Deck 10: Kinship and Descent

Question 1

Why are anthropologists interested in kinship?

A) In all types of societies, kinship is the primary organizing principle.
B) People all over the world are emotionally connected to their families.
C) For some non-Western societies and indigenous groups, kinship is central to all aspects of life.
D) Kin relations are the most clearly defined types of relationships in any society.

Answer 1

For some non-Western societies and indigenous groups, kinship is central to all aspects of life.

Question 2

Most groups in Western industrial societies are

A) non-overlapping.
B) multifunctional.
C) based on kinship.
D) organized around one's employment.

Answer 2

non-overlapping.

Question 3

Among kinship-based peoples, most groups are

A) voluntary.
B) multifunctional.
C) non-overlapping.
D) biologically determined.

Answer 3

multifunctional.

Question 4

Cross-culturally, the most common way of emphasizing some kinds of kinship relationships and deemphasizing others

A) is based on geographical distance.
B) considers the names given to each member of a kin group.
C) uses the sex of the connecting relatives as the basis of defining kin.
D) is based on social status.

Question 5

When a culture emphasizes either the maternal or the paternal relatives but not both, this is termed ____ descent.

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

Question 6

A ____ descent system traces kinship relationships through the male line.

A) matrilineal
B) patrilineal
C) bilateral
D) parallel gendered

Question 7

Matrilineal descent

A) is less common than patrilineal descent.
B) is common in modern industrial societies.
C) is found primarily among foragers.
D) does not exist in actuality.

Question 8

Each of the following is true of patrilineal descent EXCEPT it

A) is more common than matrilineal descent.
B) traces kin connections to the ancestors and relatives of fathers.
C) places importance on a person's father's relatives.
D) makes men the primary disciplinarians of their sisters' children.

Question 9

In a(n) ____ system, people inherit property from their mothers or from their mother's brothers.

A) matrilineal descent
B) ambilineal descent
C) patrilineal descent
D) cognate

Question 10

Which of these is true in matrilineal descent systems?

A) Men are not counted as relatives.
B) Only matrilateral parallel cousins are allowed to marry one another.
C) Paternal and maternal uncles usually play different roles.
D) Men never own property.

Question 11

A small matrilineal group that traces descent from a woman who lived only four or five generations earlier has ____ a larger group tracing descent from a woman who lived ten generations earlier.

A) less genealogical depth than
B) greater genealogical depth than
C) the same amount of genealogical depth as
D) the same number of generations as

Question 12

The unilineal descent groups that have the greatest genealogical depth are termed

A) extended families.
B) lineages.
C) clans.
D) chiefdoms.

Question 13

Groups who cooperate and have mutual obligations based on their descent from a shared ancestor who lived three or four generations ago are called

A) extended families.
B) lineages.
C) clans.
D) chiefdoms.

Question 14

Which of these statements about clans is FALSE?

A) Clans often own or control land or other forms of property.
B) Clans are subdivided into a number of different lineages.
C) Clans are generally absent of totemic beliefs.
D) Not all members of a clan can state how they are related to one another.

Question 15

A clan is considered totemic when

A) it is a matriclan.
B) the members symbolically identify with the supernatural powers of plants, animals, or natural forces.
C) it is particularly ancient and has religious practices that separate each of the included lineages.
D) it is a patriclan.

Question 16

The Tikopians of the South Pacific are divided into four patriclans, each of which is divided into several patrilineages that are in turn comprised of several extended families each. The extended families are comprised of several nuclear families. This is an example of

A) a matrifocal organization.
B) patrilineally partitioned organization.
C) segmentary organization.
D) nested families.

Question 17

Among the Hopi, husbands go to live with the families of their wives. Fathers and children are of different lineages, and the mothers and mothers' brothers are the primary disciplinarians. The Hopi are

A) matrilineal and matrilocal.
B) patrilineal and matrilocal.
C) patrilineal and patrilocal.
D) matrilineal and patrilocal.

Question 18

Which of the following is NOT a reason that the membership of clans and lineages does not always follow unilineal principles?

A) Lack of sufficient resources owned by the group
B) Childlessness of some women and/or adoption
C) Inability of some individuals to get along in the group
D) People's unwillingness to go against cultural norms

Question 19

Which of these systems allows the greatest range of individual choice about what kinship group one belongs to?

A) Cognatic
B) Unilineal
C) Patrilineal
D) Matrilineal

Question 20

Cognatic descent is especially common among which people groups?

A) Contemporary Western European countries
B) The indigenous peoples of the American Southwest
C) Polynesians and the Maori of New Zealand
D) East Asians and Sub-Saharan Africans

Question 21

How do cognatic systems differ from unilineal systems?

A) Cognatic systems can hold property and regulate access to land.
B) Cognatic systems have overlapping membership in lineages.
C) Cognatic systems provide the means for acquiring honored and authoritative political roles.
D) Cognatic systems organize cooperative activities.

Question 22

How do bilateral kinship systems differ from other kinship systems?

A) Unlike in cognatic systems, bilateral descent is traced through either gender.
B) Unlike in cognatic systems, bilateral kinship is only traced through a single gender.
C) Unlike both cognatic and unilineal systems, bilateral systems have no large, property holding groups.
D) Unlike unilineal systems, bilateral systems trace descent only through a single gender.

Question 23

The term for all the relatives that one recognizes through both sides of one's family is

A) kindred.
B) kinship.
C) descent group.
D) lineage.

Question 24

The majority of matrilineal cultures are

A) foragers.
B) horticulturists.
C) pastoralists.
D) contemporary industrialists.

Question 25

Which of these are NOT important criteria in constructing kinship terminologies?

A) Generation
B) Gender of the ego or referent
C) Mother's or father's side of the family
D) Status or rank of the referent

Question 26

Who developed the classification system for kinship terminology?

A) Raymond Firth
B) Bronislaw Malinowski
C) Lewis Henry Morgan
D) Franz Boas

Question 27

Which kinship terminology system is used by Americans?

A) Eskimo
B) Hawaiian
C) Iroquois
D) Crow

Question 28

The organizing principle for most Western societies is kinship.

Question 29

Among indigenous groups, membership in groups is assigned by kinship.

Question 30

From an anthropological perspective, kinship is a cultural phenomenon.

Question 31

If individuals inherit property only from their mother's side, then their descent system is probably matrilineal.

Question 32

Patrilineal descent and matrilineal descent are equally as common.

Question 33

In a clan, all the members are able to describe how they are related to one another.

Question 34

No particular people or culture typifies matrilineal or patrilineal kinship; there is a lot of diversity in these systems.

Question 35

Being matrilineal means that women in a group will control the property and politics of the group.

Question 36

Within unilineal systems, the membership of lineages and clans is always clearly defined.

Question 37

Individual choice in joining a group is most important in cognatic systems.

Question 38

All of the members of a given person's kindred recognize that they are related to each other through that person.

Question 39

All descent systems are ancestor-focused.

Question 40

The descent system of most pastoralists is patrilineal.

Question 41

The terms "cousin" or "aunt" are natural and universal categories of kinship.

Question 42

In Omaha kinship terminology, there is no term equivalent to the English cousin.

Question 43

Explain how the role of kinship differs between pre-modern and modern industrial societies.

Question 44

Describe the effects of patrilineal descent and matrilineal descent on behavior and relationships between different relatives.

Question 45

Distinguish between extended families, lineages, and clans. Explain how they relate to each other.

Question 46

Describe the basic characteristics of cognatic and bilateral kinship systems. How are they different from each other and from unilineal systems?

Question 47

Briefly describe two of the four different systems of kinship terminology. Explain how they are related to the ways in which different peoples live.