Introduction to Kinship Studies

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Introduction to Kinship Studies

• Dr. Jane Granskog

CSU Bakersfield
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OVERVIEW OF TOPICS IN THE STUDY OF FAMILY AND KIN

• Importance of family and kin in social life
• The historical development of kinship studies in
  anthropology
• Summary points regarding the study of family and
  kin

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Importance of family and kin in social life

• The family has been the most important social
  unit defining relations between people for most
  of human history. It is still so today, even
  though we no longer place as much emphasis upon
  its importance in the U.S.
• It is the only social institution other than
  religion that is formally developed in all
  societies

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Importance of family and kin in social life

• It is the major unit of socialization that
  critically affects how we look at the world,
  define ourselves, and form ties and connections
  with others
• Significance of world view in perceptions of and
  meanings attached to the concept of family

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Importance of family and kin

• Variation in the structure and meaning of
  family
• How do we define what the family is?
• component roles--gender, parental etc - and key
  relationships
• key functions the family may perform (economic,
  socialization, legitimization of offspring,
  alliances with like units)

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Importance of family and kin

• Traditional concepts of the family are tied to
  the familistic package of functions it has
  performed
• Global revolution in how we think of ourselves
  connections we form - family as a special
  relationship - importance of emotional
  communication (intimacy) as defining
  characteristics.

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Importance of family and kin

• Extensions of kin beyond the family
• Significance of the contrast between a focus on
  the individual v.s. the community definition of
  the self vs other
• Importance of concept of dependency

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Dependency (Gurian Gurian)

• an inborn tendency which cultural, social and
  psychological conditions variously shape
• seeking support, identity, security and
  permission outside the self
• is reciprocal a life process, a cycle of
  attitudes and actions

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Positive vs negative dependency

• positive - where dependency serves as a
  continuing support for adequate, non-victimized
  persons their partners, family, community etc
  .- a balanced reciprocal flow

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Positive vs negative dependency

• negative - where dependency cripples the ability
  of the self to be a constructive contributor to
  partnership, family, or community

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Balanced Dependency Features

• continuity--uninterrupted connection
• bonding--significant life-link
• reciprocity--giving receiving, mutual benefit
• obligation--honoring commitments
• trust--emotional knowing of secure bonds
• commitment--supporting others needs
• involvement--taking part in daily roles

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The 21st Century American Family

• how current status of the family is understood is
  affected by assumptions regarding its character
• assumed universality of the nuclear family
• assumed parental determinism (re socialization
  of children)
• assumed stable harmonious past
• perception of families in crisis--impact of
  triple revolution post industrial service and
  informational economy life course changes
  psychological gentrification of population

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Summary Points

• People in all societies recognize that they are
  connected to others in a variety of ways -- forms
  of relatedness
• Key forms of relatedness come from shared
  substance and its transmission -- bodily
  transmission (blood, milk, genetic) or spiritual
  (soul, rebirth, nurturance) or both
• Kinship -- defines those social relationships
  prototypically derived from the universal human
  experiences of mating, birth and nurturance

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HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN ANTHROPOLOGY

• Kinship studies have been one of the most
  important and well developed areas of social
  anthropology. Key theoretical developments
• unilineal evolutionists
• structural functionalism
• processual approaches--alliance theory
• ethnosemantics
• dialectical holism

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EARLY EVOLUTIONISTS - MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS

• First studied by unilineal cultural evolutionists
  in the 1800's - McLennan (1865) Lewis Henry
  Morgan (1870, 1877) Bachofen (1861). Founded
  the study of kinship
• Gave us the terminology to study kinship systems
• Pointed out relationships between marriage and
  other social institutions

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EARLY EVOLUTIONISTS - MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS

• Kinship systems do change and there are
  regularities in the process
• Kinship systems do reflect to some degree, the
  type of adaptation to the environment

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PROBLEMS WITH EARLY STUDIES

• Ethnocentric and culturally biased
• Kinship systems are not subject to cumulative
  evolution can't be ranked as higher/lower etc.
• Different kin systems are just alternate ways of
  doing things
• Kin terms are NOT just an extension of biological
  relations

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STRUCTURAL-FUNCTIONALISM

• Major contributors - A. R. Radcliffe Brown and
  Bronislaw Malinowski others E.E.
  Evans-Prichard, Kroeber, Rivers, Lowie, Murdock
• social learning approach to kin terms - way
  behavior is learned defines explanation of
  behavior itself Kroeber-linguistic approach
• concern with kin groups development of descent
  theory

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STRUCTURAL-FUNCTIONALISM

• static approach - focus on social structure,
  rules and obligations, contributions to social
  solidarity
• kinship terms based on behavior, justified by
  Murdocks work (supported R. B.)
• Murdock--statistical analysis of kinship systems
  via kin terminology
• 3 determinants of kin terms (marriage, descent,
  residence) descent most important

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PROCESSUAL APPROACH TO KINSHIP

• Raymond Firth - problems with structural
  functionalism - focus on social organization, the
  change principle, networks important
• Levi-Strauss - emphasis on alliance theory - kin
  groups based on exchange of food, goods, services
  and women. Marriage is an exchange of women
  between kin groups
• cybernetics - emphasis on kin relations via
  mathematical models

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ETHNOSEMANTICS

• emphasis on meaning of kinship from natives
  point of view, meaning in context
• ethnoscience - look at sociological meaning of
  terms to get at nature of kinship system

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DIALECTICAL HOLISM

• Yanagisako Collier - point out need to
  re-examine anthropological work in gender and
  kinship studies
• assumptions about gender lie at core of kin
  studies just as ideas about kinship are central
  to analyses of gender

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DIALECTICAL HOLISM

• kinship is rooted in biology because, by our own
  definition, it is about relationships based in
  sexual reproduction (p.30)
• we assume that the activities that create human
  offspring are heterosexual intercourse,
  pregnancy, and parturition and these constitute
  the biological process upon which we presume
  culture builds social relations such as
  marriage, etc. (p.30)

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Yanagisako Collier

• There are no facts, biological or material,
  that have social consequences and cultural
  meanings in and of themselves. Sexual
  intercourse, pregnancy, and parturition are
  cultural facts, whose form, consequences and
  meanings are socially constructed in any society
  as are mothering, fathering, judging, ruling..
  Similarly, there are no material facts that can
  be treated as precultural givens. (p.39)

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Analyzing Social Wholes - 3 Facets

• cultural analysis of meaning - the socially
  meaningful categories people use, symbols
  meanings underlying them
• systemic models of inequality - how do ordinary
  people pursuing own ends realize the structures
  of inequality that constrain them
• historical analysis - change over time,
  dialectical processes thru which practices
  meanings have unfolded, affecting present and
  future

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Summary Points

• Kinship systems are a response to various
  recognized pressures within a framework of
  biological, psychological, ecological, and social
  limitations -- importance of context
• Problem of biases - cultural sexual
  (presumptions about gender roles) using folk
  concepts of sex etc. as the basis of biological
  thus universal differences

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Summary Points

• Note problems of categorization - definition of
  what is (now vs. later), kin systems are
  constantly evolving
• norms vs statistical realities vs emic (native)
  definition of realities
• It is not what the definition says, but what
  people do with those definitions (social uses to
  which they are put) that matters

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IMPACT OF SEXUALITY ON FAMILY AND KIN

• Sexuality - means of understanding how
  possibilities constraints of biology help shape
  family and kin organization
• Topics to Be Covered
• Insights from non-human primates
• Impact of culture on sexuality
• Premarital sexual relations restrictions on
  them
• Variant attitudes toward sexuality and
  homosexuality

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Insights from Non-human Primates

• only humans have female-male pair bonding and
  multi-male, multi- female groups
• continuous female sexual receptivity, rare in
  animal world
• sex for meat hypothesis (bonobo chimps)

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Impact of Culture on Sexuality

• All cultures channel sexuality and pose
  restrictions on who, when, and under what
  conditions sexual behavior may be expressed
  before marriage, outside of marriage, within
  marriage and after marriage
• Restrictive rules regarding childhood and
  premarital sexual expression correspond to
  similar attitudes regarding extramarital and
  postmarital sexual expression

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Impact of Culture on Sexuality

• Despite the diversity of cultures, are 2 bases
  for commonalities in sexual expression
• potentialities limitations of biological
  inheritance
• the internal logic consistency of a culture
  which shapes expression of sexuality in culture
  via socialization of young

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Childhood Sexuality

• considerable variation in attitudes expressed
• many have a tolerant attitude toward
  masturbation, and even relations between adults
  and children
• we are born as sexual beings capable of orgasmic
  expression
• major issue is how adults label such activity

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Premarital Sexual Relations (Frayser)

• more societies allow premarital sex for one or
  both sexes than do not
• where there are restraints, are more likely to
  apply to premarital vs extramarital sex
• double standard operates in only one direction
  (restrict women more than men)

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Societies with Restrictions on Premarital Sex

• Societies where property and other rights pass
  thru males (patrilineal descent) and where
  married couples live with or near husband's
  parents (e.g. Circum-Mediterranean)
• Societies with emphasis on dowry (money and goods
  given by bride's family)
• Complex, stratified societies likely to restrict
  premarital sex

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Variant Attitudes Toward Sexuality

• permissive -- tolerant attitude (Mangaia,
  Trobriand Islands)
• restrictive -- Inis Beag, very negative attitude
  toward all forms of sexual expression

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Attitudes toward Homosexuality

• if permitted for girls, almost always for boys
• are different types of male homosexuality -
  institutionalized male bisexuality (Melanesia)
• Werner - societies with evidence of population
  pressure on resources, reason to limit
  reproduction, more likely to tolerate male
  homosexuality
• mentorship homosexuality part of a larger
  syndrome reflecting strong male power and
  authority

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Societies Where Sex is Dangerous

• societies where sex is viewed as dangerous, are
  often where men fear sex with women are often
  coupled with menstral taboos
• marrying enemies, emotional distance between
  husbands and wives may exaggerate boys
  unconscious sexual interest in mother,
  frightening because of incest taboo

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IMPACT OF GENDER ON FAMILY KIN

• Biological Influences
• Definition of Terms Regarding Gender
• Factors influencing Sexual Behavior
• Gender Role Identity - Impact of Socialization
• Division of Labor by Gender
• Gender and Contributions to Subsistence
• Status of Women

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Areas of Biological Influence on Gender

• physiology
• emotional characteristics
• mental (visual/spacial perception)

40
Biological Influence on Gender

• physiology - Males physically stronger
  Females greater endurance, resistance to disease
  stress etc.
• emotional - Males emphasis on physical
  aggressiveness (far more responsible for
  incidents of homicide) Females emphasis on
  nurturant capabilities

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Biological Influence on Gender

• mental (visual/spacial perception) - Males field
  independence, can abstract elements from context,
  greater lateralization in brain Females field
  dependence, relational emphasis, elements
  perceived in context, use both sides of brain
  more (related to tight parental control, emphasis
  on conformity

42
Biological Influence on Gender

• Feedback between biological processes and the
  environment is extremely complex, is a moot
  question as to where biology leaves off and
  culture begins emphasis is on significance of
  socio-cultural factors.

43
Definition of Terms Regarding Gender

• core gender identity
• secure sense of maleness or femaleness, affected
  by cultural interpretations, being comfortable w/
  one's body usually well established by age 3
  (18-36 months requires internalization of
  cultural rules defining gender)

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Definition of Terms Regarding Gender

• gender role
• learned behavior patterns defined by society and
  subject to change over time and space
  (characterized by masculinity and femininity)
• gender role identity
• identification with those behavioral expectations
  considered appropriate for a given gender

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Understanding Sexual Behavior, Key Factors

• Individual gender role identity - perception of
  what it means to be male or female in a society
  and how that perception is reflected in behavior
  - degree to which gender roles constrain
  individual behavior
• Nature of the relationship between the sexes -
  interpretation of attributes of gender roles,
  activities carried out by each sex, attitudes
  toward males by females vice versa

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Key Factors in Understanding Sexual Behavior

• Socio-cultural context - how interpretation of
  sexual identity and the relations between sexes
  are expressed in different arenas of life and in
  terms of norms of society importance of kinship,
  separation of public and domestic spheres of
  activity as well as socio-historical forces
  affecting norms etc.

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Components of Socio-cultural Context

• Ecosystem - type of ecological adaptation (
  technology) associated degree of societal
  complexity
• Socio-economic and political organization -
  differentiation relative importance of public
  vs domestic sphere type of family kinship
  system, type of status groups present, etc
  relative gender role differentiation present and
  importance

48
Components of Socio-cultural Context

• Role of ideology (values norms) - evaluation of
  sexuality is based on cultural perception -
  herein lies the importance of attitudes which are
  instilled via socialization

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Development of Gender Role Identity

• There are a number of cross-cultural
  similarities in the socialization personality
  development of females vs males (based on article
  by Chodorow in Rosaldo Lamphere, 1974, Woman,
  Culture and Society)

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Cross-Cultural Similarities in Socialization

• Females activity and manners acquired in natural
  continuity Males taught to be men,
  discontinuous role, separation from domestic
  sphere necessary in order to learn role
• Females integrated w/ female kin vertically
  (mo-da) Males integrated horizontally,
  importance of peer relationships in childhood
  activities

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Cross-Cultural Similarities in Socialization

• Females membership in groups not questioned -
  age determines status (ascribed) Males
  membership in groups achieved and open to
  question, based on personal characteristics

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Cross-Cultural Similarities in Socialization

• Females growing up, experience others as
  individuals, emphasis is on informal roles (have
  flexible ego boundaries) - roles defined in
  relation to domestic sphere Males learn manhood
  as an abstract set of rights and duties, status
  brings formal authority, emphasis is on formal
  institutional roles (public roles)

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Cross-Cultural Similarities in Socialization

• Similarities in socialization of females vs males
  reflected in puberty rites
• note three stages in all rites of passage -
  separation, transition, incorporation
• rites are usually more public, more marked, more
  severe and more important for males than for
  females.

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Division of Labor by Gender

• male strength theory
• compatibility with child care theory
• economy of effort theory
• expendability theory

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Gender and Contributions to Subsistence

• need to consider primary (food getting-gathering,
  hunting, fishing, herding, agriculture)and
  secondary (food preparation and processing
  subsistence activities
• calories - men usually contribute more
• total work time including processing in home - in
  horticultural and intensive agricultural
  societies women work more hours per day than men

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Gender and Contributions to Subsistence

• women contribute as much as men to primary
  subsistence in many agricultural and especially
  horticultural societies
• contribution to primary subsistence and nature of
  child care, closely linked
• where women contribute more to subsistence, more
  say about aspects of their sexuality

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Gender and Contributions to Subsistence

• political roles and leadership patterns - male
  political power may stem partially from male
  predominance in war (strength, compatibility and
  expendability theories)
• increase in societal complexity reflected in less
  formal leadership for women emphasis on informal
  roles, indirect influence

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Status of Women

• At best women are more or less equal to men, in
  no known society do women clearly have more
  status than men
• Whyte - 52 cultural traits affecting status -
  staus is multidimensional, high status in one
  area does not mean high status in another

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Predictors of Status of Women

• female-centered social structure (matrilineality
  and matrilocality) - more control over property,
  more authority in home more equal sexual
  restrictions, more value attributed to lives
• level of societal complexity - greater complexity
  (e.g., intensive agriculture) lower status.