Southern New Hampshire University
ATH 101: Introduction to Anthropology
Week Five Notes
Egalitarian and stratified societies are on opposite sides of the spectrum. Egalitarian
societies are associated with small nomadic bands and tribes. Economic resources, power, and
prestige are available to everyone without discrimination. Societies in which individuals occupy
different status levels are referred to as stratified. The U.S. is an excellent example of a stratified
society divided into three primary classes – lower, middle, and higher. Classes in the upper
strata have greater access to resources, power, and prestige.
Sex and gender are often synonymous with one another, but they're not; sex is
biologically determined, whereas gender is culturally determined. In reality, gender is the innate
sense of being male, female, or neither (agender). Society expects that one’s biological identity
aligns with one’s gender identity; such expectations are antiquated. The Supreme Court’s
judgment on gay marriage is a good indicator that U.S. society is coming to terms with today’s
new cultural norms. Unfortunately, over the past few years, it seems we are moving backward
again.
The word family conjures up a picture of mom, dad, and 2.5 kids in our culture. As our
society evolves, we’re beginning to understand that Leave It To Beaver and Ozzie and Harriett
were fantasies based on an unrealistic ideology. So, how do we define family and, in turn,
determine family relationships? Well, that depends on your culture—just about every society on
the planet practices some form of marriage.
Types of Marriages, which are culturally driven, vary across the world. Several
examples are listed and explained below:
Polygyny is a form of marriage in which one man marries more than one woman at a
given time. There are two types - sororal and non-sororal polygyny.
Polyandry is the marriage of one woman to more than one man. It is of two types----
fraternal polyandry and non-fraternal polyandry.
Monogamy is a form of marriage in which one man marries one woman. It is the most
common and acceptable form of marriage.
Same-sex marriage: Man/man or woman/woman.
Group Marriage means the marriage of two or more women to two or more men. Here
the husbands and wives are common. Children are regarded as the children of the entire
group as a whole. This form of marriage is not officially recognized, and in some places,
it’s illegal. A new “religion” was founded in 1956 that promoted group marriage. From
1971 until 1991, it was known as the Kerista Commune. Its members touted themselves
as “having the ideal family situation,” but in reality, “feelings of jealousy and lack of
value” were widespread throughout the community (Group Marriage, 2014).
Kinship refers to culturally defined relationships between individuals commonly thought
of as having family ties. Kinship is based on marriage, descent, and, occasionally, fictive
relationships (based on friendship rather than marriage and descent). There are many kinship
patterns, including:
Anthropology and crises: How can anthropologists be part of the solution to
emergencies? Using the Ebola crisis from several years ago, let’s examine an anthropologist’s
possible roles. During the crisis, there was a discrepancy between counted and actual deaths.
Cultural anthropologists could work with officials to track morbidity and mortality rates in
regions that lack formal birth and death registrations and public health institutions.
Anthropologists can do what they do best – observe, report, interpret, and explain the
affected population’s perspectives on the Ebola response. During the crisis, before the World
Health Organization and Doctors Without Borders started bringing in anthropologists, medical
staff often had difficulty convincing families to bring their sick loved ones to clinics and
isolation wards. In Uganda, people were afraid of international health care workers.
Anthropologists were able to build bridges between the health officials and the community to
create a climate of trust.
Understanding the traditional customs of those involved is also a powerful tool. Many
African nations have cultural traditions, including touching, washing, and kissing their deceased.
Such practices helped spread Ebola. A medical anthropologist working in the field who was
familiar with these customs reached out to officials, who educated the groups on this danger,
thus reducing the number of cases.
To Summarize:
1. The job of anthropologists is to act as educators, mediators, and facilitators with the
population, to enable the response plan to be smoothly implemented.
2. Anthropologists are considered a central part of the effort to combat the outbreak
because, without their intervention, medical staff would struggle to do their jobs. “We
have reached a situation where people don’t want to hear what they’re being told” (Faye,
2014)
3. In such a difficult situation, anthropologists make recommendations, aiming to find a
balance between the fears and resistance of local people and the need to bring the
epidemic under control. For example, they have recommended that medical staff stop
using the term ‘isolation centers’ to refer to the places where people infected with Ebola
are gathered and instead use the more reassuring name ‘treatment centers’” (Faye, 2014).
Reference
Faye, S. (2014).Retrieved from http://somatosphere.net/2014/09/ten-things-that-anthropologists-
can-doto-fight-the-west-african-ebola-epidemic.html
Group Marriage. (2014). Retrieved from
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Group_marriage
