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The opposite of endogamy is the practice of
exogamy or marriage outside of the group.
Again this “group” may vary by the cultural
definition.
Some cultures might practice both
endogamy and exogamy.
 Trobriand Islanders practice marriage
exogamy, however they marriage within
the overall village which would be
considered endogamy.
Distinction Between
Marriage and Mating
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All animals, including humans, mate—some
for life and some not, some with a single
individual and some with several.
Marriage is a culturally recognized right and
is backed by social, political, and ideological
factors that regulate sexual relations and
reproductive rights and obligations. This is
in contrast to mating.
Forms of Marriage
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There are several recognized forms of
marriage worldwide.
 Monogamy
 Polygyny
 Polyandry
 Group marriage
Monogamy
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Monogamy is the most common form of
marriage worldwide in which both partners
have just one spouse.
The only recognized form in North America
and most of Europe.
 Serial monogamy – a marriage form
whereby an individual marries or lives
with a series of partners in succession.
Increasingly common among middle-class
North Americans as individuals divorce and
remarry.
Polygamy
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Polygamy- one individual having multiple
spouses at the same time is not the most
common but the most preferred form of
marriage worldwide. Polygamy is practiced
in about 80-85% of the worlds cultures.
There are two types of polygamy.
 Polygyny- Man having multiple wives
(most common)
 Polyandry- Female having multiple
husbands
Group Marriage or CoMarriage
Rare but occurring in a small
percentage of the world are marriage
practices that do not fit into the other
categories discussed.
 Group Marriage where several men
and women have sexual access to
one another also known as comarriage is common to the Native
American Eskimo.
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Fictive Marriage
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Contrast to group marriage are fictive
marriages marriage by proxy to the
symbols of someone not physically present
to establish the social status of a spouse
and heirs.
Among the Nuer of Sudan a woman may
marry a man who is no longer alive and his
living brother may serve as a “stand-in” and
marry the woman.
Any offspring will be considered sired by the
dead man’s spirit!
Fictive Marriages
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The children will then become the rightful
heirs to land and other possessions.
Not just common to the Nuer this practice is
also found in North America and Europe.
In the Unities States legal weddings can be
performed if one person is on deployment
(with military), incarcerated, or otherwise
physically unable to be present.
Cousin Marriage
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In some societies, cousins are the preferred
marriage partners. Although which cousin
makes a difference.
A parallel cousin is the child of a father’s
brother or a mother’s sister.
In some societies, the preferred spouse for a
man is his father’s brother’s daughter, known as
patrilateral parallel-cousin marriage.
Other societies favor matrilateral cross-cousin
marriage—marriage of a man to his mother’s
brother’s daughter, or a woman to her father’s
sister’s son.
Kinship Diagram
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Anthropologists use diagrams to illustrate
kinship relationships.
Three Arguments Against Same
Sex Marriage
1.) All Marriages are between Men and
Women
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Same-sex marriages have been documented
not only in a number of societies in Africa, but
in other parts of the world as well.
Anthropologists define marriage as
unions between “people” not man and
women because not all marriages are
male and female based.
Arguments Against Same
Sex Marriage
2.) Same-sex unions legitimize gays and lesbians,
whose sexual orientations have been widely
regarded as unnatural.
 Neither cross-cultural studies nor studies of other
animal species suggest that homosexual
behavior is unnatural.
3.) The function of marriage is to produce children.
 Marriage involves economic, political, and legal
considerations.
 It is increasingly common for same-sex partners
to have children through adoption or
reproductive technologies.
Economic Exchange &
Marriage
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Many societies practice differing forms of
economic exchange before or after a
marriage transaction.
These exchanges usually involve the bride,
groom, and the immediately families of
each.
There are three main forms of marriage
exchange:
• Bride Price
• Bride Service
• Dowry
Marriage Exchanges
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A bride-price is a payment of money or
goods from the grooms family to the brides
family. This is usually completed around the
time of the marriage.
Similar to the bride price is the bride
service where the groom is expected to
work for a period of time for the bride’s
family. No compensation is giving.
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A dowry is a payment of a woman’s
inheritance at the time of marriage to her or
her husband. However, the female may not
always remain in control of the dowry, after
marriage it will likely become her husbands
property.
The functions of a dowry are to secure the
female in the event of her husbands death
(widowhood),divorce, or infertility of the
female. They can also be a sign of status.
Divorce
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Similar to marriage, how a divorce is viewed or
accepted can vary in each society. Factors
contributing to divorce can include:
Divorce rates are climbing in numbers around
the world but at the fastest rate in Western
societies.
One theory is that many marriages did not last
longer than 10-20 years due to high mortality
rates prior to 1800. Today with better health
care and preventative medicine people are
living much longer- leading to a possible higher
rate of divorce.
Family
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A family, two or more people related by
blood, marriage, or adoption, may take
many forms.
Families can range from a single parent
with one or more children, to a married
couple or polygamous spouses with
offspring, to several generations of parents
and their children.
The household is the primary residential
unit of economic production, consumption,
inheritance, child rearing, and shelter.
Forms of the Family
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To better understand the differing forms that
families may take it is first important to
distinguish between a conjugal family and a
consanguineal family conjugal family.
A conjugal family or a family established
through marriage can consist of one or
more married men or women and their
offspring.
Forms of the Family
The consanguineal family which is a family
of blood relatives, often consists of related
women, their brothers, and the women’s
offspring.
 Less common form of family.
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Forms of the Family
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There are two more family forms which
consist of the nuclear and the extended.
The nuclear family consists of one or more
parents and dependent offspring, which
may include a stepparent, stepsiblings, and
adopted children. Whereas the extended
family is a collection of nuclear families,
related by ties of blood, that live in one
household.
Other Family Forms
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On the rise in North America and Europe
are nonfamily and nontraditional
households.
Nonfamily households consist of a single
person living alone or with non relatives.
Nontraditional households are also
referred too as single parent households
which could be due to offspring out of
wedlock, divorce, widowhood, separation,
or even an active decision of fertile women
to chose motherhood without a partner.
Household Types in the
United States in 2000
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Prior to viewing the next slide with statistical
data from the US Census Bureau of 2000,
consider these questions first.
 1.) Which household covered thus far
would you consider to be the most
common in the United States?
 2.) Which would be the least common?
 3.) Which, if any, would be non-existent?
Household Types in the
United States in 2000
Household Types in the
United States in 2000
Did everyone have the correct answers? If not why?
1.) Which household covered thus far would you
consider to be the most common in the United
States?
2.) Which would be the least common?
3.) Which, if any, would be non-existent?
 1.) Non-Family or One Person
 2.) Family members without dependent children
or married couples.
 3.) All are present from what the data suggests
although we do not have the exact household
configuration from each.
Residence Patterns
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There are five common residence
patterns that a newly wed couple may
adopt.
Patrilocal
 Matrilocal
 Ambilocal
 Neolocal
 Avunculocal (least common)
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Residence Patterns
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Patrilocal residence
A residence pattern in which a married
couple lives in the locality associated
with the husband’s father’s relatives.
 Common to societies where men are
dominant in the role of subsistence
patterns.
 Bride must often move to husbands
band, tribe, or community.
 Bride price is customary here.
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Residence Patterns
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Matrilocal residence
A residence pattern in which a married
couple lives in the locality associated
with the wife’s relatives.
 Common to horticultural societies.
 Men do not generally move very far
from their native family to join his
bride’s family.
 No compensation is given between
either spouse.
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Residence Patterns
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Ambilocal residence
A pattern in which a married couple
may choose either matrilocal or
patrilocal residence.
 Common among food-foraging groups
where subsistence resources are
limited and it might be a necessity to
travel between families.
 Compensation is not given between
either spouse.
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Residence Patterns
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Neolocal residence
A pattern in which a married couple
may establish their household in a
location apart from either the
husband’s or the wife’s relatives.
 Common to industrial and
postindustrial societies where
independence is favored.
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Residence Patterns
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Avunculocal residence
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Residence of a married couple with
the husband’s mother’s brother.
Marriage, Family &
Households Today.
As previously stated marriage, family,
and household patterns vary greatly
from one culture to the next.
 Blended families are increasing due to
a rise in divorce and re-marry.
 It is easier than ever to adopt children
despite ethnic backgrounds.
 Increase in households consisting of
migrant and temporary workers.
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