th
INTRODUCTION
Marriage is regarded as a cultural construct and defined from an inclusive, global perspective, particularly with respect to social structure and the environment. The many different forms existing around the world are discussed and linked to underlying economic and legal practices, particularly with respect to notions of property and inheritance.
Nontraditional forms of marriage are becoming increasingly common. This chapter explores such diverse forms as ghost marriages, women unions, and arranged marriages.
Human sexuality has only become a focus for anthropologists in the last few years, largely due to the sensitive nature of the topic and because the topic was a professional taboo until recently. The incest taboo is explored, and a cross-cultural overview of homosexuality is provided.
STUDENTS SHOULD LEARN…
1. There are a variety of marriage patterns around the world; the most common form is monogamy. In all instances, marriage establishes sexual access between partners. Officially recognized marriage unions are connected to social, legal, and economic forces in the culture.
2. Anthropologists must weigh in on such practices as “honour killing” and “female circumcision,” which violate what we consider to be universal human rights and our own Canadian values. Such practices have been carried out right here in our own country and must not be tolerated.
3. The study of human sexuality by anthropologists is a relatively recent phenomenon. Anthropologists document the vast cultural variations in perception of human sexuality and the meanings associated with them.
4. There is a near universal incest taboo that forbids sexual relations between parents and their children. Most cultures forbid relations between siblings, too.
KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS
1. Homosexuality—Sexual attraction to (or sexual relations with) persons of the same sex. (page 151)
2. Sexual orientation—The biological and psychological makeup of an individual. (page 151)

3. Sexual identity—The identity a person takes based on his or her sexual preference. (page 151)
4. Marriage—The social institution under which a man and woman, or partners of the same gender, live as husband and wife by legal commitments and establish a claim to sexual access to each another. (page 154)
5. Affinal kin—Relatives by marriage. (page 155)
6. Conjugal bond—The bond between a man and a woman who are married. (page 155)
7. Consanguineal kin—Relatives by birth—that is, “blood” relatives. (page 155)
8. Incest taboo—The prohibition of sexual relations between specified individuals, usually parent–child and intersibling relations at a minimum. (page 155)
9. Female circumcision—The removal of all or part of a female’s genitalia for religious, traditional, or socioeconomic reasons. (page 157)
10. Instinct explanation—Sometimes known as “familiarity breeds contempt,” this explanation suggests that long-term association with family members discourages sexual interest. (page 157)
11. Psychoanalytical explanation—Incest taboos are an attempt by offspring to repress their sexual feelings toward their parents of the opposite gender. (page 157)
12. Genetic explanation—Inbreeding is forbidden because cultural groups recognize the potential for impaired offspring. (page 157)
13. Social explanation—Sometimes known as the “peace in the family” theory, this explanation suggests that competition over mates would interfere with normal family functions, such as acquiring adequate food resources. (page 158)
14. Endogamy—Marriage within a particular group or category of individuals. (page 158)
15. Exogamy—Marriage outside the group. (page 159
16. Cooperation explanation—Forcing people outside their familial unit. (page 159)
17. Monogamy—Marriage in which an individual has one spouse. (page 161)
18. Polygyny—The marriage custom in which a man has two or more wives simultaneously; a form of polygamy. (page 161)
19. Polyandry—The marriage of one woman to two or more men simultaneously. (page 163)
20. Group marriage—Marriage in which several men and women have sexual access to one another.
(page 164)

21. Levirate—The marriage custom whereby a widow marries a brother of her dead husband. (page
164)
22. Sororate—The marriage custom whereby a widower marries his dead wife’s sister. (page 164)
23. Serial monogamy—A marriage form in which a man or a woman marries or lives with a series of partners in succession. (page 164)
24. Patrilateral parallel-cousin marriage—Marriage of the children of two brothers. (page 165)
25. Matrilateral cross-cousin marriage—Marriage of a woman to her father’s sister’s son or of a man to his mother’s brother’s daughter (her cross-cousin on the paternal side, his cross-cousin on the maternal side). (page 167)
26. Patrilateral cross-cousin marriage—Marriage of a man to his father’s sister’s daughter. (page 167)
27. Bride-price—Compensation the groom or his family pays to the bride’s family on marriage. (page
168)
28. Bride service—A designated period after marriage when the groom works for the bride’s family.
(page 168)
29. Dowry—Payment of a woman’s inheritance at the time of her marriage, either to her or to her husband. (page 168)
INTRODUCTION
Living in a social group is a basic human need. Families are the core social groups for couples with and without children and for single parents with children. The traditional form of family in Canada is the nuclear family. There are many other forms of family in the world. Who then nurtures the children is a factor of social, historical, and ecological circumstances.
Household refers to the residential unit and all the members who live there. In most cases, it is the family that lives in a household. Problems may arise from isolation from kin, juggling work and parenting, and the general stresses of trying to provide economically for the household members.

STUDENTS SHOULD LEARN…
1. The Western assumption that all households are built around conjugal relationships is ethnocentric.
2. There are various problems engendered by different kinds of living arrangements. Different family patterns produce different internal tensions.
3. The variations in postmarital residence affect the way a household is made up.
KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS
1. Family—A married or common law couple with or without children, or a lone parent with dependent children. May sometimes include non-kin members. (page 174)
2. Culture-bound—The interpretation of other practices and beliefs from the standpoint of one’s own culture. A culture-bound interpretation can be biased and unwilling to accept the validity of alternative phenomena. (page 174)
3. Consanguine family—A family unit consisting of a woman, her dependent offspring, and the woman’s brothers. (page 174)
4. Conjugal family—A family consisting of two or more married or common law people, including same-sex people, with their dependent children. (page 174)
5. Nuclear family—A married or common law couple and their dependent children. (page 174)
6. Polygynous family—A family consisting of a man and his multiple wives, along with their dependent children. (page 174)
7. Polyandrous family—A family consisting of a woman and her multiple husbands, along with their dependent children. (page 175)
8. Household—The basic residential unit where economic production, consumption, inheritance, childrearing, and shelter are organized and implemented; may or may not be synonymous with family. (page 181)
9. Extended family—A collection of nuclear families, related by ties of blood, that live together in one household. (page 183)
10. Patrilocal residence—A pattern in which a married couple lives in the locality associated with the husband’s father’s relatives. (page 184)
11. Matrilocal residence—A pattern in which a married couple lives in the locality associated with the wife’s relatives. (page 184)

12. Ambilocal residence—A pattern in which a married couple may choose either matrilocal or patrilocal residence. (page 185)
13. Neolocal residence—A pattern in which a married couple establishes its household in a location apart from either the husband’s or the wife’s relatives. (page 185)
14. Avunculocal residence—A pattern in which a married couple lives with the husband’s mother’s brother. (page 186)
15. Sororal polygyny—A man marries several women who are sisters. (page 186)
16. Fraternal polyandry—A woman marries several men who are brothers. (page 187)
INTRODUCTION
Cultures define family membership on the basis of the kinship system they use. The descent group is the most common form of kinship structure whereby family members are traced from a common ancestor.
Most descent systems trace group membership through some variation of the male or female line.
These descent systems are inextricably connected to the degree in which women participate in productive work in their cultures.
Descent groups function to provide aid and security to their members. They transmit religious traditions and group solidarity by worship of a common ancestor. Descent groups determine marriageable partners, which in turn work to forge alliances between groups.
The greater the number of people in an extended family group, the greater the organizational system used. Canadians of European background use the Eskimo system of descent, which emphasizes the nuclear family and combines all other relatives into a few general categories. Some descent systems, however, are very complex and elaborate.
Anthropologists use a variety of different techniques to calculate the kinship system in a culture: archaeological excavations, ethnographic research, and cross-cultural analyses. Currently, DNA extraction is also being used to trace the descent of ancient individuals.
STUDENTS SHOULD LEARN…
1. The relatives who surround us strongly influence the way we think about the world, and the types of beliefs, values, and status we hold.

2. All cultures have social rules and patterns that establish relatedness; these forms show a great deal of variation globally.
3. Kinship systems are important to anthropologists because they are important to the people we study.
4. Kinship, descent, and marriage are the building blocks of the social system, linking individuals and groups together.
KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS
1. Kinship—The people we are related to through blood (consanguineal) and marriage (affinal). (page
194)
2. Fictive kinship—Friends not biologically related but considered part of a kin group. (page 195)
3. Descent group—Any publicly recognized social entity requiring lineal descent from a particular real or mythical ancestor for membership. (page 196)
4. Unilineal descent—Descent that establishes group membership exclusively through either the mother’s or the father’s line. (page 196)
5. Matrilineal descent—Descent traced exclusively through one’s mother’s grandmother’s line, etc., to establish group membership. (page 196)
6. Patrilineal descent—Descent traced exclusively through one’s father’s grandfather’s line, etc., to establish group membership. (page 196)
7. Double descent—A system tracing descent matrilineally for some purposes and patrilineally for others. (page 201)
8. Ambilineal descent—Descent in which the individual may affiliate with either the mother’s or the father’s descent group. (page 202)
9. Lineage—A corporate descent group whose members trace their genealogical links to a common ancestor. (page 202)
10. Fission—The splitting of a descent group into two or more new descent groups. (page 203)
11. Clan—A noncorporate descent group whose members claim descent from a common ancestor without actually knowing the genealogical links to that ancestor. (page 203)
12. Totemism—The belief that people are related to particular animals, plants, or natural objects by virtue of descent from common ancestral spirits. (page 203)

13. Moiety—Each group that results from a division of a society into two halves on the basis of descent.
(page 204)
14. Kindred—A group of consanguineal kin linked by their relationship to one living individual; includes both maternal and paternal kin. (page 204)
15. Eskimo system—A system of kinship terminology, also called the lineal system, that emphasizes the nuclear family by specifically distinguishing mother, father, brother, and sister, while lumping together all other relatives into broad categories such as uncle, aunt, and cousin. (page 209)
16. Hawaiian system—Kinship reckoning in which all relatives of the same sex and generation are referred to by the same term. (page 209)
17. Iroquois system—Kinship terminology wherein a father and father’s brother are given a single term, as are a mother and mother’s sister, but a father’s sister and mother’s brother are given separate terms. Parallel cousins are classified with brothers and sisters, while cross-cousins are classified separately but (unlike in Crow and Omaha kinship) are not equated with relatives of some other generation. (page 210)
18. Crow system—Kinship classification usually associated with matrilineal descent in which a father’s sister and father’s sister’s daughter are called by the same term, a mother and mother’s sister are merged under another, and a father and father’s brother are given a third. Parallel cousins are equated with brothers and sisters. (page 211)
19. Omaha system—The patrilineal equivalent of the Crow system; the mother’s patrilineal kin are equated across generations. (page 212)
20. Sudanese or descriptive system—The system of kinship terminology whereby a father, father’s brother, and mother’s brother are distinguished from one another, as are a mother, mother’s sister, and father’s sister; cross and parallel cousins are distinguished from one another as well as from siblings. (page 212)
1.
Define and explain the function of the levirate and the sororate.
2.
Define polyandry and discuss reasons for its occurrence and rarity.
3.
List and define the four most common patterns of residence practiced by couples after they marry.
4.
Describe, in words that a non-specialist could understand, one bilateral and one unilineal system of kinship terminology.

5.
Discuss the correlation between kinship terminology and the roles people take in families.
6.
Define and distinguish among bride price, bride service and dowery. Give an ethnographic example of each.