Deck 13: Families, Kinship, and Marriage

Question 1

Incest taboo

A)only exists in societies that practice patrilocal residence.
B)is a feature of a capitalist economy.
C)does not eliminate incest.
D)has a genetic basis.
E)is not documented in classic ethnographies.

Answer 1

does not eliminate incest.

Question 2

One of the main differences between descent groups and nuclear families is that

A)descent groups are typically not involved with politics, while nuclear families are.
B)nuclear families are always exogamous, while descent groups are always endogamous.
C)descent groups are permanent, while nuclear families are not.
D)members of descent groups are called affines, while members of nuclear families are consanguines.
E)nuclear families are found only in industrial societies, while descent groups are found only in foraging societies.

Answer 2

descent groups are permanent, while nuclear families are not.

Question 3

__________ refers to sexual relations with someone considered to be a close relative.

A)Levirate
B)Sororate
C)Polyandry
D)Incest
E)Exogamy

Answer 3

Incest

Question 4

The basic social units typically found in foraging societies are

A)band and clan.
B)lineage and nuclear family.
C)extended family and clan.
D)nuclear family and band.
E)band and extended family.

Question 5

The custom in which a widow marries the brother of her deceased husband is a

A)sororate marriage
B)serial polyandry
C)filial marriage
D)levirate marriage
E)polygynous marriage

Question 6

In matrilineal societies

A)daughters become lifetime members of their mother's group, but sons belong to their father's group.
B)sons become lifetime members of their mother's group, but daughters belong to their father's group.
C)descent groups include only the children of the group's women.
D)descent groups include only the children of the group's men.
E)postmarriage residence tends to be patrilocal.

Question 7

The custom of a dowry that goes to the husband's family correlates with

A)low male status.
B)high male status.
C)low female status.
D)high female status.
E)descent inheritance system.

Question 8

The relatively high incidence of expanded family households among poorer North Americans is

A)the result of a patrilocal residence pattern.
B)an adaptation to poverty.
C)maladaptive, since smaller families would have fewer expenses.
D)the result of bifurcate merging, a practice brought to the United States by Scotch-Irish immigrants during the early part of the 20^th century.
E)the reason welfare in the United States is ineffective.

Question 9

Rules of endogamy

A)prove that the incest taboo is not a cultural universal.
B)encourage people to disregard social distinctions in choosing mates.
C)tend to maintain social distinctions between groups.
D)expand a population's gene pool.
E)result in ever-widening kinship networks.

Question 10

The anthropological term for a socially recognized mother is

A)mater.
B)genitor.
C)mother of orientation.
D)pater.
E)mother of procreation.

Question 11

Lobolo is a substantial gift to be given before, at, or after a marriage

A)by the wife to her husband.
B)by the husband to his wife.
C)by the wife's kin to her husband.
D)by the wife's kin to her husband's kin.
E)by the husband and his kin to the wife and her kin.

Question 12

In patrilineal societies, lobolalike gifts

A)ensure the wealth of the wife.
B)ensure the wealth of the children.
C)make the children born to the woman full members of her husband's descent group.
D)make the husband part of the wife's descent group.
E)has little effect on descent groups.

Question 13

__________ is the most stable social group among band societies with a seasonal pattern of population dispersal.

A)The lineage
B)The band
C)The nuclear family
D)The clan
E)The expanded family household

Question 14

Substantial gifts given by the bride's family or kin is

A)bride theft
B)elopement
C)dowry
D)bridewealth
E)cross-cousin marriage

Question 15

__________ is the postmarital residence pattern in which a married couple is expected to live in the husband's community.

A)Neolocality
B)Patrilocality
C)Matrilocality
D)Ambilocality
E)Uxorilocality

Question 16

The incest taboo is a cultural universal, but

A)not all cultures have one.
B)not all cultures define incest the same way.
C)not all cultures know about incest.
D)some cultures have replaced it with the levirate.
E)some cultures nevertheless encourage incest.

Question 17

__________ refers to a unilineal descent group whose members claim, but cannot demonstrate, common descent from an apical ancestor.

A)Clan
B)Lineage
C)Extended family
D)Family of procreation
E)Family of orientation

Question 18

The family in which a child is raised is the

A)family of procreation.
B)family of orientation.
C)family of nucleation.
D)levirate family.
E)sororate family.

Question 19

__________ refers to the practice of marrying a person outside of the group to which one belongs.

A)Incest
B)Exogamy
C)Hypogamy
D)Endogamy
E)Polygamy

Question 20

__________ is a nonhuman apical ancestor of a clan.

A)Tarawad
B)Sororate
C)Levirate
D)Totem
E)Pater

Question 21

Compare endogamy and exogamy and determine how absolute the distinction is between the two.Use examples to illustrate your argument.

Question 22

The statement, __________, is true.

A)"Polyandry is found only among mining communities in Madagascar"
B)"Polyandry is a cultural adaptation to the high labor demands of rice cultivation"
C)"polyandry is a cultural adaptation to mobility associated with male travel for trade, commerce, and warfare"
D)"polyandry almost always takes the form of a sororate"
E)"polyandry fails to meet Leach's criteria for marriage"

Question 23

Discuss how Lobola is insurance against divorce.List what types of cultures may require this type of marital exchange.

Question 24

The zadruga is a type of extended-family household in

A)Mexico.
B)Malabar Coast of India.
C)Eastern Siberia.
D)Western Bosnia.
E)Japan.

Question 25

A descent group consists of a married couple and their children.

Question 26

Discuss the major similarities and differences between nuclear families, extended families, and descent groups (e.g., lineages and clans).

Question 27

Polygyny is

A)a situation in which a woman has more than one husband at the same time.
B)the custom whereby a wife marries the brother of her dead husband.
C)the type of marriage that follows divorce.
D)the custom whereby a widower marries the sister of his dead wife.
E)a situation in which a man has more than one wife at the same time.

Question 28

Discuss the general patterns found in the family organization of foragers.

Question 29

Discuss ways in which kinship and descent help human populations adapt to their environments.

Question 30

In unilineal descent, one's ancestry is traced through either the male or the female line (not both).

Question 31

Members of a clan claim (but cannot demonstrate) descent from a common apical ancestor.

Question 32

The statement, __________, is not true.

A)"divorce is more common now than it was a century ago"
B)"the more substantial the joint property, the more complicated the divorce"
C)"divorce is harder in a patrilineal society"
D)"divorce is unique to industrialized nation-states"
E)"substantial bridewealth discourages divorce"

Question 33

Examine how marriage functions as a kind of group alliance, and determine what role bridewealth and dowries play in creating and maintaining marriage alliances.

Question 34

Determine how the BaThonga of Mozambique's practice of giving lobola (substantial gifts to bride's family) affects their marriages.

Question 35

List six things that Leach argued marriage can accomplish.Discuss how these could be accomplished in a same sex marriage.

Question 36

List ways that industrialism affected North American family organization.

Question 37

Detail how divorce can vary cross-culturally.List factors that affect the ease (or difficulty) and frequency of divorce.

Question 38

Exogamy is adaptive because it

A)increases the number of individuals that one can rely on in times of need.
B)increases the likelihood that disadvantageous alleles will find phenotypic expression and eliminate them from the population.
C)impedes peaceful relations among social groups and therefore promotes population expansion.
D)was an important causal factor in the origin of the state.
E)reduces the gene pool of a community.

Question 39

With patrilineal descent, a person takes her or his father's last name but recognizes descent through both parents.

Question 40

The Life at Home study based on middle-class people who either owned or were buying homes found that American life centered on the

A)family room.
B)kitchen.
C)car.
D)bedroom.
E)living room.
Essay Questions

Question 41

In industrialized nations, extended families are more common among the lower class than among the upper class.

Question 42

In tribal societies, unlike industrial ones, marriage entails only an agreement between the people getting married; descent groups play only a minor role.

Question 43

The caste system of India is an extreme example of exogamy.

Question 44

Taboos against incest prevent it from ever occurring in human societies.

Question 45

Lobola is insurance against divorce.

Question 46

After reaching an all-time low in the 1970s, the frequency of nuclear families in North America has been steadily increasing.

Question 47

Exogamy is the practice of seeking a mate within one's own group.

Question 48

Divorce is more common in matrilineal/matrilocal societies than it is in patrilineal/patrilocal societies.

Question 49

Industrialization increases mobility, which has played a major role in the decline of extended families in the United States.

Question 50

Your family of procreation is the one in which you were born.

Question 51

Tarawad is the Nayar word for nuclear family.

Question 52

Although the nuclear family exists in many societies around the world, it is not a cultural universal.

Question 53

Your nuclear family includes you, your parents, and your grandparents.

Question 54

In rural Greece, some p brides receive a wealth transfer from their mothers as a kind of trust fund for her marriage

Question 55

Polygynous marriages often serve important economic and political functions; for instance, the number of wives a man has may be an indicator of his wealth, prestige, and status.

Question 56

If a man marries his deceased brother's widow, it is a levirate marriage.