Chapter 9

1. Chapter 9 Sex, Marriage and Family

2. Sexual Relations • Among primates, the human female is unusual in her ability to engage in sexual activity whether she is fertile or not. • Every society has rules that govern sexual access.

3. Distinction Between Marriage and Mating • All animals, including humans, mate—some for life and some not, some with a single individual and some with several. • Mates are secured and held solely through personal effort and mutual consent. • Marriage is a culturally recognized right and is backed by social, political, and ideological factors that regulate sexual relations and reproductive rights and obligations.

4. Marriage • A relationship between one or more men (male or female) and one or more women (female or male) who are recognized by society as having a continuing claim to the right of sexual access to one another.

5. Social Functions of Marriage • Create relationships between men and women that regulate mating and reproduction. • Provide a mechanism for regulating the sexual division of labor. • Creates a set of family relationships that provide for the material, educational, and emotional needs of children.

6. Sexual and Marriage Practices among the Nayar • The Nayar are one of many examples of sexually permissive cultures. • A landowning warrior caste, their estates are held by corporations made up of kinsmen related in the female line. • These relatives live together in a household, with the eldest male serving as manager. • Traditionally, Nayar boys began military training around age of 7, and were away from home for significant stretches of time.

7. The Nayar: Three Traditional Transactions • Ritual Husband • Shortly before a girl experienced her first menstruation there was a ceremony that joined her with a “ritual husband” in a temporary union which did not necessarily involve sexual relations.

8. The Nayar: Three Traditional Transactions • Visiting Husband • When a young Nayar woman entered into a continuing sexual liaison with a man approved by her family, it became a formal relationship that required the man to present her with gifts three times each year until the relationship was terminated. • The man could spend the nights with her, but had no obligation to support her economically. • The woman may have had such an arrangement with more than one man at the same time.

9. The Nayar: Three Traditional Transactions • Acknowledging Paternity • When the woman became pregnant, one of the men with whom she has a relationship must acknowledge paternity by making gifts to the woman and the midwife.

10. Kin Relations • Consanguineal kin • Relatives by birth; so-called “blood” relatives. • Affinal kin • Relatives by marriage.

11. Incest Taboo Natural Aversion Theory: there is a natural aversion to sexual intercourse among those who have grown up together. Inbreeding Theory: mating between close kin produces a higher incidence of genetic defects. Family disruption Theory: mating between family members would create intense jealousies creating disfunction. Theory of Expanding Social Alliances: marry outside the immediate family creates a wider network of inter-family-alliances. • The prohibition of sexual relations between specified individuals, usually parent-child and sibling relations at a minimum.

12. Endogamy and Exogamy • Endogamy • Marriage within a particular group or category of individuals. • Exogamy • Marriage outside the group.

13. Question • ____________ are relatives by birth, or so-called "blood kin." • Affinal kin • In laws • Conjugal kin • Kith and kin • Consanguineal kin

14. Question • Consanguineal kin are relatives by birth, or so-called "blood kin."

15. Question • Marriage within a particular group of individuals is called • incest. • exogamy. • monogamy. • endogamy. • polygamy.

16. Answer: D • Marriage within a particular group of individuals is called endogamy.

17. Forms of Marriage • Monogamy • Polygyny • Polyandry • Bigamy • Group marriage • Fictive (Ghost) marriage

18. Monogamy • Monogamy is the most common form of marriage, primarily for economic reasons. • In most of the world, marriage is not based on romantic love, but on economic considerations. Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward – Married over 50 years. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/01/AR2008090102087.html

19. Serial Monogamy • A form of marriage in which a man or woman marries a series of partners. • Increasingly common among middle-class North Americans as individuals divorce and remarry. Larry King & 6th wife Shawn Southwick

20. Polygamy Vs. Polygyny • Polygamy: One individual having multiple spouses at the same time (Poly=many; gamous=marriage) • Polygyny: Marriage of a man to two or more women at the same time; a form of polygamy. Warren Jeffs, leader of a polygamist seck known as the Fundamentalist church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. – Arrested 2006, for rape Sentenced , 2007 to 10yrs. Colorado City, AZ & Hilsdale, UT.

21. Polyandry In Tibet, where inheritance is in the male line and arable land is limited, the marriage of brothers to a single woman (fraternal polyandry) keeps the land together by preventing it from being repeatedly subdivided among sons from one generation to the next. • Marriage of a woman to two or more men at one time; a form of polygamy. Also provides male labor for the Tibetan mixed economy of farming, herding, and trading.

22. Bigamy • Bigamy: Two simultaneous monogamous marriages.

23. Group (Co-) Marriage • Marriage in which several men and women have sexual access to one another. Ex: Among members of an Eskimo hunting crew a headman could lend his wife to a crew member who could then borrow his wife in turn. The families enter into a partnership relationship that can be as strong as kinship where the children are raised with retained recognition of the relationship.

24. Fictive (Ghost) Marriage • Marriage by proxy to the symbols of someone not physically present to establish the social status of a spouse and heirs. • Ex: In the Nuer culture (who are cattle herders) of southern Sudan a woman can marry a man who has died without any heirs. • The deceased man’s brother may stand-in on his behalf & if they have offspring the children will be considered the dead mans legitimate heirs.

25. Cousin Marriage • 19 states allow first cousin marriages in US. • 31 states do not allow it. • In some societies, the preferred spouse for a man is his father’s brother’s daughter, known as patrilateral parallel-cousin marriage. (Arabs, ancient Israelites & Greeks). • Parallel cousin marriage • Some societies favor matrilateral cross-cousin marriage—marriage of a man to his mother’s brother’s daughter, or a woman to her father’s sister’s son. • Cross cousin marriage

26. Arguments Against Same Sex Marriage • Marriage has always been between males and females. • Same-sex marriages have been documented for a number of societies in Africa but in other parts of the world as well. • Same-sex unions legitimize gays and lesbians, whose sexual orientations have been widely regarded as unnatural. • Neither cross-cultural studies nor studies of other animal species suggest that homosexual behavior is unnatural.

27. Arguments Against Same Sex Marriage • The function of marriage is to produce children. • Marriage involves economic, political, and legal considerations. • It is increasingly common for same-sex partners to have children through adoption or reproductive technologies.

28. Marriage Exchanges • Bride-price • Payment of money from the groom’s to the bride’s kin. • 46% of all societies, most widely found in Africa (82% of societies). • Bride service • The groom is expected to work for a period of time for the bride’s family. • Often moves in with them to help hunt, etc. • Found in approximately 14% of societies. • Dowry • Payment of a woman’s inheritance at the time of marriage to her or her husband. • Found in less than 3% of societies

29. Dowry • In some societies when a woman marries, she receives her share of the family inheritance which she brings to her new family. Shown here are Slovakian women carrying the objects of a woman’s dowry.

30. Question • Bride __________ refers to the period of time a groom is expected to work for his bride's family. • price • service • period • exchange • work

31. Answer: B • Bride service refers to the period of time a groom is expected to work for his bride's family.

32. Divorce Factors contributing to divorce: • Many marriages are based on ideals of romantic love or the idealization of youth. • Establishing an intimate bond in a society in which people are taught to seek individual gratification is difficult.

33. Marriage & Family • Family – consists of people who consider themselves related by blood, marriage or adoption. • Nuclear Vs. Extended families • Married couples; couples w/ kids; single parents with child/ren; polygamous spouses w/ kids/ - to – several generations of parents w/ kids. • Patrilineal Vs. Matrilineal

34. Functions of the Family The family fulfills basic needs or functions within the society. Functions: • Socialization of children • Care of the sick and aged • Recreation • Sexual control • Reproduction • Economic productivity

35. Household • Basic residential unit in which economic production, consumption, inheritance, child rearing, and shelter are organized and carried out. • i.e., Family members that live in the same house.

36. Forms of the Family • Conjugal family • A family consisting of one (or more) man (who may be a female) married to one (or more) woman (who may be a male), and their offspring. • Consanguineal family • Related women, their brothers, and the women’s offspring.

37. Forms of the Family • Nuclear family • A group consisting of one or more parents and dependent offspring, which may include a stepparent, stepsiblings, and adopted children. • Extended family • A collection of nuclear families, related by ties of blood, that live in one household.

38. Nuclear Families and the Inuit • Among Inuit people in Canada who still hunt for much of their food, nuclear families are typical. Their isolation from other relatives is usually temporary. Much of the time they are found in groups of at least a few related families.

39. Extended Family • In the Maya communities of Central America and Mexico, sons bring their wives to live in houses built on the edges of a small open plaza, on one edge of which their father’s house already stands. All members of the family work together for the common good and deal with outsiders as a single unit.

40. Household Types in the United States in 2000

41. Five Basic Residence Patterns • Patrilocal • Matrilocal • Ambilocal • Neolocal • Avunculocal

42. Residence Patterns • Patrilocal residence • A residence pattern in which a married couple lives in the locality associated with the husband’s father’s relatives. • Matrilocal residence • A residence pattern in which a married couple lives in the locality associated with the wife’s relatives.

43. Residence Patterns • Ambilocal residence • A pattern in which a married couple may choose either matrilocal or patrilocal residence. • Neolocal residence • A pattern in which a married couple may establish their household in a location apart from either the husband’s or the wife’s relatives.

44. Residence Patterns • Avunculocal residence • Residence of a married couple with the husband’s mother’s brother.

45. Families in a Globalized World • Many of China’s 114 million migrant laborers work in factories and live in factory dormitories such as this.