The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay

STUDY GUIDE

Anthropology 304: Family, Kin and Community

Stone, Linda 2006. Kinship & Gender, An Introduction, Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

1. Key concepts from Chapter One:

Descent Groups based upon:


Domestic Groups based upon:
Marriage Rules:
2. You should also understand the kinship diagram symbols on page 7 and the kinship notation symbols on p. 9. Draw a diagram of your own extended family to see if you can use the diagram symbols.

OMIT CHAPTER TWO

3. Note figure 3.1 on p. 72 on patrilineal descent.

4. Note Aberle's calculation of the percentages of societies with the different forms of descent (p. 72), especially those with bilateral or cognatic descent, which is the form of kinship common to most Americans of European ancestry.

5. How does bilateral kinship differ from the principles of descent?

6. What are lineages and clans? Note that both are typically exogamous, i.e., you cannot marry a person in your lineage or clan.

7.What are the functions of the old Roman clans (p. 77)? These functions are typical of clans in many other cultures as well as among the Romans.

8. On p. 79, note figure 3.4 diagraming the difference between patrilineal descent and patrilocal residence. Who lives together? What is the relationship between patrilocal residence and the authority of men in the family?

9. Why do patrilineal groups tend to express a favoring of sons over daughters?

THE NUER

10. Among the Nuer, why might a man's relationships with his mother's kin be emotionally closer than with his own patrilineal (father's) kin?

11. What is the importance of bridewealth to Nuer families? Why should we NOT understand it as buying a bride?

12. At what point in the Nuer conjugal relationship would a marriage be considered unbreakable by divorce? What happened to her children after that if she took up with another man, not her husband? What do these patterns tell us about the core function of marriage among the Nuer?

13. What are some of the ways a man has of insuring that he gets sons, even if his marriage is an infertile one?
THE NEPALESE BRAHMAN

14. What is a caste? Why is caste endogamous? Why are those in the Brahman caste considered higher than others?

15. Why do Brahman men think that women need sex more than men do?

16. Why are young, in-marrying wives considered a threat to the patrilineage?

17. What tensions are there between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law?

18. Since having children, especially sons, is so crucial to the family, why don't the Nepalese Brahman have different marriage strategies like the Nuer do?

19. What practices and beliefs support the idea of the inferiority of women?

20. Why is the status of daughter higher than the status of daughter-in-law?

21. What was the "matrilineal puzzle," and why do some anthropologists question the whole conception of the "puzzle"?

22. What were some solutions to the so-called "matrilineal puzzle"?
THE NAVAJO

23. What is the significance of the "born for" relationship and how is it different from inter-clan relationships?

24. Discuss the ideal of complementarity between women's and men's place in the family, clan and society.

25. What is the difference in the qualities of the mother-child bond and the husband-wife bond, and how do these relationships characterize other relationships in Navajo society?

26. Why didn't the Navajo exhibit the "matrilineal puzzle"?

27. What were their attitudes and practices regarding divorce?

28. Of what significance is the ceremony to mark the passage of a young girl into womanhood (i.e. of Kinaaldá)?

THE NAYAR

29. The author states that the Nayar of southern India once had one of the most intriguing marriage systems ever found. What was so intriguing about them?


30. How strong were the bonds between husbands and wives and between fathers and children?

31. Who were the important socializers of children in the family? Why?

32. Why were brother-sister bonds so important and strong?

33. How and why did the Nayar marriage system change? What effect did these changes have on women's position in the family?

OMIT CHAPTER FIVE

THE NYINBA (formerly Tibetan, now living in Nepal)

34. What is fraternal polyandry? What advantages does it have in terms of population and landholding by the household? What are its advantages and disadvantages with regard to fraternal solidarity?

35. Under what circumstances might a "conjoint marriage" take place?

36. How do European notions of marriage differ from most others throughout the world?

37. Why is it that cross-cousin marriages are more common than parallel cousin marriages?

38. According to Levi-Strauss, what was the cultural evolutionary importance of group exogamy and marriage as alliance between two (or more) groups?

39. Although kin group exogamy is the most common practice, some societies do permit parallel cousin marriage (i.e. a form of marriage in which one marries a member of one's own descent group)?

THE JULIO-CLAUDIANS (upper class 100BC to 100AD)

40. What aspects of their earlier family forms and practices would lead one to call these patriarchal families?

41. What changes occurred in the late Republic which made families less patriarchal?

 Why did these changes occur?

42. What do the stories of political, marital and sexual intrigues of the Roman upper class tell us about their family values?

43. What family forms and practices have characterized European families for centuries? 44. What are the similarities found in pre-19th century European/American kinship patterns?
a. Marriage establishes new economic unit.
b. Marriage only after the couple has their own independent livelihood.
c. relative late age of marriage mid to late 20s
d. dowries needed for daughters
e. land or livelihood for sons
f. "love" fundamental to marriage, depending upon how you define "love", when it becomes part of family values in Europe and U.S. varies.
f. restricted kinship, lack of corporate kin
g. sexual double standard
h. bilateral
i. monogamy
j. few children raised
k. small nuclear families
l. non-kin and servants in household
m. early deaths meant marriage only lasted 10-20 years
n. Impact of Christianity
i. celibacy valued
ii. sex considered sinful
iii. spiritual kinship
iv. opposition to cousin marriages
v. opposition to adoption
vi. opposition to widow remarriage vii. opposition to polygyny/concubinage
o. restricted access of women to property
p. primogeniture

45. What were the U.S. patterns and how did they change over time?
a. Against Myths

i. same % of single parent household in 1900s and 1990
ii. teen pregnancy highest in 1957 (due to early marriage)
iii. households had non-kind. community involved in household
iv. sexual matters not hidden from children

b. Industrialization and the Victorian family

i. virtuous motherhood"
ii. separation of domestic/public spheres
iii. separation of husbands and wivesd. emphasis on motherhood and mother-child bond.
iv. women as nurturers of children and later of society

c. Educated Motherhood--turn of the century
d. Wife-companion 1920s
e. 1950s
i. dating
ii. culture of romance
iii. the ideal family of male breadwinner-female homemaker with dependent children.

f. woman as person--1960s

46. Note the pattern of class endogamy and its role in finding a proper "match".

47. What relationships have been proposed for the link between dowry systems and the sexual double standard by Goody, Schegel and Ortner?

48. According to Goody, what role did the Church play in the development of European marriage and inheritance laws? What alternative theory did Verdon propose?

49. In the U.S., what effects did the removal of productive labor from the household to the factory and office have on the values and roles of women in families and society?

50. What did Gorer see as the function of the unique American pattern of "dating"?

51. What are some of the new reproductive technologies, and how do these raise new questions about family and kinship and new kinds of families?