anthropology paper

Anthropological analysis of family connections

How do anthropologists understand kinship?

Kinship is important to many people.

Anthropologists use “kinship terms” to figure out the patterns of different systems.

We have our own way of talking and drawing about kinship.

CONSANGUINITY AFFINITY

¡ People connected through shared descent, in the form of a lineage or the form of a bilateral kindred

¡ “blood” ¡ order of nature

¡ People connected through a legal alliance, what we usually call marriage

¡ “law” ¡ order of law

Dark blue = LINEAL ancestors and descendents

Light blue = COLLATERAL sibling lines

¡ EGO (or X)= Ego/Self ¡ M=mother ¡ F=father ¡ D=daughter ¡ S=son

¡ Z=sister ¡ B=brother ¡ H=husband ¡ W=wife

EGO is the person from whose perspective the kin chart is being created.

¡ Lineal kin ¡ Collateral kin

¡ Unilineal systems § Patrilineal § Matrilineal

¡ Bilateral kindreds § Matrilateral § Patrilateral

¡ Ego ¡ Ego-centered network

¡ Monogamy ¡ Polygamy

§ Polygyny § Polyandry

¡ The incest taboo

¡ Locality § Matrilocal § Patrilocal § Neolocal

DESCENT

¡ Unilineal § Patrilineal § Matrilineal

¡ Bilateral kindred § Matrilateral § Patrilateral

PATRILINEAGE: IN BLUE

MARRIAGE

¡ Polyamory ¡ Monogamy § “serial

monogamy” ¡ Polygamy § Polygyny § Polyandry

MONOGAMY

When a couple gets married, they live…

¡ In their own house § NEOLOCAL

¡ With bride’s family § MATRILOCAL

¡ With groom’s family § PATRILOCAL

ENDOGAMY (MARRY WITHIN GROUP)

EXOGAMY (MARRY OUT OF GROUP)

¡ Village – Yanomamo

¡ Lineage – Hebrews

¡ Caste – Brahmans

¡ Class – United States

¡ Incest taboo § “close family” § Nuclear family universal § Others vary cross-culturally ▪ Unilineal descent group ▪ Some cousins ▪ Some parental siblings

¡ Lineage

¡ What is it?

¡ Why does it exist?

¡ Is it universal? If so, what is universal about it?

¡ Is it functional in some way?

¡ Is it symbolic? How would a structuralist analyze it?

¡ Biblical guidelines and civil guidelines

¡ Mostly focuses on ideas of biology and blood

¡ Consanguineal exogamy

¡ Also considered in poor taste to marry in-laws, step-siblings, etc.

¡ Affinal exogamy

¡ Lineage exogamy ¡ Ideal: a man should marry

his “cross cousin” – his father’s sister’s daughter (FSD) or his mother’s brother’s daughter (MBD)

¡ Cross-cousin marriage § Cross cousin: a cousin

connected by siblings of the opposite sex

§ Parallel cousin: a cousin connected by siblings of the same sex (don’t marry!)

¡What are the qualities of the dominant system of kinship in the US? § Bilateral kindred organized in ego-centered network

§ “Relatives” – with degrees of distance within the bilateral ego-centered network

§ Two types of relatives: kin by blood vs. kin by law

§ Marriage: monogamous, expected neolocality, often endogamous by class, race, religion; changing norms around gender exogamous marriage

MATRILATERAL PATRILATERAL

“two hands one heart” reconciling BLOOD and LAW

Schneider’s theory Marriage in US culture represents the unity and transcendence of the two key modes of kinship: BLOOD and LAW The “love and faithfulness” that we center our marriages around represents the reconciliation of NATURAL affection with CULTURAL rules This is the “mediation of contradictions” in structuralist terms

¡ Tibetan highlands ¡ Scarce resources and

limited land base ¡ Women can marry sets

of brothers ¡ Form of marriage that

limits reproduction and population growth, as well as keeping land in the family

POLYANDRY

¡ Serena Nanda “Arranging a Marriage in India” ¡ Western images of arranged marriages often say more about US

cultural ideals than those of people who practice arranged marriage– it is seen as incompatible with the individualism, freedom, and love ideally central to US marriages

EXAMPLE 3: SAME-SEX MARRIAGE AND THE IDEAL OF THE “NUCLEAR FAMILY”

¡ In the US, recently more and more people who are in a monogamous homosexual relationship have been getting married and raising children

¡ This is often done by replicating the social forms and rituals associated with the hetero- normative nuclear family unit

¡ This both challenges and reinforces dominant cultural patterns and values

¡ Next week we will conduct activities around kinship types/ideal systems, and the distance between ideal models and real practices

¡ Our family charts don’t look like the abstract models

¡ Any more than our families look or act like the “ideal American family” of Mother, Father, Dick, Jane, and Sally, Spot and Puff

¡ What’s the difference between ideal and real, between norm and practice?