Chapter 9
Marriage and the Family

What We Will Learn
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Is the family found in all cultures?
What functions do family and marriage systems perform?
Why do all societies have incest taboos?
What economic considerations are associated with marriage in the world’s contemporary societies?

Definition of Family
• Social unit characterized by:
• economic cooperation
• management of reproduction
• child rearing
• common residence.
• a male and female adult who maintain a socially approved sexual relationship

Marriage Defined
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Customs formalizing the relationship between male and female adults within the family.
Regulates the sexual and economic rights and obligations between a married couple.
Usually involves an explicit contract or understanding and is entered into with the assumption that it will be permanent.

Same Sex Marriage
• The legality of same sex marriage remains a contentious issue in the United States.

Social Functions of Marriage
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Creates relationships between men and women that regulate mating and reproduction.
Provides a mechanism for regulating the sexual division of labor.
Creates a set of family relationships that provides for the material, educational, and emotional needs of children.

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Question
________ is a socially approved union between a man and woman that regulates the sexual and economic rights and obligations between them.
a) b)
Reciprocity
Pair bonding c) d)
Marriage
Mating

Answer: c
• Marriage is a socially approved union between a man and woman that regulates the sexual and economic rights and obligations between them.

The Family
• The family, such as this one in Japan, provides a structured environment that supports and meets the needs of children.

Postpartum Sex Taboo
• A husband and wife abstaining from any sexual activity for a period of time after the birth of a child.

Incest Taboos: Theories
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Natural Aversion - there is a natural aversion to sexual intercourse among those who have grown up together.
Inbreeding - mating between close kin produces a higher incidence of genetic defects.

Incest Taboos: Theories
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Family Disruption – mating between family members would create intense jealousies.
Expanding Social Alliances - marrying outside the family creates a wider network of interfamily alliances.

Restrictions on Marriage
Partners
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Cultures restrict choice of marriage partners through:
Exogamy
Endogamy
Arranged marriages
Preferential cousin marriage
Levirate and sororate

Restrictions on Marriage
Partners
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Exogamy
• A rule requiring marriage outside of one’s own social or kinship group.
Endogamy
• A rule requiring marriage within a specified social or kinship group.

Marrying Cousins
• Charles Darwin
(1809 –1882), the author of Origin of
Species, had ten children with his wife, who was also his first cousin.

Interracial Marriage
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At one time in the United
States, interracial marriage was against the law.
Although these laws no longer exist, the majority of Blacks and Whites in the United States continue to practice racial endogamy.

Arranged Marriage
• Any marriage in which the selection of the spouse is outside the control of the bride and groom.

Preferential Cousin Marriage
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A preferred form of marriage between either parallel or cross cousins.
Cross cousins
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Children of one’s mother’s brother or father’s sister.
Parallel cousins
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Children of one’s mother’s sister or father’s brother.

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Question
The ________ addresses the prohibition on mating with certain categories of relatives.
a) b) postpartum sex taboo ingestion taboo c) d) marriage laws incest taboo

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Answer: d
The incest taboo addresses the prohibition on mating with certain categories of relatives.

Levirate and Sororate
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Levirate
• The practice of a man marrying the widow of a deceased brother.
Sororate
• The practice of a woman marrying the husband of her deceased sister.

Number of Spouses
Monogamy
Polygyny
Polyandry
Marriage of one man to one woman.
Marriage of a man to two or more women.
Marriage of a woman to two or more men.

Polygyny
• A man from the
Rashaida Tribe in
Eritrea travels by camel while his three wives walk.

Polygyny
• Tom Green, a 21st century polygynist from
Utah, posing with his five wives and some of his twenty-nine children.

Marriage: Transfer of Rights
• Marriage often includes the transfer of certain rights between the marrying parties:
• Rights of sexual access.
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Legal rights to children.
Rights of spouses to each other’s economic goods and services.

Economic Transactions of
Marriage
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Bridewealth
Bride service
Dowry
Reciprocal exchange

Bridewealth
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Compensation given upon marriage by the family of the groom to the family of the bride.
Approximately 46% of all societies give substantial bridewealth payment as part of the marriage process.
Bridewealth is most widely found in Africa, where it is estimated that 82% of societies require the payment of bridewealth.

Marriage Transactions
• Among the Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania, cows are used as the medium of exchange in marriage transactions.

Bride Service
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Men give labor to the bride’s family in exchange for a wife.
He often moves in with his bride’s family, works or hunts for them, and serves a probationary period of several weeks to several years.
Found in approximately 14% of societies.

Dowry
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Transfer of goods or money from bride’s family to the groom or the groom’s family.
Practiced in less than 3% of societies.
If the marriage ended in divorce, the woman was entitled to take the dowry with her.

Dowry
• Family members of a
Kazakh bride-to-be carry her dowry on camels in Xinjiang,
China.

Reciprocal Exchange
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Involves the roughly equal exchange of gifts between the families of both the bride and the groom.
Found in approximately 6% of the societies listed in Murdock’s Ethnographic
Atlas, most prominently in the Pacific region and among traditional Native
Americans.

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Question
4. Unlike societies with considerable material wealth, small-scale societies are more likely to offer ________ to the woman's family.
a) b) bride service reciprocal exchange c) d)
Brideprice a dowry

Answer: a
• Unlike societies with considerable material wealth, small-scale societies are more likely to offer bride service to the woman's family.

Divorce
• Like approximately half of all marriages in the United States, the marriage of Brad
Pitt and Jennifer
Aniston ended in divorce.

Divorce Across Cultures
• Divorce arrangements found in the many cultures of the world vary widely.
• Organizations such as the Roman
Catholic Church prohibit divorce outright.
• A Hopi woman from Arizona could divorce her husband easily by simply putting his belongings outside the door.

Divorce Rates in the United
States, 1950 to 2000
Year
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
Divorce Rate/1000
Population
2.6
2.2
3.5
5.2
4.7
4.2

Factors in the Rising U.S.
Divorce Rate
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Industrialization and urbanization have undermined traditional functions of the family.
Less time spent with family members and less willingness to make sacrifices for the good of the family.
Western culture emphasizes romantic love as the basis for marriage.
Less stigma attached to divorce than in the past.

Marriage Residence Patterns
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Patrilocal (69%)
• Couple lives with or near relatives of the husband’s father.
Matrilocal (13%)
• Couple lives with or near the relatives of the wife.

Marriage Residence Patterns
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Avunculocal (4%)
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Couple lives with or near the husband’s mother’s brother.
Ambilocal (9%)
• Couple has a choice of living with relatives of the wife or the husband.
Neolocal (5%)
• Couple forms independent residence away from relatives.

Family Structures
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Nuclear family – Comprises wife, husband, and children
Extended family – A larger social unit, comprising relatives from three or more generations.

Nuclear Family
• What type of residence pattern is followed by this North
American nuclear family?

Extended Family
• An extended family gathering in Henan
Province, China.

Marital Status of U.S.
Population: 1980 –1999
Never
Married
Married
1980
20.3
65.5
1990
22.2
61.9
1995
22.9
60.9
Widowed
Divorced
8.0
6.2
7.6
8.3
7.0
9.2
1999
23.9
59.5
6.7
9.9