Kinship and Domestic Life
(Chapter 6)
The BIG Questions
How do cultures create kinship ties through descent,
sharing, and marriage?
What is a household and what do anthropologists study
about household life?
How are kinship and households changing?
What is Kinship Cross-Culturally?
What is kinship?
Kinship is a sense of being related to another person or persons
A family is a group of people who consider themselves related through kinship
(can be by blood, marriage, or adoption)
Has various rules and/or laws determining who is kin and who is not,
what to call various kin, how they behave towards other kin, etc.
A kinship system is the combination of rules about who are kin and the
expected behavior of kin
Kinship links with all aspects of culture
Kinship is often linked with modes of production and reproduction, as well as
various symbols and beliefs
What is the importance of kinship?
Is a main way that social life is organized in all cultures
The kinship group has a variety of functions…
Ensures the continuity of the group by arranging/supporting
marriages
Strives to maintain social order by setting moral rules and punishing
offenders
Provides for the basic needs of members by regulating production,
consumption, and distribution
Ideally provides psychological support
What is the importance of kinship?
Especially in societies where other institutions such as centralized
government, a professional military, or financial banks are absent or
do not function effectively, in such societies individuals must depend
on a wide network of kin for support and protection
Need kin to secure food, shelter, and other necessities
Depicting Kinship
Kinship diagram
A schematic way of presenting the kinship relationships of a
particular individual
Starts with a particular individual (ego)
Genealogy
A schematic way of presenting a family tree, constructed by
beginning with the earliest ancestors that can be traced, then working
down to the present
Does not begin with ego
Kinship Relationships
Three Ways of Being Kin
Descent
Sharing
Marriage
Descent
Descent is the tracing of kinship relationships through parentage
Bilateral descent system
A child is recognized as being related by descent to both parents
Most associated with foraging and industrialism/informatics modes of production
Unilineal descent system
Recognizes descent through only one parent, either the father (patrilineal) or
the mother (matrilineal)
Most common form of descent (60 percent of the world’s cultures)
Most associated with pastoralism, horticulture, and agricultural modes of production
Descent
Which descent system do we have in the U.S.?
Bilateral descent system or Unilineal descent system
Descent
Which descent system do we have in the U.S.?
Bilateral descent system
Socially related to both our parents
Trace ancestry through both our parents
Some aspects of a patrilineal system
Women taking on husband’s last name when they marry
Children receiving father’s last name
Father giving away daughter at the wedding
Some aspects of a matrilineal system
High divorce rates or female-headed households
Children often live with mother, take on mother’s last name
Bilateral Descent
Traces kinship from both parents equally to the child
Socially related to both the mother and father
Found in about 40 percent of the world’s cultures
Most common among foraging societies and industrial/informatics
societies
Both rely on a flexible gender division of labor in which both males and females
contribute to production and exchange relatively equally
Small family units in these environments are adaptive and more mobile – more
opportunities for surviving and making a living
U.S.
Ju/’hoansi
Inuit/Eskimo
Patrilineal Descent
Kinship is traced through the male line
Socially related to father
Found among 45 percent of all cultures
Common in a variety of different modes of production
Most common in areas where men play the primary role in
the production of food and other resources
Men are the primary decision makers and have the most
power
Property is passed down through the male line
Matrilineal Descent
Kinship is traced through the female line
Socially related to mother
Found among 15 percent of all cultures
Exists in a variety of modes of production but is most
commonly found in horticultural societies in which females
play a large role in the production and distribution of food
and other resources
Often associated with public leadership positions for women
Example of a matrilineal culture: the
Minangkabau of Indonesia
Residence Rules
Refer to where a couple moves to after they decide to cohabit or get
married
Patrilocal
Matrilocal
Neolocal
Ambilocal or Bilocal
Often follows the prevailing direction of descent rules, but not always
Ashanti – matrilineal and patrilocal
Have political, economic, and social implications
Residence Rules
Patrilocal – marital residence with or near the husband’s
family
Often occurs in patrilineal societies
Patrilineal descent and patrilocal residence promote the
development of cohesive male-focused lineages that are associated
with frequent local warfare, which requires the presence of a force of
fighting men on the home front
Often occurs in societies where men own/control land and resources
Residence Rules
Matrilocal – martial residence with or near the wife’s family
Often occurs in matrilineal societies
Matrilineal descent and matrilocal residence is often found among groups that
engage in long-distance warfare
Strong female household bonds maintain the domestic scene while the men are
absent on military campaigns (e.g. precolonial Iroquois of upstate New York)
Often occurs in societies where women own/control land and
resources
Residence Rules
Neolocal
Marital residence in a place different from either the bride’s or
groom’s family
Common in Western industrialized society
Small family units in these environments are adaptive and more mobile – more
opportunities for surviving and making a living
Residence Rules
Ambilocal or bilocal
Marital residence in a place near either the bride’s or groom’s family
Get to choose which side of the family to live near
Common in foraging societies
Genders have relatively equal power
More adaptive depending on the available environmental resources
Kin through Sharing
Many cultures emphasize kinship ties based on acts of
sharing and support
May be either informal or formally certified
Godparents
Adoption
Fostering a child
Food sharing
Rice-sharing in Malaysia – people who eat cooked rice together may be viewed as kin although
they are not blood relatives
Marriage - Definition
Marriage exists in all cultures, though it may take different
forms and serve different functions.
Marriage is defined as a more or less stable union, usually
between two people, who may be, but are not necessarily,
co-residential, sexually involved with each other, and
procreative with each other.
Some Functions of Marriage
To form alliances between or within different groups or
families
Establish social and economic contracts
To rear children
To define social identity of children
To regulate sexual activity
Marriage Preferences and Rules
All cultures have preferences about whom one should and should
not marry and with whom one should and should not have sexual
intercourse
Some preferences are informal and implicit
Other preferences are formal and explicit
All cultures have some sort of rules of exclusion or incest taboo - a
rule prohibiting marriage or sexual intercourse between close
relatives
Who is defined as a “close” relative differs across cultures
Universal – taboo against marriage or sexual relationships between parents and
children
Nearly universal – taboo against marriage and sexual relationships between
brothers and sisters
Marriage Preferences
Also preferences about marrying within or outside of a particular
group
Endogamy – marriage within a particular group
e.g. marrying someone within your social class
e.g. marrying someone within your religion
e.g. marrying someone within your village
e.g. marrying someone within your kin
Cross-cousin marriage
Parallel-cousin marriage
Exogamy – marriage outside a defined group
e.g. marrying someone outside your village
e.g. marrying someone outside your social class
A society that practices exogamy at one level may practice endogamy at
another.
Two Forms of Cousin Marriage
Marriage Preferences
What are some factors involved in spouse selection?
What characteristics would your ideal spouse have?
How do you think your family’s idea of an ideal spouse for you
would compare/contrast with your idea of the ideal spouse?
Would you be open to the idea of your family arranging a marriage for you?
Why or why not?
How are these ideas influenced by your culture?
Marriage Preferences
Preferences
Features such as age, height, looks, wealth, education
Romantic love in some cultures
& Many others considerations!!
Marriage Gifts
Most marriages are accompanied by exchanges of goods or
services between the partners, members of their families, and friends
Dowry – transfer of goods and sometimes money from the bride’s side of the
family to the new married couple for their use
Brideprice (bridewealth) – transfer of goods or money from the groom’s family
to the bride’s family
Bride-service – a type of brideprice which includes the transfer of labor from
the groom to his parents-in-law for a designated time period
Can get mixtures of these – U.S. groom’s family traditionally pays for the
rehearsal dinner and bride’s family pays for the wedding
Forms of Marriage
Monogamy – a marriage between two people
Heterosexual monogamy is the most common form of marriage
cross-culturally
In many countries it is the only legal form of marriage
Polygamy – a marriage involving multiple spouses
A pattern allowed in many cultures
Are two forms of polygamy…
Polygyny – marriage of one man with more than one woman
Polyandry – marriage of one woman with more than one man
Forms of Marriage
What are some drawbacks and advantages of polygamy?
Households
A household is a person or persons who occupy a shared living
space and who may or may not be related by kinship
Can be made up of families but not always
a group of friends who live in the same apartment make up a household, though they are not kin
a single person living alone can also be a household
Residential unit that carries out economic production and consumption, coordinates work, inheritance, child rearing, provision of shelter
Humans are dependent on group living for survival
Household is often the first place we turn to have our physical, economic, social, and
psychological needs fulfilled
Household Types
Nuclear household
Domestic group that contains one adult couple, with or without
children
Most characteristic of the foraging and industrial/informatics mode of
production
Reflects need for spatial mobility and flexibility in both modes of production
Extended household
Domestic group that contains more than one adult married couple
Constitute a substantial proportion of households in horticultural, pastoralist, and
agricultural economies
Household Types
Single-person or single-parent household
Single-person household
One person living alone
Single-parent household
One person living with his/her children
Household Types
What are some advantages and drawbacks of each
household type?
Intrahousehold Dynamics
Spouse/partner relationships
Marital satisfaction differs in love matches and arranged marriages
Sibling relationships
Domestic violence
Found in most but not all cultures and in differing degrees
More common where men control wealth and where woman have
less power
Changing Kinship and Household Dynamics
Change in descent
Decline of matrilineal descent due to colonialism and globalization
Males were named as household heads, and land was registered in their names
Changing Kinship and Household Dynamics
Change in marriage
Decrease in arranged marriages and increases in elopements
Spread of globalization and western ideas of finding “the one” by yourself and falling in love and
living happily ever after
Age at time of first marriage is increasing
Women getting more education, both men and women wanting to save and be more financially
stable before marriage
Increasing number of marriages between people of different nations and
ethnicities
Globalization and technological advances - Ease of communication and travel across long
distances
Changing Kinship and Household Dynamics
Change in marriage
Marriage crises
Situations in which people who want to get married cannot do so for one reason
or another
Often economic reasons
Cannot afford to pay a culturally appropriate bride-price
Unequal ratio of men to women
Increasing desire for the ideal, western-like, fairy tale wedding
ceremonies
Brought about by globalization
Changing Kinship and Household Dynamics
Changing households
Possibility for decline in extended families in industrializing areas
Possibility for increase in the nuclear family, which is more flexible/mobile
Less nuclear families in the U.S. and increased diversity in households forms
In 1950, 60% of U.S. households were nuclear families with dependent children
Today only 24% of U.S. households are nuclear families with dependent children
Rise in unmarried couples living together
Rise in households with children living with grandparents or other relatives
Rise in single-family households
Rise in blended families (like the Brady Bunch)
Changing Kinship and Household Dynamics
Changing households
International migration
Increasing intra-household conflict with international migration
Tension between children learning the new culture and adults retaining the ancestral culture
Or one household member lives and works abroad temporarily and semipermanently (often a male)
Sends money back home (often to a wife and children)
The BIG Questions Revisited
How do cultures create kinship ties through descent,
sharing, and marriage?
What is a household and what do anthropologists study
about household life?
How are kinship and households changing?