ANTH 210 1st Edition Final Exam Study Guide Weeks 10 11 Week 10 April 6 8 10 What is a descent group A descent group is a permanent social unit whose members claim common ancestry Descent groups can be a lineage or group whose members can trace their common descent from a common ancestor or a clan which is a group whose members who claim common descent but cannot trace it This common ancestor from which the group is descended is called the apical ancestor Example The Betsileo people of Madagascar have both clans and lineages using a totem nonhuman aka animal or plant as the apical ancestor of a clan What is the difference between matrilineal and patrilineal descent Matrilineal descent is descent traced through the mother s line and patrilineal descent is descent traced through the father s line Patrilineal descent is practiced by most non foragers including us here in America since children traditionally take the father s last name There is also ambilineal descent which is descent traced through both parents lines Most foragers practice ambilineal descent How do patrilocality and matrilocality fit in Patrilocality means that after a couple marries they go to live with the husband s descent group Matrilocality means you guessed it they go live with the wife s descent group Neolocality is what we usually have here in America which means the couple goes to live somewhere new What is marriage Marriage is a mutually maintained long term reproductive relationship and often a way to socially acknowledge sexual relations and economic cooperation There are three major forms of marriage Monogamy marriage of only two people o Most common form of marriage worldwide o Limitations of monogamy may lead to mistresses and serial monogamy marrying one person divorcing marrying a different person etc Polygyny marriage of one man to multiple wives o Practiced in 80 of populations but not necessarily by the majority of those populations o Sororal polygyny in which a man marries his wife s sister in the event that his wife dies is common Polyandry marriage of one woman to multiple husbands o Associated with heritable land in Tibet o Fraternal polyandry in which the woman is married to men who are brothers is most common o Usually comes about when women are scarce of subsistence is difficult What s the difference between endogamy and exogamy Endogamy is marriage within a group exogamy is marriage outside a group In most cultures there are rules about marriage Marriage must be exogamous of lineage for example In other words you can t marry anyone that your culture defines as your relative Around 30 of cultures define some type of cousin as preferred marital partner with cross cousins as the most common father s sister s child because it maintains wealth within the family Why do people get married Edmond Leach defined the kinds of rights allocated by marriage Establish legal parentage of children Monopoly in the sexuality of the other Rights over the other s property Establish a join fund of property for children Establish a socially significant relationship of affinity between spouses and relatives Same sex marriage can give all the benefits listed by Leach but some US states still deny same sex couples those rights and benefits What is marriage like in other cultures Outside industrial societies marriage often is more a relationship between groups than one between individuals Romantic love can exist but marriage is a group concern People don t just take a spouse they assume obligations to a group of in laws Marriage is often marked by an elaborate ceremony and there is great deal of variance across cultures in the perception of divorce the percentage of marriages that end in divorce Week 11 April 13 15 17 What is globalization Globalization is a series of processes that promote change in a world in which nations and people are increasingly interlinked and mutually dependent Globalization is a fact nations are increasingly connected by increasing speed of global communication and scale of networks as well as an ideology the world should be considered as a whole not a collection of nations Some cultures spread or advance of one culture at the expense of others which they modify replace or destroy in an ideology called cultural imperialism What are the effects of globalization Globalization has led to increased industrialization which required a shift from renewable resources to fossil fuels To put the increased energy usage of industrial subsistence methods into perspective the average American consumes about 35 times more energy than average forager The US represents 20 4 of the world s energy use and many contemporary nations are following its path of resource depletion So This increased usage of energy has led to climate change which is the overall shift in worldwide temperatures due to human intervention in natural cycles As humans produce more carbon dioxide methane nitrous oxide and halocarbons heat is prevented from escaping the atmosphere To make matters worse industrialization also wipes out forests that could help clean the atmosphere Deforestation can be caused by demographic pressure commercial logging road building cash cropping fuelwood and clearing associated with livestock but can only be stopped if the reasons to change behavior must sense to local people As Monica Heller put it Climate change is not a natural problem it is a human problem