Deck 10: Kinship and Descent

Question 1

A kinship diagram of a married couple,their children,and their children's children includes:

A) four generations; therefore four rows of kinship figures.
B) three generations; therefore three rows of kinship figures.
C) only affinal relatives.
D) only consanguineal relatives.
E) only vertical lines of kinship.

Answer 1

three generations; therefore three rows of kinship figures.

Question 2

An "aunt" or "uncle" who has no biological or marital relationship is an example of:

A) a cross cousin.
B) fictive kin.
C) an affine.
D) a parallel cousin.
E) a consanguine.

Answer 2

fictive kin.

Question 3

Patrilineal descent groups:

A) are the most common of the unilineal descent groups.
B) are found only in North and South America.
C) trace descent through lines of females; for example, the mother, mother's mother, sister's daughter, and so on.
D) are ones in which a woman's children are members of her descent group.
E) are ones in which a woman's female children are members of her descent group, while her male children are always allied with their father.

Answer 3

are the most common of the unilineal descent groups.

Question 4

The Navajo (New Mexico)system of kinship:

A) is based entirely on fictive kin.
B) strictly governs the behavior of members of the same clan.
C) requires people to find marriage partners within their own clan.
D) allows clan members to marry and form extended families.
E) is no different from that of the rest of the United States.

Question 5

Who is a "consanguine"?

A) someone related by blood
B) someone related by marriage
C) a relationship of fictive kin
D) a cousin through the mother's side
E) a cousin through the father's side

Question 6

A kinship diagram of a son,father,grandfather,and great grandfather would include:

A) affinal relatives.
B) collateral relatives.
C) two genders.
D) lineal relatives.
E) exogamous relatives.

Question 7

What is "partible paternity"?

A) a relationship in which more than one father raises the child
B) belief that paternity cannot be determined for a child
C) belief that a child descends biologically only from the father
D) cultural belief that a child has more than one mother
E) cultural belief that a child has more than one biological father

Question 8

The most important factor contributing to social structure in small-scale societies is:

A) political activities.
B) religious activities.
C) kinship.
D) cultural mythology.
E) gender.

Question 9

Traditional Chinese families are good examples of:

A) bilateral kinship.
B) matrilineal kinship.
C) double descent.
D) patrilineal kinship.
E) cognatic unilineal descent.

Question 10

Which of the following is not a reason kinship systems are important to every society?

A) They establish patterns of cooperation between men and women and a basis for rearing children.
B) They extend one's relationships to a larger group of people.
C) They help people adapt to interpersonal and environmental challenges.
D) They provide a way to share certain pieces of property that cannot be divided.
E) They allow outsiders to identify individuals within a cultural and social setting.

Question 11

The term descent is used by anthropologists to refer to:

A) the rules a culture uses to establish affiliations with one's parents.
B) the rules a culture uses to establish affiliations with one's siblings.
C) all blood and marriage relationships that help people distinguish between categories of kin.
D) all marriage relationships that help people distinguish between different categories of kin.
E) all blood relationships that help people distinguish between different categories of kin.

Question 12

Which statement about the Chinese patrilineal family is false?

A) It is male focused.
B) Women give their total allegiance to their husband's family.
C) Children must show deference and obedience to their parents.
D) Inheritance is passed from a man to his son.
E) Ancestor worship is practiced even after the parents have died.

Question 13

Anthropologists,as compared to other social scientists,have spent a great deal of time studying kinship because they have:

A) always focused largely on biological relationships.
B) concentrated mainly on small-scale societies where kinship relations tend to be important.
C) always studied fictional relationships and how societies are organized socially and politically.
D) concentrated on industrial societies where kinship relations tend to be important and affect the individual's ability to survive.
E) have found that kinship is the single most significant factor in social organization in every human society.

Question 14

Cross-culturally,most kinship systems:

A) provide few links between successive generations.
B) provide few ties across a single generation.
C) provide links between successive generations and ties across a single generation.
D) only link successive generations and do not tie across generations.
E) provides links and ties to all members of a family regardless of biology.

Question 15

A kinship diagram of EGO and all of her children and her cousins would include:

A) the lineal relatives which belong to a clan.
B) collateral relatives.
C) a lineage.
D) lineal relatives.
E) vertical relatives.

Question 16

All of the following are criteria used to distinguish between different kin categories except:

A) generation.
B) gender.
C) side of the family.
D) level of formal education.
E) relative age.

Question 17

Unilineal descent systems:

A) are very rarely found today in the world.
B) comprise the majority of the world's kinship designations.
C) are found only among hunters and gatherers.
D) are found today, but were not utilized in the past.
E) are no longer used today in any society.

Question 18

EGO refers to the:

A) oldest living relative.
B) oldest living relative on the father's side.
C) person from whose point of view we are tracing the relationship.
D) person who is drawing the kinship chart.
E) Eldest Grandparent of Origin.

Question 19

The rules that a culture uses to establish affiliations with one's parents is called:

A) exogamy.
B) endogamy.
C) cognatic lineage.
D) lineality.
E) descent.

Question 20

In all human societies,kinship is tied to the biological relationships created by human reproduction.However:

A) how different societies sort and categorize kinship relationships is as much a matter of culture as it is of biology.
B) bilateral descent systems are less influenced by culture than others.
C) unilineal descent systems are seldom influenced by cultural definitions of social relationships.
D) ambilateral descent systems are the least influenced by culture than others.
E) how different societies classify kin is a direct interpretation and representation of biology and biological relationships.

Question 21

Individuals,except for siblings,have a unique kindred in a:

A) patrilineal descent system.
B) bilateral descent system.
C) unilineal descent system.
D) matrilineal descent system.
E) segmentary cognatic system.

Question 22

Your father's sister's children and your mother's brother's children are your:

A) parallel cousins.
B) patrilineal kin.
C) cross cousins.
D) matrilineal kin.
E) vertical kin.

Question 23

Unilineal descent systems with moieties:

A) always have clans.
B) always have lineages.
C) always have phratries.
D) always have bilateral descent.
E) may or may not have phratries, clans, and lineages.

Question 24

Unilineal descent groups last over time and have a corporate nature,which means all of the following except:

A) they shape a person's identity in some significant way.
B) they are subordinate only to religious figures in the society.
C) they regulate marriage, and kin on both the bride and groom's sides must give approval.
D) they control property such as land and animals.
E) they function as a political unit.

Question 25

Neolocal residence means:

A) changing residence from that of the relatives of the husband to those of the wife approximately every two years.
B) living near the relatives of the husband.
C) living near the relatives of the wife.
D) living in a place of one's own.
E) living near the bride's mother's brother.

Question 26

The post-marital residence pattern characterized by the couple living with or near the parents of the bride is called:

A) patrilocal.
B) bilocal.
C) matrilocal.
D) neolocal.
E) avunculocal.

Question 27

In matrilineal descent systems:

A) women have greater power and authority than men.
B) men control the inheritance and determine the matriline of their children.
C) property and political office pass from one man to another, but through women.
D) women and men have similar power and authority.
E) women control property and political office.

Question 28

In societies with a double descent system,members are:

A) part of both a matrilineage and a patrilineage.
B) free to choose to which group they will belong.
C) able to choose whether to belong to the matrilineage on their father's or on their mother's side of the family.
D) able to choose whether to belong to the patrilineage on their father's or on their mother's side of the family.
E) trace their ancestry from a public and private source.

Question 29

Unilineal descent groups:

A) endure over time and clearly define who is a member and who is not.
B) allow members to decide which descent groups they want to belong to; therefore, these groups change membership and size radically from generation to generation.
C) cannot clearly define who is or is not a member, but still manage to endure over time.
D) allow individuals to first identify themselves as individuals and then as members of the kinship group.
E) do not place emphasis on individual or corporate identity.

Question 30

Societies in which parents can choose their children's kinship affiliation are classified as:

A) bilateral descent.
B) double descent.
C) matrilineal descent.
D) ambilineal descent.
E) patrlineal descent

Question 31

In U.S.society,the typical marital residence pattern is:

A) neolocal.
B) patrilocal.
C) avunculocal.
D) matrilocal.
E) ambilocal.

Question 32

In her study of homeless youth,Finklestein found that:

A) most homeless children never return home to their parents.
B) they mostly came from wealthy families.
C) most preferred a nomadic lifestyle.
D) they had few friends and acquaintances.
E) they were working diligently to stabilize their lives.

Question 33

What erroneous assumptions had the original agricultural development planners made that contributed to the near-collapse of the program in Guinea?

A) They did not take account that the society was matrilineal and that they had to work with the females in order to create change for the villages.
B) They did not realize that only elder men could engage in farming because it is a lucrative and prestigious occupation.
C) They did not realize that land is controlled by elders of the linage and that there is a strict kinship-based labor force.
D) They did not realize that the Malinke (local peoples) had no experience dealing with any type of technology.
E) They were not sensitive to the kinship needs that regulated their own labor force as they constructed the dams and canals that would irrigate the farms.

Question 34

Clans,as unilineal descent groups:

A) are the same organizations as lineages, except that they form parts of chiefdoms and not tribes.
B) claim that they are all related to a common ancestor, but cannot trace that genealogical connection step-by-step.
C) are smaller in size than lineages.
D) control more property than any other type of descent group.
E) are always part of a moiety.

Question 35

Descent groups composed of two or more clans are called:

A) moieties.
B) lineages.
C) phratries.
D) bands.
E) segmentary lineages.

Question 36

Ancestry is traced,step-by-step,back to a common founder in:

A) clans.
B) matrilineages only.
C) patrilineages only.
D) lineages.
E) phratries.

Question 37

Which of the following is a true statement?

A) The Iroquois kinship system lumps mother and mother's brother into the same category.
B) The Eskimo kinship system is the one that is most commonly used in the U.S.
C) The Eskimo kinship system calls mother and mother's sister by the same term.
D) The Iroquois kinship system is associated with bilateral descent.
E) The Iroquois kinship system is most commonly found in food collecting societies.

Question 38

In a matrilineal society,a boy's father figure is his:

A) maternal grandfather.
B) mother's sister's husband.
C) biological father.
D) father's sister's husband.
E) mother's brother.

Question 39

Which statement about the Zuni (New Mexico)kinship system is true?

A) They have a bilateral kinship system.
B) Zuni men are divided between serving the economic interests of their wives and the ceremonial needs of their sisters and mothers.
C) Inheritance is traced through fathers.
D) They practice patrilocal residence.
E) Wives are viewed as strangers or outsiders within the extended family.

Question 40

Which of the following is not a recognized kinship system?

A) Crow
B) Omaha
C) Sudanese
D) Iroquois
E) Navajo

Question 41

The Iroquois system of kinship is associated with which form of descent?

A) unilineal
B) ambilocal
C) bilateral
D) avunculocal
E) virilocal

Question 42

New reproductive technologies challenge:

A) ethical norms
B) legal challenges
C) vocabulary of kinship
D) moral standards
E) all of these choices

Question 43

In the story related by medical anthropologist Geri-Ann Galanti in "Cross-Cultural Miscues," why was the young Bedouin woman killed after she was sent to the hospital?

A) She was a victim of medical malpractice.
B) She has dishonored her family and they killed her to restore their honor.
C) She died of hemorrhaging during an abortion because her family removed her from the hospital before doctors advised.
D) She was abducted in her village for seeking out Western medical treatment.
E) She was threatened, but she was not actually killed.

Question 44

Kindreds are found in both unlineal and cognatic descent systems.

Question 45

Kinship provides social continuity by binding together a number of successive generations.

Question 46

Patrilineal descent was very marked and practiced by the majority of peoples in traditional China.

Question 47

In a patrilineal descent group,which of the following does not belong to the same group?

A) a man's sons
B) a man's daughters
C) a man's wife
D) a man's father
E) a man's sister

Question 48

The horizontal function of kinship provides social continuity across generations.

Question 49

Which of the following statements about kinship systems is not true?

A) They create very close social ties.
B) They provide moral coercion to adhere to social norms.
C) They are extremely stable and do not change over time.
D) They involve strong bonds of obligation.
E) They provide security for their members.

Question 50

In poor shanty-towns in Brazil,anthropologist Nancy Scheper-Hughes found that one essential feature of kinship systems was altered among poor women.Which relationship was this?

A) Between father and daughters
B) Between father and children (sons and daughters)
C) Between mother and son
D) Between mother and children (sons and daughters)
E) Between mother and father

Question 51

In all societies,biology is more important than culture to the definition of kinship.

Question 52

The single most important relationship in a kinship system is the consanguinal (blood)relationship.

Question 53

In the modern world,kinship:

A) no longer has importance.
B) no longer provides close and emotional social ties as it did in the past.
C) has become much more complex because of new reproductive technologies.
D) systems remain unchanged through contact with external forces such as colonization and cultural diffusion.
E) is a growing network that has become more and more vital to our ability to survive in the global economy.

Question 54

The Zuni of New Mexico are patrilineal and patrilocal.

Question 55

Which statement about Finkelstein's study of homeless youth is true?

A) There are about 50,000 run away youth in the U.S. every year.
B) Most of the youth in this study were from wealthy homes.
C) Homeless youth tend to find a city they like and then stay there.
D) Homeless youth have extensive networks of friends who substitute for family.
E) All homeless youth were teenagers who had dropped out of school because of low grades.

Question 56

The first ascending generation would include EGO's mother,father,and the sisters and brothers of the mother and father.

Question 57

In northeast Brazil,Scheper-Hughes found all of the following major social challenges except:

A) low wages
B) low life expectancy
C) poor diet
D) high risk of death
E) low levels of fertility

Question 58

The majority of kinship systems found in the world are based on the unilineal principle.

Question 59

All kin is founded on biological connections.

Question 60

The commercialization of making babies has become a vast global business.In India from 2005 to 2009 fertility clinics offering surrogacy services have:

A) doubled in number.
B) tripled in number.
C) quadrupled in number.
D) increased by 10%.
E) increased by 75%.

Question 61

Phratries are composed of at least two moieties.

Question 62

Neolocal residence is associated exclusively with food-collecting societies.

Question 63

New reproductive technologies are growing,but they still constitute an extreme minority.While surrogacy is becoming more popular,techniques such as in vitro fertilization are declining.

Question 64

Distinguish between the vertical and horizontal functions of kinship.

Question 65

How is the term matriarchy distinct from the term matrilineal?

Question 66

In the U.S.we most commonly practice bilateral descent.

Question 67

Today it is more difficult to obtain information on your distant relatives than it was in past decades.

Question 68

In her study of poor mothers in northeast Brazil,Nancy Scheper-Hughes found that women were relieved when all of their children had died.

Question 69

In her study of homeless youth,Finkelstein used an "emic" approach to research.

Question 70

List the six basic systems of kinship classification.

Question 71

Contrast consanguineal and affinal kinships ties.

Question 72

Salvage anthropology is a type of applied anthropology.

Question 73

What are the six indicators of the corporate nature of unilineal descent groups?

Question 74

What is fictive kinship?

Question 75

What four types of kinship groups are based on the unilineal principle?

Question 76

List and describe the five primary residences rules.

Question 77

What is a kindred?

Question 78

In unilineal descent groups,property is usually regulated by individuals and not by the kinship group itself.

Question 79

Everyone involved sees the commercialization of making babies as a positive step toward creating families.

Question 80

Name three recent innovations in reproductive technology that are forcing us to redefine some aspects of kinship.