Marriage and the Family

1
Chapter 9

• Marriage and the Family

2
What We Will Learn

• 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 worlds contemporary societies?

3
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

4
Marriage Defined

• 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.

5
Same Sex Marriage

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

6
Social Functions of Marriage

• 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.

7
Question

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

8
Answer c

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

9
The Family

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

10
Postpartum Sex Taboo

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

11
Incest Taboos Theories

• 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.

12
Incest Taboos Theories

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

13
Restrictions on Marriage Partners

• Cultures restrict choice of marriage partners
  through
• Exogamy
• Endogamy
• Arranged marriages
• Preferential cousin marriage
• Levirate and sororate

14
Restrictions on Marriage Partners

• Exogamy
• A rule requiring marriage outside of ones own
  social or kinship group.
• Endogamy
• A rule requiring marriage within a specified
  social or kinship group.

15
Marrying Cousins

• Charles Darwin (18091882), the author of Origin
  of Species, had ten children with his wife, who
  was also his first cousin.

16
Interracial Marriage

• 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.

17
Arranged Marriage

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

18
Preferential Cousin Marriage

• A preferred form of marriage between either
  parallel or cross cousins.
• Cross cousins
• Children of ones mothers brother or fathers
  sister.
• Parallel cousins
• Children of ones mothers sister or fathers
  brother.

19
Question

• The ________ addresses the prohibition on mating
  with certain categories of relatives.
• postpartum sex taboo
• ingestion taboo
• marriage laws
• incest taboo

20
Answer d

• The incest taboo addresses the prohibition on
  mating with certain categories of relatives.

21
Levirate and Sororate

• 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.

22
Number of Spouses
Monogamy Marriage of one man to one woman.
Polygyny Marriage of a man to two or more women.
Polyandry Marriage of a woman to two or more men.
23
Polygyny

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

24
Polygyny

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

25
Marriage Transfer of Rights

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

26
Economic Transactions of Marriage

• Bridewealth
• Bride service
• Dowry
• Reciprocal exchange

27
Bridewealth

• 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.

28
Marriage Transactions

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

29
Bride Service

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

30
Dowry

• Transfer of goods or money from brides family to
  the groom or the grooms family.
• Practiced in less than 3 of societies.
• If the marriage ended in divorce, the woman was
  entitled to take the dowry with her.

31
Dowry

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

32
Reciprocal Exchange

• 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 Murdocks Ethnographic Atlas, most prominently
  in the Pacific region and among traditional
  Native Americans.

33
Question

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

34
Answer a

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

35
Divorce

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

36
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.

37
Divorce Rates in the United States, 1950 to 2000
Year Divorce Rate/1000 Population
1950 2.6
1960 2.2
1970 3.5
1980 5.2
1990 4.7
2000 4.2
38
Factors in the Rising U.S. Divorce Rate

• 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.

39
Marriage Residence Patterns

• Patrilocal (69)
• Couple lives with or near relatives of the
  husbands father.
• Matrilocal (13)
• Couple lives with or near the relatives of the
  wife.

40
Marriage Residence Patterns

• Avunculocal (4)
• Couple lives with or near the husbands mothers
  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.

41
Family Structures

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

42
Nuclear Family

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

43
Extended Family

• An extended family gathering in Henan Province,
  China.

44
Marital Status of U.S. Population 1980 1999
1980 1990 1995 1999
Never Married 20.3 22.2 22.9 23.9
Married 65.5 61.9 60.9 59.5
Widowed 8.0 7.6 7.0 6.7
Divorced 6.2 8.3 9.2 9.9