Marriage and Family

Learning Objectives

- about the variety of stable marriage and family patterns across cultures

- about different rules for taking one or multiple spouses

- the correlates of different kinds of family and residence patterns

- about marriage as an economic exchange between families that requires compensation

- how different societies trace their family lineages

- about different forms of kinship

Review Questions

1. What are the different marriage and family types that exist across cultures?

2. How do marriage rules and residence patterns overlap?

3. What are the biocultural benefits of exogamy?

4. What types of compensation are given in different marriage exchanges?

5. What are the different forms of kinship, besides a family related by blood and marriage?

6. What kinds of social expectations are linked to descent groups and lineages?

Discussion Questions

1. What makes a “good” family?

2. Are marriage tendencies in North America exogamous or endogamous? Why?

3. In what ways are dating and having an arranged marriage similar?

4. Have you had a community of fictive kin with people to whom you are not related?

Chapter Outline and Key Points

Introduction: Marriage and Family

Marriage practices and family organization differ across cultures. The most common type of family throughout time and across cultures has been the extended (or joint) family, with nuclear families becoming common more recently.

Defining Marriage

Marriage can be defined by three basic characteristics: sexual relations that are sanctioned by society, a division of labor in the household with shared economic resources, and the social legitimacy and legal rights of children from the union.

Spouses: How Many and Who is Eligible?

Marriage unions may be monogamous, polygynous, polyandrous, or other, based on and intertwined with the larger structures in society. Cultural rules dictate whether marriages should be exogamous or endogamous, with the exception of incest, a type of close endogamy that is (nearly) universally taboo.

Family Residence Patterns

A household consists of people who contribute to child rearing, the consumption and production of goods, and share inheritance. Nuclear families live in neolocal households, and extended families live in matrilocal or patrilocal households, depending upon the society’s marriage patterns.

Marriage as Economic Exchange

The exchange of spouses usually requires some form of economic compensation or sharing of resources, based on which extended family household welcomes the new couple. When the bride leaves her family of orientation, bride price or bride service may be required. When the groom leaves his family of orientation or a couple takes up neolocal residence, a dowry may be required. Arranged marriages have been the norm for most of human history and are still practiced today in societies around the world, such as India, where the textbook’s author has conducted field research.

Kinship

Kinship carries a set of roles based on family relationships, including fictive ones. Descent may be reckoned unilineally or bilaterally.

Glossary

affinal: related by marriage

arranged marriage: the practice in which parents find a suitable husband or wife for their child

bilateral descent: tracing one’s genealogy through both the mother’s and father’s lines

bride price: a form of marriage compensation in which the family of the groom is required to present valuable gifts to the bride’s family

bride service: a form of marriage compensation in which the family of the groom is required to work for the bride’s family

child marriage: the practice in which parents marry young girls to older men who offer to provide for them

chosen family: meaningful relationships of mutual care with people outside of biological or legal family ties, especially relating to the LGBTQ+ community

clan: a social division that separates members of a society into two groups; also called a moiety

conjugal: referring to marriage or the married couple

consanguineal: related by blood

descent group: a social group of people who trace their descent from a particular ancestor

dowry: a form of marriage compensation in which the family of the bride is required to present valuable gifts to the groom’s family or to the couple

dowry death: death of women who live in the homes of their in-laws due to unmet dowry demands

endogamy: the practice of marrying within one’s social or ancestral group

exogamy: the practice of marrying outside one’s social or ancestral group

extended family: a family unit consisting of blood-related members and their spouses; a mix of consanguineal and affinal kin

family of orientation: blood-related family members, including parents, siblings, grandparents, and other relatives

family of procreation: the family unit created by marriage or partnership, including spouses/partners and children

fictive kinship: the practice of extending the expectations and naming conventions of blood-related family members to people who are non-blood related

forced marriage: the practice in which parents demand their child marry someone the parents have chosen

fraternal polyandry: the practice of marrying brothers

group marriage: the marriage practice of having multiple spouses who may be from both sexes

hijra: a third-gender role found in India and Pakistan in which people assigned male sex at birth or intersex individuals adopt feminine gender expression

household: a domestic unit of residence in which members contribute to child rearing, inheritance, and the production and consumption of goods

incest taboo: prohibition against sexual relations with immediate family members

joint family: the term used in India to describe a family unit consisting of blood-related members and their spouses; extended family

kinship: family relations; involves a complex set of expectations and responsibilities

marriage: the practice of creating socially and legally recognized partnerships in society

marriage compensation: gifts or service exchanged between the families of a bride and groom

matrilineal descent: tracing one’s genealogy through the mother’s line

matrilocal: a residence pattern in which a husband moves to his wife’s household of orientation

monogamy: the marriage practice of having a single spouse

neolocal: a residence pattern in which a husband and wife move to their own household after marriage

nuclear family: a family unit consisting of two generations, most often parents and their children

nurture kinship: non-blood relationships based on mutual caring and attachment

patrilineal descent: tracing one’s genealogy through the father’s line

patrilocal: a residence pattern in which a wife moves to her husband’s household of orientation

polyandry: the marriage practice of having two or more husbands at the same time

polygamy: the marriage practice of having two or more spouses

polygyny: the marriage practice of having two or more wives at the same time

queer kinship: family-like bonds between members of gay, transgender, or other LGBTQ+ communities

serial monogamy: the marriage practice of taking a series of partners, one after the other

totem: a mythological ancestor linking people together in kinship ties

unilineal descent: tracing one’s genealogy through either the mother’s or father’s line

Weblinks

Open Anthropology: A Public Journal of the AAA—“Marriage and Other Arrangements” edition https://openanthroresearch.org/index.php/oarr/preprint/view/325

Living Anthropologically (blog): Explaining Kinship by Jason Antrosio

https://www.livinganthropologically.com/anthropology-2017/is-kinship-important/

Marriage and Kinship Page created by Tim Roufs (University of Minnesota) https://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/troufs/anth1604/cakinship_nav.html

Cultural Anthropology/Marriage, Reproduction, and Kinship (open-access wikibook)

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cultural_Anthropology/Marriage,_Reproduction_and_Kinship

Polygamy is rare around the world (Pew Research Center)

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/12/07/polygamy-is-rare-around-the-world-and-mostly-confined-to-a-few-regions/

Chapter 7