Chapter 9
Sex, Marriage and Family
What Will You Learn?
• Discuss how different cultures permit or
restrict sexual relations
• Distinguish several marriage forms and
understand their determinants and functions
• Contrast family and household forms across
cultures
• Explain a range of marital residence patterns
• Weigh the impact of globalization and
reproductive technology on marriage and
family
Control of Sexual Relations
• In societies which lack effective birth control
methods sexual control becomes increasingly
important.
• Every society has rules that govern sexual
access.
• These “rules” can vary depending on the
society. Most all groups of people will have
some regulations on sexual access with
respect to:
– Gender, Age, Marital Status, Social Status, etc.
Critical Thought
• Pictured here is a
Trobriand Islander who
has been face painted
and given adornments by
her father to make her
appear attractive as
possible to obtain a mate.
• How does this compare
to your own society? How
do we attract mates in a
Western culture?
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Marriage and the Regulations of Sexual
Relations
• Marriage has been a long standing tradition
that allows sexual access between partners 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.
Marriage and the Regulations of Sexual
Relations
• A positive aspect of marriage is the restriction
of sexually transmitted diseases (STD). 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.
Marriage
• 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.
Sexual and Marriage Practices among
the Nayar
• The Nayar of India are one of many examples of
sexually permissive cultures.
• Participation in three transactions related to
marriage.
• 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 of their young adult life.
The Nayar: Three Traditional
Transactions
• 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
• 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
• Establishing Child Birth Rights
– 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.
The Nayar: Three Traditional
Transactions
• 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.
Critical Thought
• Nayar Marriage
– No real father figure
or support
– Open sexual behavior
– Several sexual
partners at any one
time
– Sexual acts among
consanguineal kin are
prohibited
• Western Marriage
– Father figure should be present
but may not be/alternatively the
mother
– Open sexual behavior is taboo
for women, more accepted for
men
– Monogamy is preferred and
encouraged
– Bigamy is illegal
– Sexual acts among
consanguineal kin are prohibited
Incest Taboo
• Similar to marriage determining sexual rights
among certain individuals the incest taboo.
– This establishes the prohibition of sexual relations
between specified individuals, usually parent-child
and sibling relations at a minimum.
• Although differing among societies
throughout time, most all societies will have
some prohibition of sexual relationships with
parents and children or siblings.
• The 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 related
relatives (parent, sibling, child).
• Several supporting points on why the incest
taboo exists:
– Biology
– Familiarity
– Competition
Endogamy
• Closely related to prohibitions against incest
are cultural rules against 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
• 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 the marriage within the overall village
which would be considered endogamy.
Distinction Between
Marriage and Mating
• 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 (joining for sexual
purposes only).
Forms of Marriage
• There are several recognized forms of
marriage worldwide.
– Monogamy
– Polygyny
– Polyandry
– Group marriage
Monogamy
• 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.
Some of Serial Monogamy’s Purveyors
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www.usmagazine.com1316445417_kim-kris-article
Critical Thought
• Serial monogamy is an increasingly common
phenomenon among westerners.
• In a small group, brainstorm some of the
possible reasons why this occurs?
Polygamy
• 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
Polygyny
•
•
•
•
Shows wealth of male bridewealth/service
Shows status of male
Increases population
Where women do much pastoral and
subsistence work, it increases labor
• Increases wealth
• If husband dies, women are taken in by
another male or brother
Polyandry
• Fewer than a dozen societies are known to
have practiced polyandry.
• It can limit population growth, which in turns
alleviates increased pressure on resources.
• Marriage of a single woman to brothers
prevents land from being fractured among
sons.
• Where males do a majority of subsistence
labor, it provides more male labor for family.
Group Marriage or Co-Marriage
• 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 co-marriage is common to the
Native American Eskimo.
Fictive Marriage
• Contrast to group marriage are fictive marriages
marriage or ghost 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 (continued)
• 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
• In some societies, cousins are the preferred
marriage partners.
• 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
• Anthropologists use diagrams to illustrate
kinship relationships.
Three Arguments Against Same Sex
Marriage
• All Marriages are between Men and Women
– 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
• 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.
• 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.
Marriage and Economic Exchange
• Many societies practice differing forms of
economic exchange before or after a marriage
transaction.
• These exchanges usually involve the bride,
groom, and the immediate families of each.
• There are three main forms of marriage
exchange:
• Bridewealth (bride price)
• Bride Service
• Dowry
Marriage Exchanges
• A bridewealth 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 given.
Marriage Exchanges
• 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.
Critical Thought
• Although Western cultures do not
traditionally participate in a bridewealth,
service or dowry, exchange is still expected
during marriage.
• How does western culture traditionally dictate
marriage ceremonies, cost, and expectations
of the bride, groom and both families?
Divorce
• Like marriage, divorce in most societies is a
matter of great concern to the couples families
because it impacts not only the individuals
dissolving marital relationship but also offspring,
in-laws, and other relatives.
• 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 and Household
• 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
• To better understand the differing forms that
families may take it is first important to
distinguish between a conjugal family and a
consanguineal 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 (continued)
• 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.
Forms of the Family (continued)
• 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.
The Nuclear Family
Other Family Forms
• 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.
Critical Thought
• Prior to viewing the next slide with statistical
data from the US Census Bureau of 2010,
consider these questions first.
– Which household covered thus far would you
consider to be the most common in the United
States?
– Which would be the least common?
– Which, if any, would be non-existent?
Household Types in the United States
in 2010
Critical Thought
• 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?
– Non-Family or One Person
– Family members without dependent children or
married couples.
– All are present from what the data suggests although
we do not have the exact household configuration
from each.
Residence Patterns
• There are four common residence patterns
that a newly wed couple may adopt.
– Patrilocal
– Matrilocal
– Neolocal
– Ambilocal
Residence Patterns (continued)
• 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.
– Bridewealth is customary here.
Residence Patterns (continued)
• 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 the bride’s family.
– No compensation is given between either spouse.
Residence Patterns (continued)
• 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.
Residence Patterns (continued)
• 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.
Marriage, Family & Households in Our
Globalized World
• Blended families are increasing due to a rise in
divorce and re-marry.
• It is easier than ever to adopt children despite
ethnic backgrounds.
• New Reproductive Technologies (NRT’s)
include In-Vitro (IVF)
• Increase in households consisting of migrant
and temporary workers.
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