Deck 13: Kinship

Question 1

In many mainstream American movies, a child's bond to their biological father is portrayed as far more important than their bond to their stepfather. This reflects the cultural belief that:

A) kinship depends on genetic inheritance
B) affinal kinship connections are a standard and necessary feature in every child's life.
C) classificatory kin have greater significance for and impact on a child's development.
D) kinship bonds are defined via obligation rather than blood.
E) a mother's love reigns supreme

Answer 1

A

Question 2

While Western culture differentiates some kin terms according to gender, other cultures differentiate by age or order of birth. This suggests:

A) culture has a powerful influence over how we understand our familial relationships.
B) kinship categories are biologically determined.
C) kinship systems are universally shared by all human populations.
D) different cultures have the same kin terms around the world.
E) Western culture is more advanced.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

In a matrilineal society, a man concerned with the continuation of his lineage will invest the most in:

A) his own biological sons.
B) his own biological daughters.
C) his adopted children.
D) his eldest brother's children.
E) his sister's children.

Answer 3

E

Question 4

In a matrilocal society, newlyweds are meant to:

A) reside with the wife's kin.
B) form a new household entirely.
C) live with the side of the family which has the strongest male line.
D) reside with the husband's kin.
E) live apart for the first 10 years.

Question 5

Gametes contain _______, which genetically link a child's physical body back to their parents.

A) sperm
B) chromosomes
C) consanguineal cells
D) kinship terms
E) gestational embryos.

Question 6

Eggs and sperm are also known as:

A) gametes.
B) consanguineal cells.
C) gonads.
D) units of commensality.
E) hormatotropic cells

Question 7

Although members of different cultures may have different ways of understanding and enacting kinship, as human beings we all have:

A) a sense of mutual and unwavering empathy for one another.
B) parallel ideas about kin connections.
C) a universal and inherent drive for communion.
D) the same normative cultural ideas about motherhood.
E) milk kin.

Question 8

In cultures where DNA is not the main substance of kinship:

A) adoption is often much easier
B) people con construct kinship additively postnatally
C) ART seems ridiculous
D) 'real' kinship can be created affinally.
E) All of the answers are correct.

Question 9

Experts determining whether certain stigmatized groups (e.g., unmarried people, people over 40, gender fluid people) should be allowed to use assistive reproductive technology (ART) and under what conditions are making rulings that:

A) have medical justifications.
B) have a cultural basis, not a medical one.
C) lack a cultural foundation.
D) depend on science.
E) none of the answers is right.

Question 10

In the USA, husbands and wives are:

A) affinal kin
B) consubstantial kin
C) consanguineal kin
D) genetic kin
E) fictive kin

Question 11

On a traditional Israeli Kibbutz, the role of mother or father did not include an obligation for child-rearing and children were raised communally. This illustrates or is an example of:

A) the biological basis of parental love.
B) the maladaptive nature of social change.
C) how kinship systems entail universally applicable rights and obligations.
D) how roles specified for, or labor assigned to, given kin labels varies across cultures.
E) the danger of severing natural family links.

Question 12

Why would a teenager who seeks to elicit financial support from a parental figure or relative begin the conversation by emphasizing their kinship?

A) invoking kin terms can commodify family connections.
B) people use kin terms to remind each other of associated rights and obligations.
C) kin obligations always entail financial support.
D) invoking kin terms can highlight a relationship's fragility.
E) kin terms can be used to invalidate or avoid kinship obligations.

Question 13

For their family tree projects, students were required to trace their inheritance back to previous generations through both their family's male and female lines. Leaving aside the ethnocentrism of the assumption that each student understood their lineage in this way, what kinds of lineages did the exercise produce?

A) bilateral.
B) bimodal.
C) matripatrilineal.
D) avuncular.
E) dual.

Question 14

A man spends more time with his sister's children than his sister's husband does. The same man also pays little attention to his wife's children. What kind of relationship does the man have with his sister's children?

A) stepfather once removed.
B) patrilineal.
C) classificatory.
D) affinal.
E) avunculate.

Question 15

While adult opossums rarely make any noise (their survival depends on silence and stealth), when baby opossums fall from their mother's back, the adults screech is so loud that it often draws the attention of predators. This is an example of:

A) consanguineal instincts
B) inclusive fitness
C) affinal selection
D) how unthinking animals can be
E) bilocal survival.

Question 16

Why is the practice of kinship charting that originated 150 years ago so challenging?

A) It reflects the idealized family form of the 19^th century Anglo-European upper class
B) It lacks an ethnocentric point of view
C) The tools required to do it are very expensive
D) There is no way to designate gender
E) The ink that must be used is difficult to procure 'in the field' or away from one's home-base

Question 17

The traditional Japanese Buddhist ritual 'Mizuko kuyō':

A) exists to make parents feel better but lacks any deeper symbolic meaning
B) is crucial for the spiritual protection a fire child
C) helps ensure that a soul released through miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion will come back when the time is right
D) cannot be practiced in the fall.
E) promotes the idea that abortion and miscarriage happen when people are bad.

Question 18

The traditional Japanese Buddhist conception of life is best visualized as a/an:

A) circle
B) triangle
C) rectangle
D) wave
E) line

Question 19

What is one danger or challenge of using DNA tests to determine kinship for legal purposes?

A) Findings may contradict a person's understanding and lived experience of who their parents or offspring are.
B) DNA-based kinship is not yet scientifically understood
C) There are no dangers or challenges; the method is non-problematic.
D) The DNA model is applicable across all cultures.
E) All of the options are correct.

Question 20

Some prefer 'SRT' to 'ART' (assistive reproductive technology). What does the S stand for?

A) Selective
B) Specialized
C) Surplus
D) Synthetic
E) Surgical

Question 21

Why might some scholars prefer to call 'ART' (assistive reproductive technology) 'SRT' (selective reproductive technology) instead?

A) Because ART users often choose the traits they wish to see in their offspring, thus affecting the frequency of certain genes in the next generation's gene pool
B) Only rich people can afford it
C) Those who use it select the baby's country of origin
D) This is a trick question because the S actually stands for SURGICAL, not selective.
E) Because of the process one has to go through to be selected as a candidate for ART

Question 22

Most foreign gestational surrogates hired by US parents-to-be, such as those in India:

A) are routinely implanted with many more embryos as would be the case in the USA due to the risks involved
B) are denied or do not receive the kind of medical care necessary to ensure a successful outcome (delivery of a healthy baby)
C) are routinely implanted with fewer (half as many) embryos as would be the case in the USA, where money is no object
D) are well-protected by laws that have few loopholed
E) rent their wombs out for money to finance fancy clothing and drug habits

Question 23

The majority of gestational surrogates do not deliver children normally but rather are relieved of their babies via caesarean section surgery. This is because:

A) it makes being present for the birth more convenient for the commissioning parent/s
B) to preserve their health for subsequent births
C) it is medically necessary
D) they are uncooperative if left to give birth the regular way
E) it is cheaper that way

Question 24

What makes using ARTs like IVF or gestational surrogates 'biocultural'?

A) Their use reflects internalized cultural beliefs regarding the ideal shape and character of the family and of individuals belonging to it
B) All of the answers are correct.
C) Technology (culture) affects reproduction (biology)
D) The choice to use ARTs depends on cultural values such as those that prioritize genetic material over nurturance when it comes to defining kinship
E) Certain populations' reproductive health (biology) affects technological research and development (culture).

Question 25

Infertility rates are not the same for every population because they are affected by

A) Stressors such as those related to malnutrition and environmental toxicants
B) Surrogacy
C) Eye color, strangely enough
D) Genes, pure and simple.
E) Actually this is a trick question because human infertility rates do not vary across groups.

Question 26

Which question does NOT make sense universally, in all cultures?

A) When does life begin?
B) Who is your mother?
C) Who are your kin?
D) What is the basis of kinship?
E) All of these questions make sense in all cultures?

Question 27

In terms of ancestry, most US families today are:

A) bilineal (bilateral).
B) matrilineal.
C) patrilineal.
D) patriarchal.
E) nuclear.

Question 28

In mainstream United States, married spouses are _____ kin; among the Hua, married spouses are ______ kin.

A) always affinal; eventually consubstantial
B) always classificatory; eventually affinal
C) eventually consubstantial; always consubstantial
D) always fictive; always fictive
E) eventually affinal; always classificatory

Question 29

In traditional Japanese Buddhism, children and elders are differentiated from young and middle-aged adults because:

A) children and elders have just come from or are near to re-entering the spiritual realm, while young and middle-aged adults are firmly tied to the solid, earthly realm.
B) children and elders are associated with meadows and mountains, while young and middle-aged adults are associates with rivers and streams.
C) children and elders are less spiritual because they are less able to concentrate to pray than young and middle-aged adults.
D) young and middle-aged adults are associated with water, while children and elders are associated with the air.
E) young and middle-aged adults take care of spiritual matters because children and elders are more immediately concerned with accomplishing the practical tasks of daily living.

Question 30

A cultural belief that kinship is instantly and genetically determined when sperm and egg meet:

A) is rarely found (not common) in the United States.
B) is found universally (in all cultures).
C) is found in all cultures that practice post-natal kinship.
D) supports the desire for assistive reproductive technology (ART) in the United States.
E) leads the majority of US/UK couples to prefer adoption over ARTs.

Question 31

The DNA model for kinship applied in the US legal system does NOT work well for immigrant parents who:

A) also subscribe to the DNA model.
B) culturally configure kinship matrilineally.
C) subscribe to a patrilineal kinship system and have not had any children out-of-wedlock.
D) All three substantive answers provided are correct.
E) No answer provided is correct.

Question 32

There are three primary types of relatedness or kinship. Which of the following is NOT one of them?

A) classificatory kinship
B) consubstantial kinship
C) affinal kinship
D) genetic kinship
E) None of the given answers is correct (all are primary types).

Question 33

Why do Hua avoid eating food prepared by their children?

A) Because of their immaturity, children cannot transfer vital energy into food as they prepare it.
B) The Hua believe that kinship can only flow from parent to child.
C) Eating food prepared by one's child is like eating one's child.
D) Food sharing is only permitted of non-kin.
E) Hua children do not prepare food.

Question 34

Because of their food and kinship rules, the Hua of Papua New Guinea do NOT generally use:

A) the affinal kin category.
B) the consubstantial kin category.
C) the commensality concept.
D) None of the answers offered is right.
E) kinship terms.

Question 35

Which of the following is NOT true about 'nu' for the Hua of Papua New Guinea?

A) 'Nu' must be currently shared to fuel kinship, and therefore kin ties between parents and children can fade away if a child moves away and stays away too long.
B) It always conveys peaceful vitality from giver to receiver.
C) It can seep from one's body into the produce one grows or the food one cooks.
D) Eating the 'nu' of one's child is like eating that child.
E) This is a trick question because every answer provided actually is true.

Question 36

Which of the following kinship types is NOT a subset or subtype of 'consubstantial'?

A) classificatory kin
B) genetic or DNA kin
C) consanguineal kin
D) milk kin
E) nurturance kin

Question 37

'Postnatal' kinship is NOT:

A) additively achieved.
B) permanent once created.
C) dynamic.
D) an open system.
E) All of the given answers are correct.

Question 38

Normative cultural ideas about kinship do NOT affect:

A) attitudes toward adoption.
B) where people choose to live.
C) legal regulation of ARTs.
D) attitudes toward IVF.
E) our inborn drive for communion.

Question 39

In every culture, 'kin terms' accomplish which of the following?

A) They map out the rights and responsibilities that people have as kin occupying particular kin roles in relation to each other.
B) They designate which siblings are older and which are younger.
C) They designate which siblings are boys, and which are girls.
D) They reveal who one's birth mother is.
E) They create legal obligations toward one's offspring.

Question 40

The rules specified for various 'kin terms,' such as 'mother':

A) are the same across cultures although not all terms appear in all cultures.
B) vary in different cultural contexts.
C) are yet to be studied.
D) are the same for all foragers, are the same for all agriculturalists, and are the same for all modern people, but vary between these three groups.
E) vary within but not between (across) cultures.

Question 41

When parents say that "no child of mine is going to..." (and here, you can fill in the blank), they are using the kin term 'child':

A) to remind the child of the obligations to them that such kinship entails, and the related rights they have over the child.
B) because, put simply, they are bossy and mean.
C) because they are out of touch with the younger generation.
D) first and foremost to demonstrate disrespect for the child.
E) only because they love the child.

Question 42

If a society is 'matrilineal,' then which of the following is necessarily true?

A) A female is in charge of the family.
B) Kinship is traced through women.
C) A husband lives in the house of his wife's mother.
D) A wife lives in the house of her husband's mother.
E) None of the given answers is correct

Question 43

'Lineages' specifically track:

A) heredity or ancestry.
B) genetic relatedness.
C) power relations.
D) where people live after marriage.
E) who has authority in the family.

Question 44

In a 'matrilineage,' the relationship between a man and his sister's children is called the:

A) patrilocality.
B) avunculate.
C) matrilineal packet.
D) affinality.
E) father substitution complex.

Question 45

What relationship does the 'avunculate' refer to?

A) a father's kin relationship to a child who has taken and will carry on his surname
B) a mother's kin relationship to a child gestated (grown) in her own womb
C) the blood relationship men share with their sisters' children in a matrilineal society
D) the blood relationship men share with their children in a matrilineal society
E) a priest's parent-like relationship with his/her congregation

Question 46

What makes the 'avunculate' such a clever cultural invention?

A) It focuses a man's energy on offspring that he knows are in his bloodline.
B) It focuses the spinster (unmarried, child-free) aunt's energy on her sibling's children, perpetuating the family's genes.
C) It focuses the bachelor (unmarried, child-free) uncle's energy on his sibling's children, perpetuating the family's genes.
D) It keeps men from siring or having too many children.
E) It saves men from the hard work that fatherhood entails.

Question 47

The conventions (circles, triangles, lines) used to map kinship for the past 100 years:

A) have provided accurate, culturally sensitive mappings.
B) cannot capture or accommodate cross-cultural variations in kinship.
C) capture or accommodate the realities of kinship in the West but do not work well elsewhere.
D) give cultural (insider) perspectives primacy.
E) ensure that vital kinship-related information is not missing from the ethnographic record.

Question 48

In most cultures, nearly all behavior is guided by:

A) kinship rights and obligations.
B) individual preferences.
C) cosmic means.
D) judicial means.
E) affinal arrangements.

Question 49

The three kinds of kinship are:

A) classificatory, consubstantial, affinal.
B) fictive, classificatory, consubstantial.
C) classificatory, inclusive, affinal.
D) fictive, consubstantial, astral.
E) affinal, astral, consubstantial.

Question 50

Calling your granny's best friend 'auntie' is an example of:

A) classificatory kinship.
B) affinal kinship.
C) consanguineal kinship.
D) consubstantial kinship.
E) cognatic kinship.

Question 51

When people in the West refer to their 'blood kin' they really mean their:

A) consanguineal kin.
B) affinal kin.
C) genetic kin.
D) classificatory kin.
E) legal kin.

Question 52

Kinship created through ingestion of breast-milk is best termed:

A) pre-natal kinship.
B) affinal kinship.
C) classificatory kinship.
D) spatial kinship.
E) consubstantial kinship.

Question 53

'Affinal' kin:

A) are created by law.
B) share genetic material.
C) are not in one's lineage.
D) are fictive kin, treated like kin.
E) share matrilineal heritage.

Question 54

Which of the following two terms are equivalent or interchangeable?

A) classificatory and fictive
B) fictive and affinal
C) consubstantial and consanguineal
D) classificatory and consubstantial
E) affinal and astral

Question 55

Which term applies to people treated as if 'real' kin even though they are fully understood not to be 'real' kin by the culture's standards?

A) classificatory kin
B) consubstantial kin
C) affinal kin
D) consanguineal kin
E) None of the given answers is correct.

Question 56

If a person is adopted in the United States, s/he and his or her parents are _______ kin.

A) classificatory
B) consubstantial
C) affinal
D) consanguineal
E) patrilocal

Question 57

If two people are related as kin because they were nursed (breastfed) by the same auntie, then they are what kind of kin?

A) classificatory kin
B) consubstantial kin
C) affinal kin
D) consanguineal kin
E) None of the given answers is correct.

Question 58

If a child and adult are seen in their culture as kin because the adult took care of the child economically and emotionally, putting a lot of effort into making sure s/he was raised properly, then they are what kind of kin?

A) consanguineal kin
B) non-consubstantial kin
C) affinal kin
D) nurturance kin
E) classificatory kin

Question 59

Which of the following is a subtype or kind of 'consubstantial' kin?

A) milk kin
B) adopted kin (USA)
C) married people (USA)
D) fictive kin
E) sons with different fathers in a matrilineal society

Question 60

A key means of 'consubstantiality' is:

A) commensality.
B) communitas.
C) the communal bath.
D) night-time campfires.
E) mizuko kuyo.

Question 61

'Commensality' is a key means of:

A) creating and maintaining relationships.
B) severing kinship ties.
C) evening out pre-existing status differentials that might exist between initiates in a 'rite of passage.'
D) legitimating affinal kinship ties.
E) self-reflection.

Question 62

Why is rice shared in a Japanese wedding?

A) As a form of commensality it helps reinforce the creation of kin ties.
B) Rice represents peace in the Japanese culture, so eating it at a wedding ensures a peaceful marriage.
C) Rice isn't eaten, it is thrown (to ensure fertility).
D) It ensures the quick birth of a healthy child.
E) Actually rice is not shared at all.

Question 63

Hua food sharing rules help people to avoid:

A) crossing (mixing between) categories.
B) cannibalism of their own children.
C) contagion (e.g., between male and female principles).
D) unwanted social mixing (e.g., with strangers or enemies).
E) All of the answers provided are correct.

Question 64

The absolute and relative food sharing rules or taboos of the Hua people of Papua New Guinea address concerns regarding:

A) contagion and cannibalism.
B) communitas.
C) disease transfer or communication.
D) hygiene or cleanliness.
E) digestive processes.

Question 65

The term 'nu' (used by the Hua of Papua New Guinea) can best be translated as:

A) vital essence.
B) fluoride.
C) witchcraft or hexing.
D) blood.
E) "What's new?"

Question 66

Whose 'nu' is transferred in food among the Hua people of Papua New Guinea?

A) children's nu only
B) mothers' nu only
C) the nu of the food producers
D) the nu of the food preparers
E) food preparers' AND producers' nu

Question 67

Eating food prepared or produced by one's own child would, for the Hua of Papua New Guinea, be:

A) the highest honor.
B) like cannibalism.
C) the first choice if choices are offered.
D) a sign of respect.
E) expected; to not eat food from one's child would start or signal problems.

Question 68

Among the Hua of Papua New Guinea, you are 'kin' with someone if you:

A) are currently exchanging money and favors.
B) are currently exchanging 'nu.'
C) just married her or him.
D) have a legal document saying it is so.
E) All of the answers are correct.

Question 69

Because of their food sharing and kinship rules, the Hua of Papua New Guinea avoid eating food from:

A) their children.
B) enemies.
C) people who are angry at them.
D) new spouses.
E) All answers are correct.

Question 70

'Prenatal' or 'birth' kinship is:

A) generally not instantly established before birth.
B) an 'open' kind of kinship system.
C) changeable after birth ('dynamic').
D) a 'closed' or static kind of kinship system.
E) additively achieved (e.g., with breast milk).

Question 71

The kind of kinship practiced among the Hua of Papua New Guinea is:

A) dynamic and open to change over time.
B) prenatal or birth kinship.
C) static and closed to change over time.
D) enduring; once it's been established it cannot be changed.
E) created instantly when egg and sperm meet.

Question 72

Open kinship systems give people many kinship options but also have costs such as in terms of:

A) the sheer effort it takes to keep kin ties valid (to stop them fading away).
B) the fact that once kinship is established it cannot be changed.
C) dependence on DNA testing.
D) the fact that no adoptions of any kind are ever permitted.
E) All answers provided are correct.

Question 73

Another term for what the Catholic Church calls 'ensoulment' is:

A) death.
B) quickening.
C) epilepsy.
D) childbirth.
E) commensality.

Question 74

'Quickening' refers to which of the following?

A) the time at which a culture rules that life begins
B) when a fetus's movements are first felt by the mother carrying it in her womb
C) the time at which a person becomes kin with someone else
D) the time at which a culture rules that the soul enters the body
E) the moment of childbirth

Question 75

In traditional Japanese Buddhism, life:

A) comes from and returns to a place beyond the mountains.
B) is a tree.
C) is a triangle.
D) is linear and has a definite starting and ending point.
E) is most always in the circular process of solidifying and liquefying, with no stopping or starting point.

Question 76

Traditional Japanese Buddhists liken life to:

A) water, which is always cycling between liquid and solid states.
B) air, which always is blowing.
C) the earth, rotating on its axis and circling the sun.
D) fire, which is all-consuming but can also release seeds (e.g., in pine forests).
E) metal, which is both strong and malleable.

Question 77

Abortion, in traditional Japanese Buddhism, can be a way to:

A) strengthen the family.
B) protect the family.
C) ensure a good life or future for an aborted/miscarried fetus's soul or being.
D) All three substantive answers are correct.
E) None of the answers provided is right.

Question 78

'Mizuko Jizo' is:

A) a guardian deity dedicated to (and who protects) the aborted, stillborn, or miscarried.
B) a guardian deity dedicated to (and who protects) doctors and nurses.
C) where the Japanese send people for practicing abortion.
D) the Japanese word for father.
E) the Japanese word for consanguineal kin.

Question 79

The 'Mizuko kuyo' is:

A) a ritual meant to protect the aborted, stillborn, or miscarried fetus and to ensure it will come back to be born when the time is right.
B) a traditional Japanese rice-sharing ceremony that commemorates marriage.
C) a form of consubstantial kinship practiced in Japanese secret societies.
D) an African rite of passage that confers full adulthood on a young man.
E) an African ceremony involving commensality.

Question 80

'Fosterage' is a term that refers to which of the following?

A) the legal adoption of a child
B) the social adoption of a child
C) when an adult takes another's place in the kinship structure
D) the emergence of consubstantial kin ties
E) when a father takes responsibility for his sister's children