A husband, a wife, and their children. ... Sexual access o

1

• Marriage, Family and Domestic Groups

2
Chapter Questions

• What are some of the universal functions of
  marriage and the family?
• What are some of the rule that regulate marriage
  in different societies?
• How can these rules be explained?

3
Chapter Questions

• How do arranged marriage and romantic love relate
  to the values of marriage and family in different
  societies?
• What kinds of changes are taking place in the
  family in the United States?
• How does a societys subsistence strategy
  influence the shape of the family and the
  household?

4
Household Forms

• Single-person
• Nuclear
• dominant in foraging and industrial cultures
• Polygamous and Extended
• dominant in horticultural, pastoral societies
• household may contain 50 members
• will decline with industrialization?

5
Nuclear Family

• A husband, a wife, and their children.
• High rates of divorce and remarriage create
  complicated kinship networks.

6
Composite Family

• Aggregates of nuclear families linked by a common
  spouse.
• Example Polygynous household consisting of one
  man with several wives.

7
Extended Family

• Blood relations extending over three or more
  generations.
• Economic advantages keeps land intact and
  provides security in times of crisis.
• Provides a sense of participation and dignity for
  the older family members.

8
Households as Social Units

• Spouse/Partner relationships
• studies suggest marital satisfaction is strongly
  correlated to sexual activity
• Sibling relationships
• Domestic violence
• Males as perpetrators, women as victims is found
  in all cultures
• More common where men control wealth

9
Households in Social Change

• International immigration
• challenges for parents and siblings
• Shrinking households in the US
• Increasing move away from nuclear
  households in industrialized cultures

10
Definitions of Marriage

• Customs and obligations for the relationship
  between a sexually cohabiting adult male and
  female, between them and children they produce,
  and between their kin groups.
• OR
• A socially sanctioned form of heterosexual mating
  and co-residence establishing duties and
  obligations with respect to sex and reproduction
  variant forms are homosexual mating and childless
  marriages.

11
Marriage Rules Number of Spouses

• All societies have rules about how many spouses a
  person can have at one time.
• Monogamy is the norm only in Europe and north
  America.
• 75 of the worlds societies prefer plural
  marriage.

12
Basic Forms of Marriage

• MONOGAMY Marriage with one spouse exclusively
  and for life.
• SERIAL MONOGAMY Marriage with one spouse at a
  time but with remarriage after death or divorce.
   
• POLYGAMY Marriage with more than one spouse at a
  time.

13
Forms of Polygamy

• PolygynyA rule permitting a man to have more
  than one wife at a time.
• Sororal polygynyA form of polygyny in which a
  man marries sisters
• PolyandryA rule permitting a woman to have
  morethan one husband at a time.
• Fraternal polyandryA custom whereby a woman
  marries a man and his brothers.

14
Functions of Marriage

• Regulates sexual access.
• Creates a family.
• Expands social group.

15
Marriage

• Customs, rules, and obligations for
  relationships between
• A sexually cohabiting man and woman
• Parents and children
• Families of the bride and groom

16
Marriage Regulates Sexual Access

• Reasons
• Limits sexual competition.
• Provides stability for children.
• Allows for stable economic exchange.

17
Marriage Establishes Family Structures

• Marriage provides a stable structure
• The male can provide food and protection.
• The female can nurse and nurture the children.

18
Marriage Expands Social Groups

• Links different families and kin groups.
• Leads to cooperation beyond the primary
  husband-wife pair.
• Allows people to share resources.
• Benefits the survival of the species.

19
A marriage is everyones business

• Arranged marriageThe process by which senior
  family members exercise a great deal of control
  over the choice of their childrens spouses.
• The obligations of a marriage encompass everyone
  in the extended family
• These binding social and economic alliances are
  seldom left to chance, or to unmarried young
  people.

20
Marriage is the Economic and Political Union of
Two Families

• Bride serviceWork that the groom performs for
  his brides family for a variable length of time
  either before or after the marriage.
• BridewealthGoods presented by the grooms kin to
  the brides kin to legitimize a marriage.
• Dowry
• Presentation of goods by the brides kin to the
  family of the groom or to the couple.

21
Marriage Rules Exogamy

• Rules specifying that a person must marry outside
  a particular group.
• Almost universal within the primary family group.
  
• Leads to alliances between different families and
  groups.

22
Marriage Rules Endogamy

• Rules that marriage must be within a particular
  group.
• In India, the caste is an endogamous group.
• In the U.S., social classes tend to be endogamous.

23
Marriage Rules Incest Taboos

• Prohibit sexual relations between relatives.
• Universal to most cultures.
• Exceptions
• Brother-sister marriages among royalty in ancient
  Egypt
• Traditional Hawaiian society

24
Reasons for Incest Taboos

• Avoids inbreeding.
• Prevents disruption in the nuclear family.
• Directs sexual desires outside the family.
• Forces people to marry outside the family and
  create a larger social community.

25
Preferential Marriage Rules

• Rules about the preferred categories of relatives
  for marriage partners
• LevirateThe custom whereby a man marries the
  widow of a deceased brother.
• Sororate
• When a mans wife dies, her sister is given to
• him as a wife.

26
Primary Marriage Rights

• Sexual access of husband and wife to each other.
• Obligations by one or both parents to care for
  children born to the union.
• Rights of husband and wife to the economic
  services of the other.

27
Divorce
Bilineal descent cultures have a more fluid
system of joining and breaking up
Research suggests divorce rate is lower in
unilineal descent cultures
Gender affects ability to divorce
28
Widowhood and Remarriage

• In some cultures, womens position as a widow is
  often marked symbolically
• modest clothes
• asexual
• little food intake
• Remarriage is dependent on economic factors and
  gender expectations

29
Chapter 9, Marriage, Family and Domestic Groups

• Key Terms

30

• ExogamyA rule specifying that a person must
  marry outside a particular group.
• Endogamy A rule prescribing that marriage must
  be within a particular group.

31

• Cross cousinsThe children of a parents siblings
  of the opposite sex. (mothers brothers, fathers
  sisters)
• Parallel cousinsThe children of a parent's
  same-sex siblings. (mothers sisters, fathers
  brothers)

32

• Unilineal descentA rule specifying that
  membership in a descent group is based on links
  through either the maternal or the paternal line
  but not both.
• LevirateThe custom whereby a man marries the
  widow of a deceased brother.

33

• SororateThe custom whereby, when a mans wife
  dies, her sister is given to him as a wife.
• MonogamyA rule that permits a person to be
  married to only one spouse at a time.

34

• PolygamyA rule allowing more than one spouse.
• PolygynyA rule permitting a man to have more
  than one wife at a time.

35

• PolyandryA rule permitting a woman to have
  morethan one husband at a time.
• Soroal polygynyA form of polygyny in which a man
  marries sisters.

36

• Fraternal polyandryA custom whereby a woman
  marries a man and his brothers.
• Arranged marriageThe process by which senior
  family members exercise a great deal of control
  over the choice of their childrens spouses.

37

• Bride serviceWork that the groom performs for
  his brides family for a variable length of time
  either before or after the marriage.
• BridewealthGoods presented by the grooms kin to
  the brides kin to legitimize a marriage.

38

• DowryPresentation of goods by the brides kin to
  the family of the groom or to the couple.
• Nuclear familyThe family organized around the
  relationship between husband and wife. A nuclear
  family consists of a husband, a wife, and their
  children.

39

• Conjugal tieThe relationship between a husband
  and wife formed by marriage.
• Extended familyFamily based on blood relations
  extending over three or more generations.

40

• ConsanguinealRelated by birth.
• Domestic groupA household unit, that usually,
  but not always, consists of members of a family.

41

• Neolocal residenceSystem under which a couple
  establishes an independent household after
  marriage.
• Composite (compound) familyAn aggregate of
  nuclear families linked by a common spouse.

42

• Patrilocal residenceSystem under which a bride
  lives with her husbands family after marriage.
• PatrilineageA lineage formed by descent in the
  male line.

43

• MatrilineageA lineage formed by descent in the
  female line.
• Matrilocal residenceSystem under which a husband
  lives with this wife's family after marriage.

44

• Avunculocal residenceSystem under which a
  married couple lives with husband's mothers
  brother.
• Bilocal residenceSystem under which the married
  couple has the choice of living with the
  husband's or wifes family.