Anthropology 152 Culture and Humanity

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Anthropology 152 Culture and Humanity

• Chapter 8
• Sex and Marriage

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Mid-term TestsGrade distribution

• 46 - 49 15 (92-98)
• 40.5 - 45 25 (81-90)
• 35 - 40 13 (70-80)
• 28.5 - 33.5 4 (57-67)
• x2 for final grade
• Check your test!
• Extra Credit?

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To Learn From Chapter 8

• 1. What marriage is in nonethnocentric terms.
• 2. The controls societies place on sexual
  relations and theories as to why these controls
  are necessary.
• 3. The many forms of marriage and how they
  correlate with other aspects of society
• monogamy
• polygyny
• polyandry
• two forms of cousin marriage
• 4. The role of consanguineal and affinal ties in
  society.
• 5. The kinds of gift exchanges that often
  accompany marriage.

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Media Trek
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Regulating sexual access

• Among primates, the human female is unusual in
  her ability to engage in sexual activity whenever
  she wants to or whenever her culture tells her it
  is appropriate, irrespective of whether she is
  fertile.
• Although such activity may reinforce social bonds
  between individuals, competition for sexual
  access can also be disruptive, so every society
  has rules that govern such access.

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Sex and Marriage Quiz!! True or False

• 1) In California, New York, and Hawaii it is
  legal for first cousins to marry each other.
• 2) Most societies prohibit all sexual involvement
  outside of marriage.
• 3) Polygyny is the most favored form of marriage
  around the world.

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Question 1In California, New York, and Hawaii
it is legal for first cousins to marry each
other.

• True

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Incest taboo

• The prohibition of sexual relations between
  specified individuals, usually parent-child and
  sibling relations at a minimum.
• Why?
• Explanations vary . . .
• Avoiding inbreeding?
• Avoiding family disruption?
• Forming wider alliances?
• Biological tendency?

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Endogamy Exogamy

• Exogamy - Marriage outside the group.
• Alliances form
• Endogamy - Marriage within a particular group or
  category of individuals
• Wealth
• Religion
• Royalty

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Cross-cousin Parallel cousin marriage

• Cross cousin marriage is a means of establishing
  and maintaining solidarity between groups.
• Man Mothers brothers daughter, Woman
  Fathers sisters son.
• Marriage to a paternal parallel cousin serves to
  retain property within a single male line of
  descent.
• Fathers brothers son or daughter.

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Question 2Most societies prohibit all sexual
involvement outside of marriage.

• False
• About 5 of known societies prohibit all sexual
  involvement outside marriage.
• Marriage vs. Mating
• Unlike mating (biological), marriage (cultural)
  is backed by social, legal, and economic forces.
• Selecting a mate 1) how? 2) who chooses?
• Divorce 1) why? 2) what ramifications?

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Marriage and exchange

• Levirate - a marriage custom according to which a
  widow marries a brother of her dead husband.
• Sororate - widower marries his dead wifes
  sister.
• Bride price - a compensation paid by the groom of
  his family to the brides family upon marriage.
• Where the bride will become a member of the
  household where here husband grew up
• They will benefit from her labor and offspring.
• Dowry- a payment of a womans inheritance at the
  time of her marriage either to her or to her
  husband
• Economy is based on intensive agriculture - mens
  carry out bulk of productive work.
• Support, status, competition for husbands

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Question 3 Polygyny is the most favored form of
marriage around the world.

• True
• Monogamy 1 spouse, most common
• Polygamy Plural marriage
• Polygyny Marriage of one man to several women,
  most preferred
• Polyandry - Marriage of one woman to several men.
• 554 societies prefer/permit
• Polygyny 415 (80-85 )
• Monogamy (Serial) 135
• Polyandry 4

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Define Marriage

• Every society must regulate sexual access between
  males and females to avoid potential conflict.
• Marriage - A transaction and resulting contract
  in which a woman and a man are recognized by
  society as having a continuing claim to the right
  of sexual access to one another, and in which the
  woman involved is eligible to have children
  (Haviland 1996).
• Marriage - A culturally sanctioned union between
  two or more people that establishes certain
  rights and obligations between the people,
  between them and their children, and between them
  and their in-laws. Such marriage rights and
  obligations most often include, but are not
  limited to, sex, labor, property, child rearing,
  exchange, and status (Haviland 2005).

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The Nayar

• 1) Ritual husband
• Establishes girl as adult ready for motherhood
• No further obligations
• 2) Visiting husband
• Sexual relations with a man approved by family
• Man to provide gifts three times a year
• In return he can spend nights with her
• She may have more than one visiting husbands
• The Nayar version of marriage
• 3) Fatherhood
• When woman becomes pregnant a visiting husband
  must acknowledge paternity
• he may not be the actual father - this
  establishes childs birth rights (registration)
• After this gift giving the father has no further
  obligations
• The Nayar household includes mother, children and
  her consanguineal kin.

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The Nandi

• Pastoral people - most property in hands of men
• Polygyny preferred
• Household wife and children (husband remote)
• No sons no one to inherit her share of
  property.
• A woman of advanced age may become a female
  husband by marrying a young woman.
• The young wife is to provide male heirs for the
  female husband.
• The female husband assumes male social role -
  near equality
• The father is not the female husbands husband.
• This father has no other obligations.
• The women-women marriage
• Enhances the status of both
• No sexual activity, the female husband still wife
  to her husband

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Same-Sex MarriageSmall group discussion

• Form groups of 4-5
• Read handout
• 1) What is Bushs main argument
• 2) What is the AAAs main argument
• 3) What is Havilands main argument
• 4) Your are the Judge/Lawmaker
• Should same sex marriages be legal in
  America?
• 5) On what do you base your decision?
• (world cultures, a religion, subsistence base?)