sociology

Be familiar with the terms exogamy and endogamy

>Exogamy - the practice of marrying outside of one's group >Endogamy - the practice of marrying within one's own group

Power

>Patriarchy - men as a group dominating women as a group (authority is vested in males) >Matriarchy - a society in which women as a group dominate men as a group (authority is vested in females) > Egalitarian - authority more or less equally divided between people or groups, equal (in heterosexual marriage, for example, between husband and wife)

Be familiar with rules of descent

>System of descent - how kinship is traced over the generation >Bilineal System - a system of reckoning descent that counts both the mother's and the father's side >Patrilineal System - a system of reckoning descent that counts only the father's side >Matrilineal System - a system of reckoning descent that counts only the mother's side

Know how the different perspectives "see" marriage (look for the buzz words)

>The Functionalist Perspective - They stress to survive, a society must fulfill basic functions. They focus on how marriage and family are related to other parts of society and how they contribute to society's well being. >The Conflict Perspective >The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective - focuses on face to face interaction

First state and the first nation to legalize same-sex marriage

state - massachusetts nation - netherlands / denmark

Know the difference in a family and a household

A family consists of people who consider themselves related by blood, marriage, or adoption. A household consists of people who occupy the same housing unit - a house, apartment, or other living quarters.

Pay attention to similarities and differences in racial groups

African American Families: -Children of this class marry later than children of other classes. -Middle-class African American families focus on achievement and respectability. -Both husband and wife are likely to work outside the home. -A central concern is that their children go to college, get good jobs, and marry well. -Poverty families are likely to be headed by a woman and have high rate of births to a single woman. -Divorce and desertion are common. -The term fictive kin to refer to the stretching of kinship. -The least likely class to be headed by married couples and most likely to be headed by a woman. -Because African American women tend to go farther in school than men they face a marriage squeeze.

What is the one common thread regarding marriage in all cultures

All societies use marriage and family to establish patterns of mate selection, descent, inheritance, and authority.

Pay attention to similarities and differences in racial groups

Asian American Families: -Asian American children are more likely than children in the other racial ethnic groups to grow up with both parents. -This is a foundation for the higher educational and income attainments of Asian Americans. -Parents stress that their children represent the family in the community, that the child's success brings honor to the family, but a child's failure brings it shame. -Parents are more likely to use shame and guilt than physical punishment to control their children. -Mothers from the Philippines are more likely to hold down full-time jobs outside the home. -Filipino families are also more likely to be Roman Catholic, while Korean families re more likely to be Protestants. -Families whose origin is Japan tend to follow Confucian values that provide a framework for family life. -LIKE LATINOS,ASIAN AMERICAN FAMILY LIFE ALSO DIFFERS BY LENGTH OF RESIDENCE IN THE U.S. AS WITH IMMIGRANTS EVERYWHERE, RECENT IMMIGRANTS CONTINUE THEIR OLD PATTERNS, WHILE THE FAMILY LIFE OF ASIAN AMERICANS WHO HAVE BEEN HERE FOR GENERATIONS REFLECTS FEW OF THE PATTERNS OF THEIR COUNTRY OF ORIGIN.

Know concepts of homogamy and propinquity

Homogamy - the tendency of people with similar characteristics to marry one another. - occurs largely as a results of propinquity, spatial nearness. - basically you tend to fall in love with and marry someone who lives near us or someone we meet at school, church, work, or a bar.

Pay attention to similarities and differences in racial groups

Latino Families: -The proportion of Latino families headed by married couples and women falls in between that of whites and Native Americans. -Descriptions of Latino families used to include machismo - an emphasis on male strength, sexual vigor, and dominance, but it decreases with each generation in the U.S. and is not limited to Latinos. -Social class is more important in determining family life than is either being Latino or a family's country of origin.

Pay attention to similarities and differences in racial groups

Native American Families: -The most significant issue that Native American families face is whether to follow traditional values or to assimilate into the dominant culture. -The traditional speak native languages and emphasize distinctive Native American values and beliefs. -The structure of Native American families is closest to those of Latinos and African Americans. -Native American parents are permissive with their children and avoid physical punishment. -Elders play a much more active role in their children's families than they do in most u.s. families. They provide child care and teach and discipline children. -Like others, Native American families differ by social class.

What is romantic love and what is it all about

Romantic love - feelings of erotic attraction accompanied by an idealization of the other -usually begins with sexual attraction -has two components. the first is emotional, a feeling of sexual attraction. the second is cognitive a label that we attach to our feelings.

What is the incest taboo and why is it necessary from a sociological perspective not a biological one

The best example of exogamy is the incest taboo, which prohibits sex and marriage among designated relatives.

Be familiar with the different types of family arrangements we discussed as well as the three descriptors

We classify families as : nuclear - husband, wife, & children extended - including people such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins in addition to the nuclear unit (a family in which relatives such as the "older generation" or unmarried aunts and uncles live with the parents and their children family of orientation - the family in which an individual grows up family of procreation - the family that is formed when a couple has its first child

What is serial fatherhood

a pattern of parenting in which a father, after divorce, reduces contact with his own children, serves as a father to the children of the woman he marries or lives with, then ignores them after moving in with or marrying another woman; this pattern repeats