Deck 9: Kinship, Family, and Marriage

Question 1

Anthropologists in the early twentieth century believed that kinship structures would yield crucial data and patterns about societal structure. What was one of the primary goals of these efforts?

A) comparison of different societies
B) determining which societies are more egalitarian
C) analysis of their own society
D) to distinguish between kinship systems and religions, economic, and political systems

Answer 1

comparison of different societies

Question 2

Ambilineal descent groups such as Samoans, Maori, and Hawaiians are sometimes referred to as what kind of descent groups?

A) unilineal
B) polylineal
C) cognatic
D) monolineal

Answer 2

cognatic

Question 3

One of the ways that humans construct kinship groups is by tracking genealogy. What are these kinds of groups called?

A) ascent
B) related
C) family
D) descent

Answer 3

descent

Question 4

In the U.S. it is illegal as well as socially frowned upon to marry certain relatives. This is an example of a society that practices ________,

A) kindred exogamy
B) kindred paternity
C) kindred endogamy
D) kindred maternity

Question 5

Within a family structure, we learn how to treat our kin. What other aspects of life in society does family prepare us to navigate?

A) age, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality
B) DNA and biological relations
C) the impact of politics on family relations
D) birth and death rates

Question 6

What are the two types of descent groups distinguished by anthropologists?

A) lineages and clans
B) matrilineal and patrilineal
C) patrilineal and clan
D) matrilineal and clan

Question 7

Which of the following types of descent groups traces kinship through both the mother and the father?

A) ambilineal
B) unilineal
C) polylineal
D) bilineal

Question 8

What model of kinship does the idea that a nuclear family consists of a mother, a father, and their children reflect?

A) a nearly universal, cross-cultural understanding of kinship
B) a Euro-American ideal
C) a stable model that matches the lived experience of most Americans
D) a model proven to be the best structure for society

Question 9

How many different primary systems used to classify relatives in the parental generation, including the bifurcate merging system, were identified by early anthropologists?

A) two
B) five
C) nine
D) four

Question 10

The parents of an upper-class family in the United States send their two children to a private boarding school and, later, to an elite college. Both children marry other members of the upper class, who they met at school. Their parents encouraged what kind of an arranged marriage?

A) companionate
B) exogamous
C) endogamous
D) polygamous

Question 11

Both matrilineal and patrilineal patterns of descent build kinship groups through either one genealogical line (the mother's side) or the other (the father's side). What anthropological concept does this reflect?

A) Ambilineality
B) Unilineality
C) endogamy
D) patrilineality

Question 12

What do anthropologists call descent groups based on a claim to a founding ancestor but lacking genealogical documentation?

A) relations
B) marriages
C) clans
D) lineages

Question 13

A patrilineal descent group traces kinships through which side of the family?

A) mother's
B) sibling's
C) grandparent's
D) father's

Question 14

Families and kinship networks have the power to provide support and to nurture. What else do kinship networks do in a society?

A) encourage monogamous marriage
B) prevent genetic abnormalities
C) ensure reproduction of the next generation
D) ensure stability in the political system

Question 15

For most individuals in descent groups in the United States, their relationship is based on consanguinity. What is the basis of this consanguineal relationship?

A) size of group
B) blood
C) paternity
D) maternity

Question 16

Which of the following terms is defined as the system of meaning and power that cultures create to determine who is related to whom and to define their mutual expectations, rights, and responsibilities?

A) family
B) heredity
C) descent
D) kinship

Question 17

A daughter-in-law is an example of what kind of relative?

A) Consanguine
B) Extramarital
C) exogamous
D) affinal

Question 18

Many different kinship structures send a son away (or search outside their immediate kin groups) for a marriage partner. What rule does this reflect?

A) endogamy
B) monogamy
C) polygamy
D) exogamy

Question 19

In a matrilineal descent group, continued membership in the same family group is passed down through which member?

A) father
B) mother
C) uncle
D) aunt

Question 20

How many different ways of classifying siblings and cousins did early anthropologists find by collecting kinship data from cultures worldwide?

A) seventeen
B) six
C) one
D) no consistent way

Question 21

Compulsory dowries have not been legal in India since the 1960s, nevertheless,

A) Indian human rights groups protest their abolition.
B) brideswealth is still common.
C) they are still common in publicly transferring rights and legitimizing alliances.
D) they are often used to compensate the wife's parents for the loss of a daughter .

Question 22

The origins of the incest taboo are unclear, even after decades of careful study. One theory holds that the taboo is due to a fear of creating genetic defects in offspring. What is one argument against this theory?

A) If a harmful trait runs in a family, systematic inbreeding will increase the possibility of the defective gene being passed along.
B) Surveys show that most people do not believe that incest leads to genetic defects.
C) Incest taboos predate any scientific understanding of human genetics, so this could not be the cause.
D) The human genome project has shown that incest does not result in genetic damage.

Question 23

What is true about the incest taboo forbidding sexual relations with close relatives such as siblings and parents?

A) It is found across all cultures in the world.
B) It is very frequent in ancient cultures.
C) It is a direct response to concerns about biological degeneration and abnormality.
D) It is not regulated by law in Western countries.

Question 24

While the notion of a romantic marriage predominates thinking in the United States, what is another common reason for marriage prevalent in other countries?

A) to ensure domestic bliss
B) to stabilize the tax base
C) to create a strategic alliance
D) to ensure accurate paternal identification

Question 25

Which of the following types of marriage specifically involves the marital union of one man to two or more women?

A) polyandry
B) monogamy
C) polyamory
D) polygyny

Question 26

Susan Kahn found that Jewish women in Israel are deeply compelled to reproduce their family, religion, and the nation. For women who get pregnant using new reproductive technologies, the ethnicity of a sperm donor is less of an issue than that of an egg donor. How do you classify the way they practice descent?

A) bilateral
B) patrilineal
C) ambilineal
D) matrilineal

Question 27

What is distinctive about new kinship groups created through affinal relationships?

A) They are linked through alliance, not through shared biology or common descent.
B) They can be traced through consanguine or blood relatives.
C) They are distinguished by relation to a founding ancestor.
D) They are distinguished by multiple founding ancestors.

Question 28

You attend a friend's wedding. At one point, the father of the groom hands a set of new car keys to the bride. What would you, as an anthropologist, call this?

A) gift exchange
B) bridewealth
C) reciprocity
D) dowry

Question 29

With the exception of a few historical examples such as Incan, Hawaiian, and ancient Egyptian royalty, incest taboos universally prohibit sexual relations between which members of a group?

A) parents and children, siblings, and all cousins
B) first and second cousins
C) parents and children and siblings
D) half siblings and parallel cousins

Question 30

Cousins who are children of a father's brother or a mother's sister are considered which type of cousin?

A) second cousins
B) affinal cousins
C) cross-cousins
D) parallel cousins

Question 31

Where are first-cousin marriages (between the children of two siblings) legally prohibited?

A) in all fifty states in the United States of America
B) in some states in the United States of America
C) in Europe and North America
D) in all countries around the world

Question 32

Marriage is often seen as a way to build an alliance and create new relationships between different groups. Sometimes this outcome is coincidental, but in many cases, it is accomplished intentionally through what kind of marriage?

A) arranged
B) exogamous
C) companionate
D) endogamous

Question 33

Nation-states draw heavily on ideas of ________ in order to create a sense of connection among very different people found within their national borders.

A) religion and kinship
B) kinship and family
C) hegemony and kinship
D) nationalism and hegemony

Question 34

Which of the following types of marriage specifically involves the marital union of one woman to two or more men?

A) polyandry
B) monogamy
C) polyamory
D) polygyny

Question 35

How do humans build kinship ties between two people who are not their immediate biological kin?

A) blood
B) marriage
C) school
D) Networking

Question 36

In some parts of the world, when a marriage ends, the former spouses often remarry new partners soon afterward. What form of marriage is this?

A) polyandry
B) serial monogamy
C) arranged marriage
D) polygyny

Question 37

Which of the following is the practice of formalizing and legalizing a marriage through the exchange of gifts from the bride's family to the groom's family?

A) gift exchange
B) bridewealth
C) reciprocity
D) dowry

Question 38

In some cultures, including Chinese and Indian, there is a strong preference for male children. This preference has been highlighted by what particular development?

A) reproductive technologies
B) the "one child" policy
C) government monitoring policies
D) widespread access to online information

Question 39

Something similar to marriage exists in every known culture. However, many anthropologists observe that:

A) marriage practices do not vary widely across cultures.
B) marriage has no easily identifiable universal characteristics.
C) there are four main types of marriages worldwide.
D) there is no need to change the definition of marriage.

Question 40

Bridewealth is prevalent in many African societies and parts of the Middle East and frequently means that the groom's family gives cattle, cash, or other goods to the family of the bride-to-be. What is the goal of bridewealth?

A) It stabilizes the marriage through establishment of mutual, vested interest.
B) It creates a sense of obligation on the part of the groom's family.
C) It helps ensure the newlyweds' financial success.
D) It can force the bride to be a good homemaker.

Question 41

Among Malay villagers on the island of Langkawi, kinship is not only given at birth, but also acquire through:

A) reproductive technologies.
B) co-residence and co-feeding.
C) initiation rituals.
D) geneological research.

Question 42

All of us are born or adopted into a family. When we make a choice to leave this natal family and choose a mate in order to have children, what kind of family are we becoming part of?

A) chosen family
B) family of orientation
C) family of procreation
D) nuclear family

Question 43

Benny loves to tell mother-in-law jokes. What kind of relative is he joking about?

A) cognatic kin
B) affinal kin
C) matrilineal kin
D) bilateral kin

Question 44

Marriage in various forms occurs all over the world. In the United States, we typically practice kindred exogamy. What is kindred exogamy and what are two examples of marriages that would violate its rules? How does exogamy generally differ from endogamy? Is endogamy officially or unofficially practiced in the United States? What are two examples of unofficial or implicit endogamy that may occur in a group of people? What are some benefits and drawbacks of exogamy and endogamy?

Question 45

Why did members of the Chen descent group have difficulty reconstructing their genealogy?

A) many families have same name
B) exogamous marriage
C) migration and political pressures
D) the distractions of modern life

Question 46

Anthropologist E. E. Evans-Pritchard conducted ethnographic research with Nuer people of southern Sudan in the 1930s and argued that this group of people constituted a patrilineal descent group. What does it mean to be a patrilineal descent group and how does this differ from a matrilineal descent group? How were cattle used to reflect the patrilineal nature of Nuer descent? Provide at least two examples.

Question 47

The author of your textbook describes a situation in a Chinese village in which family and ancestral records had been destroyed as part of the national cultural revolution in the 1960s. The author uses this case to underscore the fact that political factors can shape efforts to construct and maintain kinship. What are two examples of ways in which political factors may have shaped kinship in the United States? Do you think that political factors continue to influence kinship in any way today? Why or why not? What future implications may current political factors have on future forms of kinship?

Question 48

Anthropologists argue that kinship is one of several ways in which individuals form groups. Name and describe three other ways in which humans form groups. Does kinship influence how these other groups are formed? Why or why not?

Question 49

Your friend tells you about an event that took place before her cousin Ayla's wedding in Turkey in which her family gave furniture, kitchen appliances, and cash to the groom's family. In Turkey, it is called "ceyiz." How would anthropologist classify this kind of ritual?

A) inheritance
B) bridewealth
C) dowry
D) reciprocity

Question 50

Toguwagewa's society practices unilateral matrilineal descent. To whom does he consider himself related?

A) his biological father
B) his biological mother's brother
C) his biological father's sister
D) his biological father's mother

Question 51

The Nandi of Kenya and the Nuer of Sudan are examples of societies that:

A) practice polyandry.
B) have no recognizable marriage practices.
C) allow women to marry other women.
D) have arranged marriages.

Question 52

Ayako grew up with many brothers and sisters, but she and her husband currently have no children. What would you call her family unit that had many siblings?

A) extended Family
B) family of Orientation
C) family of Procreation
D) lineage

Question 53

The Nuer practice patrilineal descent. Through whom do boys inherit membership in the descent group?

A) the mother's father
B) the mother's mother
C) the father's father
D) the father's mother

Question 54

Teresa and Caitlyn are successful professionals in their 50s. Although they don't feel any economic or social pressure, they decide to get married. What kind of marriage to they have?

A) arranged marriage
B) exogamous marriage
C) family of orientation
D) companionate marriage

Question 55

Carol Stacks found that poor African American families who lived in the Flats responded to structural poverty and long-term unemployment through:

A) forming dynamic extended kinship networks with biological and fictive kin.
B) practices of co-residence and co-feeding.
C) forming exogamous marriage alliances that allowed them to move out of the Flats.
D) using genealogical records to create alliances with members of their lineage.

Question 56

Why might some gay men and lesbians turn to chosen families?

A) because chosen families are better than biological kinship
B) because their parents, siblings, and other close relatives cut off kinship ties
C) because of the impact of assisted reproductive technologies
D) because it is necessary for humans to be part of a some form of nuclear family

Question 57

When Cesar speaks of his dream to get married and have children, he is talking about his:

A) extended family.
B) family of orientation.
C) family of procreation.
D) lineage.

Question 58

Through kinship studies across cultures, anthropologists have determined that the ways in which genealogies are constructed can be messy and far from exact. Gaps, interruptions, disruptions, uncertainties, and assumed connections are all found among genealogies. This fact is further underscored by Kathleen Gough's reexamination of anthropologist E. E. Evans-Pritchard's kinship work with Nuer people in Sudan. Describe one example of a genealogical disruption that Gough found among Nuer kinship data collected in the 1930s, and discuss why the disruption likely occurred. What sorts of gaps and disruptions are present in your own genealogy, and why do you think they have occurred? Do you think that genealogies will undergo even greater gaps and disruptions in the future? Why or why not?

Question 59

What does Melanie Medeiros suggest caused the increased rate of divorce in the town of Brogoto, Brazil?

A) Women wish to create exogamous marriage alliances with foreigners.
B) Companionate marriages naturally dissolve when spouses live apart.
C) Men divorce women who threaten their traditional role of provider.
D) Women have increased economic independence and shifting expectations about gender roles.

Question 60

The statement issued in 2004 by the American Anthropological Association noted that a "vast array of family types" all contributed to "stable and humane societies." Why did the organization issue this statement?

A) to support heterosexual marriage
B) to support same-sex marriage
C) to expand research into the nature of families
D) to increase economic support for families in poverty

Question 61

Anthropologists have clearly demonstrated that kinship is not solely given at birth via biological connections or through marriage alliances but can be acquired through other means. What are three other ways in which kinship can be acquired? What are the benefits of being able to acquire kinship outside of biological relations and marriage? Provide at least two examples of ways of acquiring kinship in the United States and in your own home community.

Question 62

How families are conceptualized and formed varies across cultural groups. Define and describe the ways in which a family of orientation and a family of procreation differ. How does the concept of a nuclear family fit into these two concepts of family? Why is the concept of a nuclear family more common in the United States and other Western industrialized cultures and societies? What are some examples of other concepts of family found in other cultures throughout the world? What may be some underlying factors that contribute to the diverse ways in which family is conceptualized and formed? How do you think the concept of family may change in the future, and why?

Question 63

Arranged marriages that are orchestrated by the families of the bride and groom are common in many cultural groups in Asia, the Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa. Although arranged marriage is not the primary form of marriage in the United States, it does exist. Anthropologists would argue that arranged marriages actually do occur more frequently when marriages that are arranged in subtle and implicit ways are considered. What are three examples of subtle, arranged marriages that occur in the United States that may not necessarily be overtly called "arranged marriages"? Why do you think these types of marriages occur? How do these types of marriage compare to companionate marriages?

Question 64

The old song "Love and Marriage" suggests that "you can't have one without the other." As we have seen, however, it is common that a marriage is not based on love but instead on very different things. In your own words, define arranged and companionate marriages, explaining some of the things on which people today are basing marriages. What has changed in the question of love and marriage and why has it changed? What are some of the forces that drive changing marriage patterns and thus the motives-such as love-for getting married in the first place?

Question 65

Families in the United States are supplementing biological connections and affinal marriage connections with alternative family forms based on friendship, respect, and mutual support. One alternative family form is that of chosen families. What are chosen families, and what are some of the reasons that they exist and are becoming more common? Give three examples of chosen families in the United States. Do you think that chosen families existed in the distant past? Why or why not? What do you think will happen to the prevalence of chosen families in the future, and why?

Question 66

Susan Kahn's research in Israel examined the deep interconnectedness of reproduction kinship, Jewishness, religion, and the state itself. Israel strongly promotes the birth of new children and even subsidizes reproductive technologies in an effort to increase the birth rate. What are two of the challenges in the use of reproductive technologies in this instance? How is the state's so-called stake in the child changed with the use of reproductive technologies?

Question 67

In 2004, the American Anthropological Association (AAA)-the largest association of anthropologists in the United States-issued a statement regarding same-sex marriages and what was then a contentious piece of legislation, the Defense of Marriage Act. What position did the AAA take on same-sex marriages? Did the AAA have research data to substantiate its position? Do you think that professional associations such as the AAA should make formal position statements about issues that are part of a "culture clash"? Why or why not?