Cultural Anthropology 7-8
Matrilocal residence Bilocal residence (two locations) or ambilocal residence (either location) Inheritance Same-Sex Marriage
197
adoption adopted-daughter marriage, or sim pua marriage
198
Lewis Henry Morgan - Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family - "mother" "cousin" rights and responsibilities of the role concepts of status and role - terms first used by Ralph Linton status is any culturally-designated position a person occupies in a particular setting (father, grandma, brother, etc.) Role is the set of behaviors expected of an individual who occupies a particular status Roles, like statuses, are cultural ideals or expectations Kinship is the word used to describe culturally recognized ties between members of a family relationships formed through blood connections (consanguineal) adoptive parents are considered this relationships created through marriage ties (affinal)
183
The kinship system refers to the pattern of culturally recognized relationships between family members families in many parts of the world are defined by patrilineal descent: the paternal line of the family, or fathers and their children. matrilineal descent defines membership in the kinship group through the maternal line of relationships between mothers and their children Both kinds of kinship are considered unilineal because they involve descent through only one line or side of the family descent groups - provide members with a sense of identity and social support. Kinship groups may also control economic resources and dictate decisions about where people can live, who they can marry, and what happens to their property after death Anthropologists use kinship diagrams to help visualize descent groups and kinship
184
Most kinship diagrams use a triangle to represent males and a circle to represent females - etc., etc. bilateral kinship is more focused on individuals rather than a single lineage of ancestors as seen in unlineal descent
185
matrilineages are not matriarchal. The terms "matriarchy" and "patriarchy" refer to the power structure in a society. Hopi
186
Nayar - men and women did not live together after marriage because the husbands, who were not part of the matrilineage, were not considered relatives Marriages were fluid and men and women could have more than one spouse, but the children always remained with their mothers Some anthropologists have suggested that marriages are less stable in matrilineal societies than inpatrilineal ones, but this varies as well matrilineal Iroquois, for example, women owned the longhouses. Men moved into their wives' family houses at marriage. If a woman wanted to divorce her husband, she could simply put his belongings outside
187
kinship terminology: the terms used in a language to describe relatives George Murdock was one of the first anthropologists to undertake this kind of comparison and he suggested that the kinship systems of the world could be placed in six categories based on the kinds of words a society used to describe relatives Hawaiian system The system that most Americans follow is referred to as the Eskimo system, a name that comes from the old way of referring to the Inuit, an indigenous people of the Arctic Croatia - traditional Croatian family will call his aunts and uncles stric and strina if they are his father's brothers and their wives. He will call his mother's brothers and their wives ujak and ujna tetka or tetak China names
188
Navajo (or Diné) society, children are "born for" their father's families but "born to" their mother's families, the clan to which they belong primarily. The term clan refers to a group of people who have a general notion of common descent that is not attached to a specific ancestor. United States example
190
In our own society, it is only culturally acceptable to be married to one spouse at a time though we may practice what is sometimes called serial monogamy, or, marriage to a succession of spouses one after the other. This is reinforced by religious systems, and more importantly in U.S. society, by law. Plural marriages are not allowed; they are illegal although they do exist because they are encouraged under some religions or ideologies nuclear family parents who are in a culturally-recognized relationship, such as marriage, along with their minor or dependent children. This family type is also known as a conjugal family non-conjugal nuclear family might be a single parent with dependent children, because of the death of one spouse or divorce or because a marriage never occurred extended family: a family of at least three-generations sharing a household stem family is a version of an extended family that includes an older couple and one of their adult children with a spouse (or spouses) and children joint family is a very large extended family that includes multiple generations Polygamous families are based on plural marriages in which there are multiple wives or, in rarer cases, multiple husbands Blended family - brady bunch endogamy - endogamous marriages exogamy -
191
Charles Darwin, who was British, married his first cousin Emma. This was often done to keep property and wealth in the family patrilateral cousin marriage - marrying a male or female cousin on your father's side Arranged marriages were typical in many cultures around the world in the past including in the United States
192
Polygyny refers to marriages in which there is one husband and multiple wives. sororal polygyny, or the marriage of one man to several sisters Polyandry describes marriages with one wife and multiple husbands fraternal polyandry is common and involves the marriage of a woman to a group of brothers dowry (payments made to the groom's family before marriage) bridewealth (payments made to the bride's fam-ily before marriage) practice of a man marrying the sister of his deceased wife is called sororate marriage levirate marriage Cultural rules generally define not only who makes up a family but also how many people should be in it
193
Family members who reside together are called households Many studies of families cross-culturally have focused on household groups because it is house-holds that are the location for many of the day-to-day activities of a society. Households are important social units in any community Domestic group is another term that can be used to describe a household. Domestic groups can describe any group of people who reside together and share activities pertaining to domestic life including but not limited to childcare, elder care, cooking and economic support, even if they might not describe themselves as "family." Households may include nuclear families, extended families, joint extended families, or even combinations of families that share a residence and other property as well as rights and responsibilities.
194
Marriage Exchanges: Dowry and Bridewealth
195
Post-Marital Residence families of orientation family of procreation neolocal residence patrilocal residence avunculocal residence Patrilocal residence
196
Sir James Frazer who attempted to compose the first comprehensive study of the world's major magical and religious belief systems work was based on reading and questionnaires mailed to missionaries and colonial officials rather than travel and participant-observation. The Golden Bough Sir E.B. Tylor sociologist Emile Durkheim recognized that religion was not simply a belief in "supernatural beings," but a set of practices and social institutions that brought members of a community together. Religion, "a unified system of beliefs and practices relative tosacred things, that is to say, things set aside and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them." religion can be defined as "the means by which human society and culture is extended to include the nonhuman." deliberately broad A General Theory of Magic (1902), Marcel Mauss - suggested that religion and magic were two opposite poles on a spectrum of spiritual beliefs. (private, secret, and individua
288
magic can be defined as practices intended to bring supernatural forces under one's personal control. Sorcerers are individuals who seek to use magic for their own purposes. Sir James Frazer's effort to interpret religious mythology was the first of many attempts to under-stand the reasons why cultures develop various kinds of spiritual beliefs functional approach - focusing on the ways religion addressed human need . Bronislaw Malinowsk - believed that religious beliefs met psychological needs - born out of real tragedies of human life, conflict between human plans and realities George Gmelch - "baseball magic" Sacred objects or ideas are set apart from the ordinary and treated with great respect or care profane objects or ideas are ordinary and can be treated with disregard or con-tempt Durkheim - collective effervescence, a passion or energy that arises when groups of people share the same thoughts and emotions.
289
Dame Mary Douglas - Purity and Danger cultural ideas about things that were "dirty" or "impure" influenced religious beliefs. - Jews Kosher dietary is an example Marx Sigmund Freud believed that religion is the institution that prevents us from acting upon our deepest and most awful desires - Totem and Taboo Marvin Harris' Cow, Pigs, Wars, and Witches based in economic reality Clifford Geertz - creating the symbolic approach -
290
Christians Cross Clifford Geertz - symbolic approach to religion treats religious beliefs as a kind of "text" or "performance" that can be interpreted by outsiders The persistently large gap between emic (insider) and etic (outsider) explanations for religious beliefs and practices makes the study of religion one of the most challenging topics in cultural anthropology. ELEMENTS OF RELIGION: cosmology, an explanation for the origin or history of the world (Big picture) supernatural, a realm beyond direct human experience. This belief could include a God or gods, but this is not a requirement. rules governing behavior. These rules define proper conduct for individuals and for society as a whole and are oriented toward bringing individual actions into harmony with spiritual beliefs ritual, practices or ceremonies that serve a religious purpose and are usually supervised by religious specialists Religious cosmologies are ways of explaining the origin of the universe and the principles or "order" that governs reality. Greeks, Erebus, Nyx, Aether, Hemera, Gaia, Prometheus
291
Navajo - the world is a set of fourteen stacked "plates" or "platters." first two chapters of the Biblical Book of Genesis, which is the foundation for both Judaism and Christianity Cultural relativism requires that anthropologists avoid making judgments about whether any cultural idea, including religious beliefs, is "correct" or "true." Instead, a more useful approach is to try to understand the multiple ways people interpret or make sense of their religious beliefs Malinowski observed, a myth or origin story is not an "idle tale, but a hard-worked active force. Some supernatural entities are anthropomorphic, having human characteristics. Other supernatural forces are more generalized, seen in phenomena like the power of the wind. impersonal supernatural force, a type of religion known as animatism mana, Oceania, "powerful wind," "lightning" or "storm."
292
Richard Garfield incorporated the idea in the card game Magic: cultural appropriation, the act of copying an idea from another culture and in the process distorting its meaning. animatism the Force" depicted in the George Lucas Star Wars films Tausūg soul has 4 parts
293
China, as well as in many other countries, filialpiety requires that the living continue to care for the ancestors Madagascar animism - religions based on the idea that plants, animals, inanimate objects, and even natural phenomena like weather have a spiritual or supernatural element Sir Edward Burnett Tylor, who believed it was the earliest type of religious practice to develop in human societies Shintoism - spirits known as kami that exist in plants, animals, rocks, places and sometimes people
294
Gods - anthropomorphic, imagined in human form, or zoomorphic, imagined in animal form. Religious Beliefs help to define acceptable behaviors as well as punishments, including supernatural consequences, for misbehavior Buddhism - animatism represented by karma
295
Victor Turner - Rituals have a concrete purpose or goal, such as a wedding ritual that results in a religiously sanctioned union between people, but rituals are also symbolic - objects mean more than they actually are - white dress - purity Right of passage - transition between life stages - 3 distinct separation, liminality, and incorporation rite of intensification - bring people together - often after crisis - extremely common - create a sense of communitas or unity that encourages people to see themselves as members of community Naglo - land diving Revitalization rituals - often after a crisis - resolve problems - war, famine, poverty - John Frum ritual began - cargo cult
296 297
Priests Shaman Pujari shamanism may be a culturally accepted way to deal with conditions like schizophrenia
298
ayahuasca, a drink made from plants that have hallucinogenic effects, for centuries. The effects of ayahuasca start with the nervous system: Shipibo people of Peru, ayahuasca is thought to be the substance that allows the soul of a shaman to leave his body in order to retrieve a soul that has been lost or stolen Scott Hutson - shamans and the mental states induced during a rave, a large dance party characterized by loud music with repetitive patterns. prophet is a person who claims to have direct communication with the supernatural realm and who can communicate divine messages to other - Muhammad, Moses, Joseph Smith who founded the Church of Latter Day Saints olden plates became the basis for the Book of Mormon major distinction between a priest and the prophet is the source of their authority. A priest gets his or her authority from the scripture and occupational position in a formally organized religious institution. A prophet derives authority from his or her direct connection to the divine and ability to convince others of his or her legitimacy through charisma prophet David Koresh - The Branch Davidians were millenarians, people who believe that major transformations of the world are imminent - Waco - Texas
299