Question 1

Matrilineal descent is typically difficult for Americans to grasp because it feels so unnatural to us. What explains this feeling that matrilineal descent is unnatural since Americans also recognize that we are descended from one mother and her parents?

Accepted Answer

Our kinship system is bilateral, meaning we recognize descent through both the mother and the father, so focusing on only one line, as in matrilineal descent, seems unusual to us.

Question 2

What do anthropologists call the structural process of forgetting whole groups of relatives?

Accepted Answer

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Question 3

What is the combined effect of having surnames that are inherited from a child's father and having a woman take her husband's surname at the time of marriage?

Accepted Answer

The practice of women taking their husband's surname and children inheriting their father's surname can lead to the erasure of maternal surnames over generations, making it easier to forget women's surnames.

Question 4

Men who participate in polygyny often

Accepted Answer

In polygyny, a man has multiple wives, and often, the wives support the arrangement as it is culturally accepted in societies where polygyny is practiced.

Question 5

In vitro fertilization (IVF) births account for approximately how many live births in the United States today?

Accepted Answer

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Question 6

Which technology led to what is referred to as the "sexual revolution" in the 1960s?

Accepted Answer

The introduction of birth control pills in the 1960s provided women with more control over their reproductive health, leading to significant social changes and contributing to the "sexual revolution."

Question 7

Nearly all cultures around the world give a similar importance to biological relatedness as the basis for defining a family.

Accepted Answer

Different cultures have varying definitions and importance placed on biological relatedness in defining family, with some emphasizing kinship, community, or social bonds over biological ties.

Question 8

In every society there is a gap between that society's ideal family and the real families that exist.

Accepted Answer

Societal ideals often represent a perfect or aspirational version of family life, which can differ from the diverse and complex realities of actual families.

Question 9

Forgetting large portions of relatives is usually done on purpose when people want to distance themselves from a certain part of their broad extended family.

Accepted Answer

Forgetting large portions of relatives is not usually done on purpose; it can occur due to various reasons such as lack of contact, memory issues, or emotional distancing, but not necessarily as a deliberate act.

Question 10

From an anthropological perspective, which of the following is not a new issue that arises with in vitro fertilization (IVF), surrogacy, adoption, and frequent divorce and remarriage in American society?

Accepted Answer

Inheritance issues have been a concern in societies long before the advent of IVF, surrogacy, and modern family structures.

Question 11

For most of our history American kinship has had a patrilineal bias, but in most American families women play a key role in keeping the families together. Using anthropological approaches to kinship, how do you explain this difference?

Accepted Answer

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Question 12

What are the social consequences that arise from having a system of unilineal descent rather than a cognatic system such as in the United States?

Accepted Answer

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Question 13

Consider the "Classic Contributions" box on A. L. Kroeber on classificatory systems of relationship. Although earlier anthropologists understood American and English kinship terms as "descriptive," they described all other kinship systems as classificatory because they grouped relatives of different sorts in unexpected ways. What American kin terms are actually classificatory terms? Explain your answer.

Accepted Answer

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Question 14

Although romance novels and romantic comedy films routinely emphasize that people should marry for love, there are many other reasons for marriage. Identify three of these other reasons why people might want to marry, whether they are in love or not. Could one be in love and still marry for these other reasons?

Accepted Answer

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Question 15

What kind of American corporate kin groups are found today? More than one-third of all households are single-person households. Can these individuals belong to corporate kin groups?

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Question 16

Dowry is often used in India to make a daughter more attractive to possible husbands, while bride price is used to compensate a family for the work and children of one of their daughters. Explain how both of these payments unite families but in different ways.

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Question 17

Same-sex marriage is legal in legal in the United States, but various kinds of restrictions on same-sex marriage and its recognition exist in the other states. What anthropological questions can you identify about the meaning that such unions have for Americans in different parts of the country that help to explain the legislative patterns in each state? What can we say about these cultural expectations when changes occur rapidly?

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Question 18

Who would possibly be the "parents" and what kind of possible relationships would exist between those parents and a child in a birth in which an infertile couple used a sperm bank and the egg (ovum) from the wife's sister, a surrogate mother? What would change if the legal parents were killed in an auto accident and the child was adopted by the mother's sister?

Accepted Answer

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Quiz 12: Kinship, Marriage, and the Family: Love, Sex, and Power