Marriage and the Family

UNIT-4

1
What we will learn in this
Unit
• What do anthropologists mean by the term “family” and is
the family found in all cultures?
• What functions do family and marriage systems perform?
• Who can marry whom?
• What economic considerations are associated with
marriage in the world’s contemporary societies?
• How have modern family structures changed?

2
Family
It is a social unit characterized by:
◦ Economic cooperation
◦ Management of reproduction
◦ Child rearing
◦ Common residence
◦ A male and female adult who
maintain a socially approved
relationship

3
Marriage
• It involves series of customs which formalize the
relationship between adult partners within the family.
 Regulates the relationship between a married couple
(i.e., economic rights and obligations;
 Usually involves an explicit contract or understanding
and is entered into with the assumption that it will be
permanent;
 Family members share some kind of common
residence.
4
Social Functions of Marriage
• Creates relationships between men and
women
• Provides a mechanism for regulating the
gender division of labor
• Creates a set of family relationships that
provides for the material, educational, and
emotional needs of children
5
Spouse/Mate Selection: Whom
Should You Marry?
Cultures restrict choice of marriage partners
through:
• Exogamy
• Endogamy
• Arranged marriages
• Preferential cousin marriage
• Levirate
• Sororate
6
Exogamy
Exogamy: rule requiring marriage outside of one’s own
social or kinship group.
 In societies such as the United States and Canada, the
exogamous group extends only slightly beyond the nuclear
family.
 When viewed cross-culturally, rules of exogamy based on
kinship do not appear to be based on the closeness of
blood ties.

7
Endogamy
Endogamy: rule requiring marriage within a specified social or
kinship group.
Endogamy may be applied to different social units, such as to the
village or local community, as was the case among the Incas of Peru,
or to racial groups, as was practiced in the Republic of South Africa
for much of the twentieth century.
Hindu castes in traditional India are strongly endogamous. Caste
endogamy is also found in a somewhat less rigid form among the
Rwanda and Banyankole of eastern central Africa.

8
Endogamy in the USA
• At one time in the U.S., interracial marriage was against the
law.
• Although these laws no longer exist, the majority of Blacks
and Whites in the United States continue to practice racial
endogamy.
• A general de facto endogamy is found in the United States
resulting from the fact that people do not have frequent
social contacts with people from different backgrounds
(e.g., class, ethnicity, religion, and race).
9
Arranged Marriages
Arranged Marriage is any marriage in which the
selection of the spouse is outside the control of
the bride and groom.
In Western societies, with their strong
emphasis on individualism, mate selection is
largely a decision made jointly by the
prospective bride and groom.
10
Arranged Marriages
 In many societies, however, the interests of the families
are so strong that marriages are arranged marriages.
Negotiations are handled by family members of the
prospective bride and groom, and for all practical
purposes, the decision of whom one will marry is made
primarily by one’s parents or other influential relatives.
 Arranged marriages are often found in societies that have
elaborate social hierarchies; perhaps the best example is
Hindu India
11
Preferential Cousin Marriage
Preferential Cousin Marriage is a preferred form
of marriage between either parallel or cross
cousins
• Cross cousins: children of one’s mother’s
brother or father’s sister
• Parallel cousins: children of one’s mother’s
sister or father’s brother
12
Preferential Cousin Marriage
 The most common form of preferential cousin marriage is
between cross cousins because such a union strengthens
and maintains the ties between kin groups established by
the marriages that took place in the preceding generation.
In this, a man originally marries a woman from an
unrelated family, and then their son marries his mother’s
brother’s daughter (cross cousin) in the next generation.
Because a man’s wife and his son’s wife come from the
same family, the ties between the two families tend to be
solidified.
13
Levirate
Levirate: The practice of a man marrying the widow of a deceased brother.
 Such a custom serves as a form of social security for the widow and her
children and preserves the rights of the husband’s family to her future
children. The levirate, practiced in a wide variety of societies in Oceania,
Asia, Africa, and India, is closely associated with placing high value on
having male heirs.
 In more recent times, particularly in India, widows are not always
supported by their dead husband’s families. It has been estimated that 44
million widows in India live in abject poverty because their husband’s
families have chosen not to support them. These widows cannot return to
their natal families because they severed those ties when they married.

14
Sororate
Sororate: The practice of a woman
marrying the husband of her deceased
sister.
This custom serves as a form of social
security for the children.

15
Economic Considerations of
Marriage

1. Bridewealth
2. Bride service
3. Dowry

16
Bridewealth
It is the compensation given upon marriage by the
family of the groom to the family of the bride
 Approximately 46 percent of all societies give
substantial bridewealth payment as part of the
marriage process.
 Bridewealth is most widely found in Africa, where it
is estimated that 82 percent of societies require the
payment of bridewealth.
17
Bridewealth
 Bridewealth is paid in a wide variety
of currencies, but in almost all cases
the commodity used for payment is
highly valued in the society. For
example, reindeer are given as
bridewealth by the reindeer-herding
Chukchee in Siberia, and cattle by Among the Maasai of Kenya
and Tanzania, cows are used
the pastoral Maasai, Samburu, and as the medium of exchange in
Nuer of eastern Africa. marriage transactions.

18
Bridewealth
 Since the mid-twentieth century, bridewealth has become
“monetized” (that is, money is becoming the typical
medium of exchange). Because traditional bridewealth
solidifies long-term ties between two entire lineages, the
bride and groom did not benefit directly from the
exchange. However, when bridewealth becomes tied to
money that can be earned by the individual prospective
groom, the close interdependence of family members
(and their sanctioning of the marriage) becomes much
less important.
19
Bridewealth
Today a growing number of wage
earners in societies that practiced
traditional bridewealth are becoming
independent of their kinship group
when it comes time to get married.

20
Bride Service
Bride Service: Men give labor to the bride’s family in
exchange for a wife.
• Husband often moves in with his bride’s family,
works or hunts for them, and serves a probationary
period of several weeks to several years.
• Found in approximately 14 percent of societies.

21
Dowry
It is the transfer of goods or money from bride’s family to the
groom or the groom’s family.
• Practiced in less than 3 percent of societies.
• If the marriage ends in divorce, the woman is entitled to
take the dowry with her.
• Dowry deaths remain one of the top acts of violence
against women in India. For 2010 it means a bride was
burned every 90 minutes (for not bringing in the required
dowry).
22
Divorce
• Divorce is the legal and formal dissolution of a marriage.
• Divorce arrangements found in the many cultures of the
world vary widely.
◦ Organizations such as the Roman Catholic Church
prohibit divorce outright.
◦ A Hopi woman from Arizona could divorce her husband
easily by simply putting his belongings outside the door.

23
Factors in the Divorce Rate
• As a general rule, divorce rates are lower in
societies with strong kinship bonds and large
bridewealth payments.
• Industrialization and urbanization have
undermined traditional functions of the family.
• Less stigma attached to divorce than in the
past.
24
 25

Divorce Rates in the United

States

*Provisional

Source: US Department of Health

and Human Services 2013; the
National Center for Health
Statistics 2013 (www.cdc.gov).

25
Marriage: Continuity and
Change
• As with any aspect of culture, marriage practices
and customs change over time. In some cultures,
and at certain times in their histories, changes are
rapid and far reaching, whereas at other times
these customary practices remain fairly stable.
 In the United States, for example, marital practices
(at least in the Christian tradition) have not
undergone widespread changes.
26
Marriage: Continuity and
Change
 In contemporary Japanese society, however, changes in wedding
practices have occurred both dramatically and rapidly. Until just
several decades ago, the overwhelming majority of Japanese were
married according to the traditional Shinto wedding ceremony
conducted at a religious shrine by a Shinto priest and attended by
only the close family members of the bride and groom. Most
Japanese weddings today, however, are conducted in Western-
style hotels, the bride wears a white wedding gown and the groom
is clad in a tuxedo, and the ceremony is officiated by an English
speaking American or European wearing white vestments who
does not need to be a formal priest.
27
Family Structure
Cultural anthropologists have identified two
fundamentally different types of family
structure:
1. The nuclear family
2. The extended family

28
Nuclear Family
It is the most basic unit, composed of the husband, wife, and children.
 It is based on marital ties.
 Even though the nuclear family to some degree is part of a larger family
structure, it remains an autonomous and independent unit. That is, the
everyday needs of economic support, child care, and social interaction are
met within the nuclear family itself rather than by a wider set of relatives.
 In societies based on the nuclear family, it is customary for married couples to
live apart from both sets of parents (neolocal residence). The married couple
is also not particularly obliged or expected to care for their aging parents in
their own home.

29
Extended Family
Extended family: The family that includes, in one
household, relatives in addition to the nuclear
family.
 It is a much larger social unit, is based on blood
ties among three or more generations of kin.
 Most commonly this takes the form of a
married couple living with one or more of their
married children in a single household or
through sibling ties, consisting of two or more
married brothers and their wives and children.

30
Modern-Day Family Structure in
the USA
• Moving in with relatives, especially
parents, has helped fuel the largest
increase in the number of Americans
living in multigenerational households
(composed of two or more generations) in
modern history. It has provided a financial
lifeline for many households.
31
Modern-Day Family Structure in
the USA
• A number of factors are responsible for this rise in the number of
multigenerational households, including:
1. The high unemployment rate
2. The high cost of housing and living
3. Growing expenses for child and elder care
4. The 1996 welfare reform law requiring teenage mothers to live with a
responsible adult to receive welfare benefits
5. Traditionally, African American families have maintained extended kinship
ties to support family
6. Immigrant families have family traditions for staying together while they
acculturate in the United States

32
American Family Structure:
1970–2010

33
 Thanks!

Any Questions?

34