ANTH 1000 1st Edition Final Exam Study Guide Lectures 15 20 Lecture 15 April 8 Marriage Marks a change of status person s position in society and role the part a person plays in a society Role in our society Adult homemaker provider obligations expectations Definition Understanding universal but difficult to define cross culturally Typically culturally sanctioned union between 2 people that establishes certain rights and obligations between them their children and in laws Frequently includes agreements regarding sex labor property child rearing exchange status Endogamy marriage within a particular group pure blood religion power land Exogamy marriage outside a group promotes co operation between groups extends political alliances Forms of Marriage Group marriage Several men and women have sexual access to each other Rare e g Eskimos Northern Alaska Enhances mutual aid and support Monogamy both partners have one spouse can be serial Polygamy one partner has more than one spouse Two types Choice of Partner Individual choice Arranged marriages Same sex partners Nandi pastoralists Kenya Polygynous Older women with no sons may marry a younger woman Female husband adopts male role and dress Marriage Rules Preferential rule of marriage if a spouse dies Levirate widow marries brother of dead husband Sororate widower marries sister of dead wife Economic Aspects Bride price bridewealth compensation from groom to bride s family Bride service work provided by groom for bride s family Exchange of females Dowry payment of woman s inheritance to her or husband Lecture 16 April 13 Gender Social Identity Enculturation teaches you how to think speak feel eat act etc within the first few years of life Enculturation begins in the home Children learn by watching participating and mocking Enculturation reaches outside the home in later years Peers and or professionals Self awareness the ability to identify oneself as an individual to reflect on oneself and to evaluate oneself Attach positive value to one s self Naming Ceremony a special even or ritual to mark the naming of a child Ceremony helps to establish social identity Sex vs Gender Sex biological sex based on appearance of external genitalia assigned at birth Sexual dimorphism biological and behavioral differences between males and females Gender the sociocultural construction of masculine and feminine roles and the qualities assigned to those roles Gender role task and behavior assigned by a culture to each sex Work Hunter gatherer pastoralist Behavior aggressive demure Sexual partner opposite gender in some cultures Not Cross Cultural Sexual Orientation All human activities and preferences including erotic expression are at least partially culturally constructed Individuals in a society differ in the nature range and intensity of their sexual interests and urges Culture molds individual sexual urges toward a collective norm Sexual norms vary cross culturally and through time Attitudes about masturbation bestiality and homosexuality vary widely between and within societies In some societies e g Azande Etoro various forms of same sex sexual activity are considered normal and acceptable Homosexual behavior among the Etoro Extreme tension surrounding male female sexual relations Belief that semen gave life force to a fetus Men believed to have limited supply of semen Sexuality depleted this supply sapping male virility and vitality Heterosexual intercourse necessary for reproduction but eventually leads to man s death Thus heterosexual sex discouraged and removed from community life Homosexual behavior among the Etoro continued Heterosexual sex discouraged but sex between males viewed as essential Boys inseminated orally by older men so they could grow into men and give life force to their children Such homosexual acts took place in the village and governed by a code of propriety Sexual relations between older and younger males essential but those between boys of the same age were discouraged Lecture 17 April 20 Kinship Functions of a Kinship System Organizes people into groups Directs people s behaviors role One way in which status is determined Ascribed status vs achieved status Provides security for its members Relationships Consanguineal relatives Kin related by blood Affinal kin Kin related by marriage A group of individuals that share an identity traceable to a common ancestor can be real or fictional Unilineal Descent Groups Lineage a group that can trace its consanguineal ancestry back several generations to a specific individual Patrilineage Matrilineage Nonunilineal Descent Groups Bilateral descent includes Ego s consanguineal relatives on both his her mother s and father s side Kindred calculation of the degree of relationship to Ego Only siblings have the same kindred Second level descent groups Individuals first belong to a lineage Kin based societies who practice horticulture or pastoralism think population numbers Associations Based on Decent Clan Group consisting of 2 or more lineages that share a common ancestor in a mythical past either exo endogamous Totem mythical ancestor or symbol Phratry group of more than 1 clan usually exogamous Reasons Each descent type is put in place to force a network of relationships Normally exogamous Reciprocity Marriage partners Cross and parallel cousins Group order Kinship Terminology Kinship Terms designate culturally relationships between individuals constructed social Three main kinship systems Eskimo Iroquois Hawaiian Lecture 18 April 22 Belief Systems Wallace religion belief and ritual concerned with supernatural beings powers and forces Anthropologists stressed collective shared and enacted nature of religion the emotions it generates and the meanings it embodies Durkheim religious effervescence collective emotional intensity generated by worship Turner communitas intense community spirit a feeling of great social solidarity equality and togetherness Spiritual beings Tylor religion born as people tried to understand conditions and events they could not explain Tylor proposed that religion evolved through three stages animism then polytheism and finally monotheism Animism the earliest form of religion was a belief in spiritual beings Originated from peoples attempts to explain dreams and trances Polytheism belief in multiple gods Monotheism belief in a single all powerful deity Powers and Forces Mana sacred impersonal force that can reside in people animals plants and objects Prominent in