Anthropology 310Family, Kin and Community
Summer Session 3 – 2008
Instructor
• Christa Amouroux
Hours: T&TH 9:00-1 pm.
• Amouroux@sfsu.edu
• Office: HSS 111
• Office Hours: 12:30-1:15 Wed or by
appointment.
“Anthropologists use relationships
to uncover relationships”
Marilyn Strathern 2005
Key Questions
• What has happened to kinship studies since
1970?
• How do we rethink fundamental questions and
assumptions about familial connection?
• What new possibilities and critical insights are
offered by reproductive technologies?
• What are the future of kinship studies and
family forms?
Contemporary US Families
• In 2008, less than half of the children in the
United States will spend their entire childhood
residing with both of their biological parents.
• Divorce and remarriage, gay or lesbian
parenting partnerships, single-parent families,
adoptive and foster families are all forms of
modern family life.
• Reproductive technologies blur the conception
of the nuclear-biological family even further with
donor insemination, surrogacy and in-vitro
fertilization becoming more commonplace.
Attendance
• Three or more absences will result in failing or
being dropped from the class.
• Late arrival and early departure will also impact
your grade significantly.
• Please do not sign-up for this course unless you
intend to read all the materials, participate in
discussion and attend all class meetings.
Weekly Homework
• During most class sessions you will bring a newspaper
article, clipping from a magazine or other written media
piece which relates to the readings assignment for the
class session.
• Be prepared to discuss how your article relates to the
current class readings.
• This easy assignment will help you make connections
with what you are learning in class and the world around
you. This assignment will also help you construct your
final paper as that we will
• discuss how to critically analyze concepts.
Quizzes
• 4 quizzes will be given
• Cover the week’s readings
• Make-up quizzes will not be given.
Mid Term
• 2 part mid-term: In-class section and a take home section available.
•
• In-Class Portion in class 7/31
•
• The midterm will test your knowledge of the terms and ideas covered in class, films
and in the readings. It is vital to keep notes on the terminology and main concepts
covered in this course in order to successfully complete the in-class portion of the
exam.
•
• Take Home Portion due 8/5
•
• You will use two previously assigned readings for the take-home. The questions will
ask you to place these readings in conversation with each other, and to summarize
the main points and take a critical position. The take-home is 5-6 pages in length.
•
Final Paper
• Final paper 100 points- due in class on August
14, 7-8 pages
• Double-spaced, consisting of an analysis of
reproductive technologies.
• Please use the course readings, films and notes
in your analysis.
Final Paper Guidelines
• Locate media coverage on one new reproductive technology. You
can use a case that is being or has been covered in the media or a
story covered in the past five years.
• Time, Newsweek and LEXIS/NEXIS, advertisements from the
internet, websites for sperm banks or egg donors.
• Your paper should focus on one issue such as prenatal testing,
genetic screening, invitro-fertilization, surrogacy, or sex selection
technology.
• SIGN-UP FOR A TOPIC BY WEEK 2
• The summer session is short, so make sure to keep notes on how the
assigned readings relate to your topic. It is essential that you use
readings from the class in your analysis of the topic.
Texts
•
•
•
•
Janet Carsten (2004) After Kinship
Gerald Mallon (2004) Gay Men Choosing
Parenthood
Articles are available at
http://amouroux.wordpress.com/family-kincommunity-anthropology-310/
Copies are also available in SCI 3rd Fl,
Anthropology Department
Course Objectives
• Develop a critical awareness of the meaning of
the family and kinship as historically specific
and socially constructed.
• Develop critical reading and writing skills that
allow for a nuanced understanding of issues
related to the family, kinship and community.
• Develop an understanding of a cross-cultural
and transnational perspective of kinship,
community and family.
Introduction to Kinship
A Short History
What is Kinship?
• “Kinship and marriage are about the basic facts
of life. They are about 'birth, and conception,
and death', the eternal round that seemed to
depress the poet but which excites, among
others, the anthropologist. [...] Man is an
animal, but he puts the basic facts of life to work
for himself in ways that no other animal does or
can” (Fox, 1996 [1967]: 27).
One Definition: Blood and Law
• Kinship is the recognition of a relationship
between persons based on descent or marriage.
If the relationship between one person and
another is considered by them to involve
descent, the two are consanguines ("blood")
relatives. If the relationship has been established
through marriage, it is affinal. (Stone, 1997: 5).
One Definition: Relationships
• The socially recognized relationship between
people in a culture who are or are held to be
biologically related or who are given the status of
relatives by marriage, adoption, or other ritual.
• Kinship is the broad-ranging term for all the
relationships that people are born into or create
later in life and that are considered binding in
the eyes of their society.
Kinship: Network
• Kinship is a system of social relationships that
are expressed in a biological idiom, using terms
like "mother", "son," and so on.
• It is best visualized as a mass of networks of
relatedness, not two of which are identical, that
radiate from each individual. Kinship is the basic
organizing principle in small-scale societies like
those of the Aborigines and provides a model for
interpersonal behavior (Tonkinson, 1991:57).
Working Definition: Kinship
• Kinship encompasses the norms, roles,
institutions and cognitive processes referring to
all the social relationships that people are born
into or create later in life, and that are expressed
through, but not limited to, a biological idiom.
Cross Cultural Kinship
• According to anthropologists, many cultures
around the world use the word "family"
differently.
• To individuals in the United States there exists
the concept of a nuclear family where a mother,
father, and their children reside together while
others consider all those people biologically
related as "family."
Cross Cultural Kinship
• However, this is not cross-culturally valid.
• Cultures such as the Fore and the Runa
consider people who are not biologically
related to themselves as members of their
family.
• Examples of these “fictive kin” are
godparents or trading partners.
Kinship Charts
•
•
•
•
•
Triangle represents a man
O represents a woman
= denotes marriage
Line represents connection between persons
Triangle or circle with a diagonal line through it
represents that the individual is dead
• A diagonal line through the equal sign
represents divorce.
Kinship Symbols
Female
Sibling link
Male
Adopted
Either sex
Deceased
EGO
Cohabitation
=
Marriage
Divorce
=
M or Mo = Mother
F or Fa = Father
Z or Si = Sister
B or Br = Brother
D or Da = Daughter
S or So = Son
W = Wife
H = Husband
Co = Cousin
P or Pa = Parent
Ch = Child
Sib = Sibling
Sexual relationship
After Kinship
Janet Carsten
Janet Carsten: After Kinship
• What is the future of kinship studies?
• How do new reproductive technologies impact
our understanding of family, personhood and
marriage?
• What “new” familial arrangements are
emerging?
• How can anthropologists understand these
changes?
Future of Kinship Studies
• Rethink the biological family
• Consider new family forms
• Rethink the connections between kin, family and
community.
• How is childhood being changed?
• What are the new definitions of parents?
• Is marriage integral to family? Why?
Janet Carsten: After Kinship
• Story of Stephen Blood and his wife’s desire to
use his semen to conceive a child.
• “I think I have the most right of anybody to my
husband’s sperm and I desperately want this
baby” Diane Blood
• Rabbinic debates in Israel. What is the
relationship between a sperm donor and a child?
• What is the status of a child conceived this way?
• Sperm donors must be taken from non-Jewish
men.
Janet Carsten: After Kinship
• Non-Jewish sperm does not affect the Jewish
identity of the child since Jewishness in
inherited from the mother.
• Erasure of the father/sperm donor
• Connection between family and the state
Janet Carsten: After Kinship
• Anna: “I’m on a high. I’d just been out and I’d
bought myself a new jumper. I thought I’ll wear
my trouser suit and this new jumper to meet her.
I had it all planned out- I didn’t want to look too
dressy; I didn’t want to look too scruffy. I just
wanted to look in-between, because I had this
idea that she was quite poor…”
Three vignettes
•
These three stories are used by Carsten to
demonstrate the new forms of kinship in the
21st century:
1. Intense emotional experiences of family
relations
2. Connection between private/public,
legal/state and the process of nationmaking
3. Issues of personhood, gender and body
Janet Carsten: After Kinship
• Is kinship a “pre-given” order of things?
• Is it natural and unchangeable?
• Anthropologists have focused on the social
meaning of kinship, leaving the biological
aspects tacit.
• But is there a separation between biological and
social kinship?
Janet Carsten: After Kinship
• “Broken” and “reconstituted families”
• Technological innovations- fertility treatment,
genetic testing, posthumous conception, cloning,
and the mapping of the human genome
• Shake fundamental conceptions of familial
connection
• Is this a brave new world “after kinship?”
History of Kinship
• Mid-20th century social anthropologists such as
Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown, Evans-Pritchard
and Meyers Fortes kinship was the basis for
understanding small-scale societies.
• It was the structure in places that lack a state
organization, or so it was thought.
• Kinship was the political structure and the key to
understanding these societies
Anthropology and Kinship
• Virtually every major figure in American,
British, and French anthropology felt compelled
to consider kinship, sometimes briefly, but more
often at considerable length.
• J. F. McLennan (1970 [1865])
• Sir E. B. Tylor (1871, 1889)
• Émile Durkheim and Marcel Mauss (1967),
• W. H. R. Rivers (1900, 1906, 1907, 1910, 1914,
1915)
• A. R. Radcliffe-Brown (1950, 1965 [1952])
• Bronislaw Malinowski (1913, 1929, 1930).
Western & Non-Western
• “Kinship is something ‘they’ have; ‘we’ have
families and this is quite a different matter”
• In this tradition, language was seen as a direct
reflection of culture and kinship terminologies
were of interest because they revealed the way
that language shaped social categories and hence
behavior.
• 1970’s saw the “undoing” of kinship
History of Kinship
• Nuclear family – universal social institution
• Separated the politico-jural from the domestic
• Politico-jural was the focus because it translated
into the public roles held by men
• Kinship was interesting to anthropologists
because it explained how societies cohered,
made decisions and reproduced social-political
structures
History of Kinship
• Early on kinship was defined by anthropologists
as variable, but the assumption was that there
was a large degree of universality and
consistency of kinship patterns
• Women were absent from anthropological
accounts of kinship because the emphasis was a
colonialist project of trying to understand the
forms of decision-making among “tribes.”
Lewis Henry Morgan
• Lewis Henry Morgan, often spoken of
appropriately as the father of American
anthropology, called attention to the subject in
his pioneering ethnographic contribution,
League of the Iroquois (1969 [1851]: 83-87). His
Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the
Human Family (1871) was the first systematic,
cross-cultural analysis of kinship nomenclature.
Claude Lévi-Strauss
• Elementary Structures of Kinship (1949, tr.
1962) -"Only kinship data present an internal
logic comparable to the system of language."
Examined the "roots of the kinship problem"
beginning with incest prohibition (the origins of
culture- gift and counter gift realized by alliance)
and the "principle of reciprocity" (wife
exchange) and organized a large number of
phenomena that had seemed disparate and
obscure.
The Elementary Structures of Kinship
• In The Elementary Structures of Kinship
(1949), Lévi-Strauss argued (contra RadcliffeBrown) that a cultural phenomenon such as
unilateral cross-cousin marriage cannot be
explained in terms of individual sentiments.
• Following the lead of Mauss and Durkheim, he
proposed that a rule directing men to marry
their matrilateral cross-cousins is, for structural
reasons, more productive of social solidarity
than the reverse.
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Elementary Structures of Kinship (1949)
• His work on kinship contained complex
theorizing on the long-term structural
implications of particular types of marriage
alliance
• “Positive Marriage Rules”
• These were “elementary” rules which he
contrasted with “complex” rules/systems
• Because there was no injunction to marry a
specific kin member ( i.e., elementary) only
“negative marriage rules” (who not to marry)
Claude Lévi-Strauss
• Levi-Strauss structuralism uses decontextualized
ethnographic evidence and asserts all humans
think in binary oppositions and that myths
express and resolve dichotomies within society.
• Myths are symbolic systems which reconcile
fundamental human dilemmas and inherent
contradictions between self and other, nature
and culture, life and death.
• As an arm chair anthropologist Levi-Strauss
sought to identify patterns among wide range of
"primitive" myths.
Claude Lévi-Strauss
• For Levi-Strauss simple societies were ruled by
kinship structures, primarily wife exchange
• He underlined the centrality of marriage in
kinship, that was the institution that maintained
relations among groups, not just individuals.
• Marriage was an elaborate, long-term exchange
that cemented relations and involved the
exchange of goods, services and loyalties
• Alliance and descent theory
David Schneider
• 1969 A Critique of the Study of Kinship and
American Kinship (1968)
• Founded a new study in the field of kinship
• Generation of cultural meanings was the central
problem rather than the functioning of the social
group or the comparative analysis of kinship
terminologies
• Move from function to meaning in anthropology
David Schneider
• This concern for meaning signaled a shift in
anthropology from function to meaning (Geertz
& Weberian focus on meaning)
• It was a departure from British-style studies that
focused on social structure (Fortes, RadcliffeBrown, Levi-Strauss)
• He defined a new way of doing kinship
David Schneider
• He discussed why kinship could no longer
progress as it had.
• Critique: the analytic domain that kinship
occupied was unsound.
• Anthropologists has used folk models from their
Euro-American cultures
• These models were in-valid cross-culturally
• Euro-American models assume the primacy of
ties derived from sexual procreation
David Schneider
• These assumptions – procreation and
family/kinship- did not necessarily apply crossculturally
• His work problematizes the relationship
between the biological and cultural in kinship
• Assumed that Euro-American kinship was
coherent and stable
• Gender and feminist studies developed in
response to Schneider’s critique
David Schneider
• According to Carsten, “Schneider occupies a
pivotal role in the reformulation of kinship
studies in anthropology”
• He focused on structure and functions of social
groups and the meanings of kinship in a
particular context
• He was concerned with the generation of
cultural meanings using language.
The natural order
• When a person is related to a blood relative s/he
is related first by common biogenetic heredity, a
natural substance, and second, by a relationship,
a pattern of behavior or a code of conduct
(Cinderella)
• Code of conduct – an expectation of behavior
(legal)
• Natural substance- genes (natural)
• Nature trumps law
The Family
• Family can mean “all relatives” but often refers to the
nuclear family unit
• Family is synonymous with relative (biological or legal)
• Schneider defines family –assemblages of different kinds
of relatives into a single cultural unit; this is quite
different from “the simple plurality of relatives without
regard for their kind or their relationship to each other”
(fictive kin and families we choose)
• Sexual intercourse: differentiates members of the family
• Procreation/intercourse: is the symbol which provides
the distinctive features in terms of the family as relative
and the family as a cultural unit
The Family
• The family is defined as “natural” in American
culture and co-resident
• Contains a wife, husband and children
(heteronormative)
• A married couple without children, is not quite a
family but a potential family
• To be a family, you must live together
• Single parent families are “not quite families”
The Family
• A healthy family lives together
• The family is formed “by the laws of nature and
it lives by the rules which are regarded by
Americans as self-evidently natural”
• “The family…thus resolves the radical opposition
between nature and human reason, brining
these two together into a workable, livable,
human arrangement”
• Voluntary and involuntary relationships
The Family & Gender Roles
• The family naturalizes and reinforces gender
roles (ex. Bride Kidnapping film)
• Reproduces gender identities
• Maintains gender roles
• Reinforces common sense knowledges
• Husband and wife are in a sexual relationship
and theirs is the only legitimate (legally and
culturally) and proper sexual relationship
Nuclear Family and other Myths
• Historical studies suggest that the stable nuclear
family of the mid 20th century Britain or North
America was a historical blip
• 19th century myth of the nuclear family, a
product of bourgeois mentality
• Late marriage, celibacy, pregnancy out of
marriage were common in the Middle Ages to
the 19th century
• High morality rates meant that marriage was a
short-lived relationship
• Parental death meant that children were also
highly mobile
Common myths about the American
family
• The traditional family: breadwinner dad,
homemaker mom
• The nuclear family: dad, mom, 2 kids who are
close knit and in harmony
• Self-reliant family
• Golden age of family life
• Decline of the family
• Moms can have it all
• Stay-at-home moms and Opt-out moms
• The family is a harbor of comfort and peace
• Honesty and hard work lead to prosperity
Nuclear Family and other Myths
• According to the U.S. Census Bureau Economics and Statistics
Administration, as of 1998, only 69% of children live in a twoparent family; 31% are nontraditional groupings.
• Single-mother family makes up 26% of U.S. households
• Single-father families make up 5% (Casper and Bryson 1998).
• The number of persons living in nontraditional households
has shown a nearly consistent increase since 1970, and the
trend is likely to continue.
• The 1995 U.S. Census notes that even the two parent families
do not necessarily involve biological relation, as they include
stepparents and adoptive parents (Casper and Bryson 1998).
Bride Capture
Peter Lom
Peter Lom
• Reporter Peter Lom travels to Kyrgyzstan, where
an ancient tradition of bride kidnapping, banned
by the Soviets, is resurgent.
• Lom talks with families with kidnapped brides -those who have managed to escape from their
captors as well as those who are making homes
with their new husbands
Bride Capture
• Bride capture is the act of kidnapping a woman against
her will with the intent of forcing her into marriage.
• Bride capture is a common marriage practice seen in
parts of Kyrgyzstan, particularly in rural areas.
• Typically, a group of men trick a young woman into
joining them for a party or festivity of some kind, and
instead take her to the bridegroom's house, where his
parents also live.
• The man's mother often officiates over the marriage, and
many women married after abductions of this manner
say that it is the female family members who exert the
most force on her to stay in the paternal family, rather
than the men.
Kyrgyzstan
• The groom's brothers' wives, in particular, might
say things like, 'We all married this way, what
makes you any better?' Also, the mother-in-law
herself can be very convincing. Age brings
wisdom in Kyrgyzstan, and, with it, respect.
Therefore, when an older lady tells the young
woman that she must stay, and that nobody else
will marry her, or that she will be doomed to
sadness and infertility if she leaves the family
home, the young woman obeys
• In Kyrgyzstan and other Central Asian countries, the practice is
different. The groom's male relatives abduct the girl, while the older
women of the family then put pressure on her to marry.
• Some families will keep the girl hostage for several days to try and
crack her, others will let her go if she stays defiant.
• The groom usually never sees the bride until she has either agreed to
marry or as a last ditch effort to try and convince her to stay. It is
also common for the woman's family to be contacted to help
convince her to stay, and indeed often they approve of the forced
marriage.
• While less violent than that practiced elsewhere, the essence of the
process is still the same. Such social stigma is attached that the
kidnapped woman usually feels that she has no choice but to agree,
and many of those who refuse even commit suicide afterwards.
• Although it is illegal in Kyrgyzstan, the kidnappers are almost never
convicted.
Mechanisms for kidnapping
• The mechanism of bride kidnappings varies
depending on where it is taking place. In
Ethiopia and Rwanda the mechanism is quite
brutal, where the man kidnaps the woman and
rapes her.
• The family of the woman either then feels
obliged to agree, or is forced to when the
kidnapper impregnates her.
Honeymoon
• Marriage by capture was practiced in ancient
cultures throughout the Mediterranean area.
• According to some sources, the practice of the
honeymoon is a relic of marriage by capture,
based on the practice of the husband going into
hiding with his wife to avoid reprisals from her
relatives, with the intention that the woman
would be pregnant by the end of the month.
Questions for the film
• Please respond to the questions from the film
and return a 1-2 page response next class
session.
• How are marriage and violence discussed in the
film?
• How do people explain or justify bride capture
practices?