Deck 21: Marriage and the Family

Question 1

Trobriand couples who are going to marry advertise this by doing all of the following except

A) sleeping together regularly.
B) fighting in public displays of aggression.
C) showing themselves together in public.
D) remaining with each other for long periods of time.

Answer 1

fighting in public displays of aggression.

Question 2

Which of the following is not a stated explanation for marriage?

A) gender division of labor
B) prolonged infant dependency
C) guaranteed sexual satisfaction
D) sexual competition

Answer 2

guaranteed sexual satisfaction

Question 3

Marriage includes two major factors. These are

A) economic and kinship considerations.
B) economic and land ownership considerations.
C) sexual and economic considerations.
D) sexual and kinship considerations.

Answer 3

sexual and economic considerations.

Question 4

In which society does a young male move in with his betrothed's family for a trial period?

A) the Taramiut Inuit
B) the Trobriand Islanders
C) the Kwoma of New Guinea
D) the Yapese of Micronesia

Question 5

Marriage is considered a __________ trait by anthropologists because it is practiced by all societies.

A) dominant
B) prescriptive
C) sensible
D) universal

Question 6

In which group were incestuous marriages permitted?

A) poor urban African Americans
B) the Nuer of East Africa
C) the Manbikwara Indians of Brazil
D) royal Egyptian families

Question 7

Bride __________ is a gift of money or goods from the groom or his kin to the bride's kin.

A) price
B) service
C) exchange
D) treasure

Question 8

Which of the following societies is more likely to practice bride service?

A) Asian horticulturalists
B) African agriculturalists
C) Native North and South American societies
D) European industrialists

Question 9

Which theory hypothesizes that the taboo for incest is based on sibling association?

A) Freud's psychoanalytic theory
B) Westermarck's childhood-familiarity theory
C) Malinowski's family-disruption theory
D) White and Levi-Strauss's cooperation theory

Question 10

Which is the second most common form of economic transaction at marriage?

A) dowry
B) bride price
C) gift exchange
D) bride service

Question 11

The fact that people who are brought up together on the same kibbutzim are uninterested in each other as marriage partners, even when the marriages are favored by their parents, supports which theory of the incest taboo?

A) the "cooperation" theory
B) the "childhood familiarity" theory
C) the "family disruption" theory
D) Freud's Oedipal theory

Question 12

Among the __________, a pastoral and agricultural society of Kenya, about three percent of the marriages are female-female.

A) Nandi
B) Etoro
C) Cheyenne
D) Azande

Question 13

Most societies

A) encourage marriages between parallel cousins.
B) disapprove of marriages between first cousins.
C) encourage marriages between first cousins.
D) encourage marriages between cross cousins.

Question 14

A berdache is a male transvestite in which society?

A) Nayar
B) Etoro
C) Cheyenne
D) Azande

Question 15

A(n) __________ is a custom whereby a man is obliged to marry his brother's widow.

A) sororate
B) exogamy
C) endogamy
D) levirate

Question 16

Cousin marriage is most common in

A) moderately stratified societies.
B) societies that have recently suffered severe depopulation.
C) nomadic societies.
D) societies with medium-sized populations.

Question 17

Of the following, which is the more common distribution of economic marriage transactions among societies that have them?

A) bride service
B) bride price
C) indirect dowry
D) gift exchange

Question 18

What percentage of the societies known to anthropologists includes one or more explicit economic transactions that take place before or after a marriage?

A) about 15
B) about 75
C) about 45
D) about 25

Question 19

Of the following forms of marriage, the rarest is

A) polygyny.
B) group marriage.
C) the levirate.
D) polyandry.

Question 20

The theory that inbreeding can be genetically harmful to animals that produce few offspring

A) was first proposed by Edward Tylor.
B) is unsupported by data from animal studies.
C) is probably true.
D) has no bearing on the universal presence of the incest taboo.

Question 21

In many Western countries, there has been a dramatic increase recently in the percentage of one-parent families. What percent of these one-parent families is female-headed?

A) about 30%
B) about 50%
C) about 70%
D) about 90%

Question 22

What are the advantages to the extended-family household? The disadvantages?

Question 23

A nuclear family might include all of the following except

A) a father.
B) a mother.
C) a married uncle.
D) an unmarried sister.

Question 24

One theory to explain the incest taboo is Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory. This says

A) sexual competition among family members would create rivalry and tension.
B) it promotes cooperation among family members.
C) it would cause inbreeding leading to problems.
D) it is a reaction against unconscious, unacceptable desires.

Question 25

In many societies, marriage involves economic considerations. Why is this?

A) it would be the only thing holding the marriage together
B) it binds families together to distribute wealth
C) people usually only think of money
D) because marriage ultimately makes you poorer

Question 26

Polygyny is least likely in societies

A) with more women than men.
B) with a long post-partum sex taboo.
C) suffering from a high male mortality rate in warfare.
D) with balanced sex ratios.

Question 27

Describe polyandry and polygyny. What explanations are there for these behaviors?

Question 28

The incest taboo which prohibits sexual intercourse or marriage between categories of kin is universal. Why is this?

A) no one really knows shy
B) despite the research, we only know about societies which in the past allowed it
C) it is based on the childhood familiarity theory
D) because our earliest ancestors began the practice

Question 29

The custom of allowing a man to marry more than one woman is

A) found in most of the societies anthropologists have studied.
B) found in only a small minority of the world's societies.
C) unlikely to engender jealousy among co-wives.
D) strictly forbidden by the Moslem religion.

Question 30

Endogamy obliges a person to marry within the same group. The societies that hold to this most rigidly are

A) the U.S. and most industrialized countries.
B) very small societies.
C) caste societies.
D) actually, no one does this anymore.

Question 31

In many societies arranged marriages were the norm, but that's becoming less common. Why is that?

A) customs are changing with the times
B) arranged marriages are being outlawed
C) no one follows through on arranged marriages anymore
D) the people have universally asked that it be stopped

Question 32

Define the terms bride price, dowry, and gift exchange. Of the three, which is the most common? What is its purpose?

Question 33

Marriage according to anthropologists is not necessarily a marriage certificate or wedding ceremony. It is much more like

A) a very formal process requiring a lot of witnesses.
B) no celebration at all.
C) a socially approved sexual and economic union.
D) a concept that individuals hold.

Question 34

A long post-partum sex taboo is most likely

A) where there are more males than females in the society.
B) in societies with a high proportion of monogamous marriages.
C) where people depend on crops that are low in protein.
D) in egalitarian societies.

Question 35

All societies have some way of marking the onset of marriage. Why do these vary from culture to culture?

A) we don't really know why
B) it may have to do with the lack of a good economic system
C) almost all societies do not have ceremonies making it hard to study
D) none of the above

Question 36

Compare exogamy and endogamy. How are these rules applied in India?

Question 37

While most of the world's societies allow polygyny, most men in these societies are monogamous. Why is that?

A) men prefer monogamous relationships
B) women prefer monogamous relationships
C) men often do not know they have the option
D) few societies have enough women for polygyny to be widely practiced

Question 38

Describe the family disruption theory by Malinowski, and Freud's psychoanalytic theory.
What are the flaws in both arguments?

Question 39

It appears that all human societies have the custom of marriage. Why is this?

A) marriage solves problems found in society.
B) it helps share the products of the division of labor.
C) it helps to care for infants.
D) all of the above.

Question 40

Where polyandry is practiced, it is most often explained by

A) an adaptation to large amounts of resources.
B) a shortage of women in that society.
C) it being done only with fraternal brothers.
D) none of the above.

Question 41

In what situations does polyandrous marriage occur? What are the economic advantages of this behavior?

Question 42

Why do men tend to be more violent than women in situations of jealousy?

Question 43

Distinguish between sororal polygyny and nonsororal polygyny.

Question 44

What social functions do both the levirate and sororate play in the societies that have this type of second marriage?