Anthropology Kinship and Marriage Vocab

Unilineal Descent

implies that people place importance on either their father's or mother's side of the family (but not both).

Patrilineal Descent

occurs where people trace their primary kinship connections to the ancestors and living relatives of their fathers.

Matrilineal
descent

occurs where people trace their
primary kinship connections to the ancestors and living
relatives of their mothers.

Cognatic descent

no formal principle or rule about
whether individuals join the groups of their mothers or
fathers.

Bilateral
descent

Kinship is traced through both genders,
and the relatives on both sides are seen as equally
important.

Domestic group

those individuals who live together in a
single household

Descent Group

a permanent social unit whose members
claim a common ancestry--eg.
lineage(demonstrated)
clan (stipulated)

Consanguines

people related by birth

Affines

people
related by marriage

Family

of group of people who are considered related in
some way.

Family of Orientation

family into which a person is
born

Family of Procreation

family that a person forms through
his or her marriage

Exogamy:

an individual is
prohibited from marrying within
her or his family, kin group, village, etc.

Endogamy

an individual must marry someone in his or her
own social group

marry out or die out" hypothesis:

incest taboo forces
people to marry outside their group, thus
extending the
circle of peaceful relationships, increasing the number
of allies

Instinctive revulsion

based on biological need to avoid
incest since a prohibition on incest is found in all
human societies, and since it is concerned with a
biological act

Biological degeneration"
explanation

that incest or
inbreeding leads to deterioration
because of
harmful
recessive genes in a population

Polygamy

plural spouses, of any
kind

Polygyny

one man is allowed multiple wives

Sororal Polygyny

one man is
married to multiple sisters

Polyandry

one woman is allowed multiple husbands

Group marriage

several women and men are allowed to be
married simultaneously to one another

Marriage Alliance

indicates a change of status, with
new responsibilities and/or wider social relationships

Marital Exchange

An economic exchange between groups
prior to the marriage

Bride-Wealth

requires a man and his relatives to
transfer goods
to the relatives of the bride

Bride-Service

when a husband spends a period of time
working for the bride's family

Dowry

when the family of the bride transfers
to her and her husband part of their property; couple gets
a share
of the woman's inheritance

Viri/patrilocal

couples go to live with or near the
parents of the husband

Uxori/matrilocal

couples live with or near the wife's
parents

Bilocal

residence is optional between either the wife's
or husband's kin

Neolocal

couples live apart from both sets of parents,
establishing a separate dwelling and independent
household

Avunculocal

couples live with the maternal uncle of the husband

Doctrine of
Separate
Spheres

men ruled the public
sphere of economy and polity, while women ruled and
children inhabited the 'private' sphere of the household.

Childhood

a special and valued period of life while
humans are depicted as innocent beings in need of
prolonged protection and care.

Romantic Love
Between Marriage
Partners

dates only to the
nineteenth century.

Cross
Cousins

children of either your father's sister or
your mother's brother

Parallel cousins

children of either your father's
brother or your mother's sister