Deck 2: The History of the Family

Question 1

A form of polygamy in which a man is allowed to have more than one wife is also referred to as

A)polyandry.
B)extended family.
C)polygyny.
D)conjugal family.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

The spread of industrial capitalism in the mid-1800s led to many social changes, including

A)more children being born.
B)most family members exchanging labor for wages.
C)the merging of the spheres of men and women.
D)the transition to an increased familial mode of production.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Historians such as Phillippe Aries and John Demos argue that the concept of childhood as a distinct stage of life was not recognized prior to the 1700s primarily because

A)families were trying to survive.
B)so many infants and toddlers died.
C)families had so few children.
D)families did not understand the needs of children.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which immigrant group sent monetary remittances home to family members in their country of origin?

A)Irish Americans
B)Mexican Americans
C)Chinese Americans
D)African Americans

Question 5

Which of the following events was the primary cause for the rise of individualism between the 1700s and early 1800s?

A)the abolition of polygyny
B)the large-scale immigration of Asians into America
C)the abolition of slavery
D)the growth of commercial capitalism

Question 6

Throughout most of their existence, human beings have been

A)self-sufficient.
B)hunter-gatherers.
C)settled agriculturists.
D)capitalists.

Question 7

In the United States, levels of lifetime childlessness were higher for women who reached their peak child-bearing years in the __________ than in any other generation of women in the twentieth century.

A)1960s
B)1950s
C)1930s
D)1990s

Question 8

A study of the history of family reveals that __________ family is as old as human civilization but that _______ family emerged much more recently.

A)public; private
B)extended; nuclear
C)private; public
D)nuclear; extended

Question 9

The primary job open to African American women prior to the 1960s was

A)file clerk.
B)domestic servant.
C)personal assistant.
D)secretary.

Question 10

About ___________ years ago, humans discovered the advantage of remaining in one place and planting crops.

A)20,000
B)10,000
C)30,000
D)5,000

Question 11

Before the arrival of the Europeans, most Native Americans lived in

A)small kinship groups.
B)extended families similar to the Europeans.
C)tribal societies based on lineages.
D)husband-wife conjugal units.

Question 12

Extended families (other relatives in the household besides husband, wife, and their children) were never predominant in the United States because

A)affectionate and emotional ties to family were emphasized only recently in U.S.history.
B)life expectancy was short and made it improbable that grandparents lived with their children.
C)U.S.residents sought to reject the norms of their ancestors.
D)all of these.

Question 13

A benefit that may have resulted from women's restriction to the world of home, and which may have laid the groundwork for subsequent women's social and political movements, was

A)the creation of a subculture of sisterhood.
B)the ability of women to set their own schedules.
C)an increase in their knowledge of children and home.
D)their isolation.

Question 14

The True Woman was

A)sexually active prior to marriage.
B)religious, spiritual, moral, and pure.
C)a hard worker.
D)independently wealthy.

Question 15

Informal marriage was common in all but which of the following groups:

A)colonists in the Middle Colonies
B)Europeans
C)Mexican Americans
D)Chinese immigrants

Question 16

Which of the following was one of the characteristics of the True Woman as described by historian Barbara Welter?

A)assertiveness
B)fearlessness
C)piousness
D)talkativeness

Question 17

The American Revolution of 1776 brought about many changes including

A)strengthening of the role of fathers.
B)children being seen as sinful.
C)mothers being perceived as the worse parent.
D)increased autonomy of women within the family.

Question 18

According to contemporary research, the breadwinner-homemaker family was

A)dominant in the aftermath of the Depression and World War II in the 1950s.
B)always dominant in U.S.history.
C)never dominant in U.S.history.
D)basically only found among African Americans.

Question 19

The family system in which descent is reckoned through both the mother's and the father's line is followed in the United States and is called

A)unilateral kinship.
B)extended kinship.
C)multilateral kinship.
D)bilateral kinship.

Question 20

The emergence of a protected, extended stage of childhood in the 1800s occurred as a result of

A)legal restrictions on how children were treated.
B)a growing population of elderly (and therefore grandparents).
C)greater economic resources of parents.
D)the spread of schooling and a decline in child deaths.

Question 21

In the United States, before 1900, pursuing personal pleasures and emotional satisfactions were not as predominant among Americans, primarily because they were too busy simply trying to live.

Question 22

U.S. women of the 1950s married at an earlier age (for their first marriage) than U.S. women in previous generations.

Question 23

African American families maintained weaker kinship links than other groups.

Question 24

American Indian children were less likely to experience physical punishment and more likely to enjoy independence than were European American children.

Question 25

Families developed out of the desire for survival, prosperity, and raising children.

Question 26

The Great Depression forced many young Americans of that period into a lifetime of childlessness.

Question 27

The introduction of the birth control pill corresponded with a drop in the age at which women got married.

Question 28

Which of the following was a cause for the rise in divorce rates in the early decades of the twentieth century?

A)a shift in the basis for marriage from economic partnership to emotional satisfaction and companionship
B)an increase in employment through family farms
C)a decrease in privacy available to people due to a housing crunch
D)a decline in the rate of marriage in that era and the consequent disillusionment with marriage

Question 29

Which of the following is the main factor behind the lengthening of emerging adulthood?

A)the increased importance of education in the lives of young people
B)the obsession of young people with technology
C)the availability of more effective contraceptives to young Americans
D)the depleting pool of young people in America who wish to get married

Question 30

Lineages are advantageous because they limit the number of people with whom an individual has to share resources.

Question 31

Most African American families had just one parent before and after slavery.

Question 32

The mestizo group of Mexican American settlers

A)were large landowners.
B)arranged their children's marriages with care and held elaborate ceremonies.
C)were of pure Spanish decent.
D)were farmers.

Question 33

Despite idealistic notions to the contrary, kinship developed primarily as a means of survival.

Question 34

Although a good marriage was thought to require a good sex life in the early decades of the 20^th century, it was more important that the wife be satisfied rather than the husband.

Question 35

Which of the following groups was historically known to emphasize conjugal family units?

A)European colonists of America
B)American Indians
C)Mexican Americans
D)African slaves brought to America

Question 36

Kinship developed from a need for love, intimacy, and financial support.

Question 37

The larger extended family unit has always been a predominant family form in the United States.

Question 38

The disruption of slave families was more severe in

A)the upper North.
B)the Appalachian area.
C)the lower South.
D)all areas.

Question 39

The 1965 Immigration Act drastically changed the number of people allowed in the United States from Asia and the largest group to migrate since then has been from

A)Japan.
B)China.
C)Korea.
D)Vietnam.

Question 40

Explain why slave families were more likely to be disrupted if they lived on small plantations in the Appalachias.

Question 41

Describe how a matrilineage would work. Specifically, how would a lineage be traced, and to or for whom would you be responsible?

Question 42

In what way did settled agriculture, as compared to hunting and gathering, revolutionize human organization?

Question 43

Though the idea may seem foreign to us in the present-day United States, what societal conditions of the late 1600s and the 1700s may have led to parents not lamenting the death of an infant?

Question 44

What evidence is there that childhood is a relatively recent phenomenon?

Question 45

Native American family and kinship patterns of small kinship groups were affected by external influences with the arrival of the Europeans. What were some of the changes experienced?

Question 46

What were historically the three basic activities of most Western families? Which activity has changed most dramatically?

Question 47

Give three explanations for the high birth rate of women who married in the 1950s.

Question 48

Why were lineages so important to African American families?

Question 49

What were some of the characteristics of families in Colonial America? How did their functions differ from families' functions today?

Question 50

What is meant by the concept of separate spheres for women and men?

Question 51

Why was the "empty nest" phase (the period of time after children have left the parental home) more of a topic of family concern in the 1950s and 60s than it was in the 1850s? Than it is today?

Question 52

Why is the birth cohort to which you were born so significant?

Question 53

Why was informal marriage particularly common in the Middle Colonies?

Question 54

What do you think is meant by the statement "kinship... developed as a 'weapon in the struggle for survival'"?

Question 55

How might the life expectancy of a particular society affect the creation of extended family structures in that society?

Question 56

What changes in the American family has taken place since the 1950s?

Question 57

How did children during the Great Depression adopt a "downward extension of adult-like experience"?

Question 58

Discuss the public goods your family produces in contrast to the public services families in colonial America produced.

Question 59

Discuss the services that the conjugal families in the European colonies were expected to contribute and provide to the community.

Question 60

Historically, parental control has been weakened. What are the effects of this great lack of parental control on young adults?

Question 61

Though stereotypes persist about the structure of the black family, what surprising evidence did Herbert Gutman discover about slave families, as he analyzed census and other records?