Anthropology Exam 3 - Chapters 15-20

Inuit System

is not generally found where there are unilineal or ambilineal descent groups; the only kin group that appears to be present is the bilateral kindred, so the same terms are used for both sides of the family

Economy of Effort Theory

suggests that it would be advantageous for one gender to perform tasks that are related in terms of knowledge and training and tasks that are physically located near each other

Compatibility with Child Care Theory

suggests that women make child care a priority and fit in other tasks but does not explain why men usually prepare soil for planting and make wood, bone, horn, and shell objects, tasks that can probably be stopped to tend to a child and no more dangerous than cooking

Secondary Subsistence Activities

Activities that involve the preparation and processing of food either to make it edible or store it

Double Descent

-double unilineal descent -a system that affiliates individuals with a group of matrilineal kin for some purposes and with a group of patrilineal kin for other purposes

Primary Subsistence Activities

The food-getting activities: gathering, hunting, fishing, herding and agriculture

Dowry

a substantial transfer of goods or money from the bride's family to the bride

Prestige

involves according someone or some group of particular respect or honor

Gender Stratification

the degree of unequal access by the different genders to prestige, authority, power, rights and economic resources

Ambilineal descent

the rule of descent that affiliated individuals with groups of kin related to them through men or women

Optimal Foraging Theory

the theory that individuals seek to maximize the returns (in calories and nutrients) on their labor in deciding which animals and plants they will go after

Savanna

tropical grassland

Sudanese System

uses a different term for each relative. The system is associated with relatively great political complexity, class stratification, and occupation specialization and may reflect the need to make fine distinctions among members of descent groups -The terms used for the mothers and fathers side of the family are not the same

Horticultural Societies

tend to be larger, more sedentary and more densely populated than foragers and they tend to exhibit the beginnings of social differentiation

Horticultural Societies

tend to lack individual or family ownership, probably because their technologies do not enable them to effective use the same land permanently, but they are more likely to assign individuals or families use of a particular plot of land

Race

In biology, race refers to a subpopulation or variety of a species that differs somewhat in gene frequencies from other varieties of species. Many anthropologists do not think that the concept of race is usefully applied to humans because humans do not fall into geographic populations that can be easily distinguished in terms of different sets of biological or physical traits. Thus race in humans is largely a culturally assigned category

Sex Differences

The typical differences between females and males that are most likely due to biological differences

Slash and Burn

a form of shifting cultivation in which the natural vegetation is cut down and burned off. The cleared ground is used for a short time and then left to regenerate

Avunculocal residence

a pattern of residence in which a married couple settles with or neath the husbands mothers brothers

totem

a plant or animal associated with a clan as a means of group identification; may have other special significance for the group

clan

a set of kin whose members believe themselves to be descended from a common ancestor or ancestress but cannot specify the links back to that founder; often designated by a totem -also called a sib

lineage

a set of kin whose members trace descent from a common ancestor through known links

unilineal descent

affiliation with a group of kin through descent links of one sex only -patrilineal or matrilineal

Cross Cousins

children of siblings of the opposite sex. One's cross cousins are the father's sisters children and mothers brothers children

Generalized Reciprocity

gift giving without an immediate or planned return

Commercialization

increasing dependence on buying and selling, with money usually as the medium of exchange

Nonsoral polygyny

marriage of a man to two or more women who are not sisters

fraternal polyandry

marriage of a woman to two or more brothers at the same time

non fraternal polyandry

marriage of a woman to two or more men who are not brothers

Bride Service

work performed by the groom for his bride's family for a variable length of time either before or after the marriage

Gender Differences

differences between females and males that reflect cultural expectations and experiences

3 systems of distribution

reciprocity, redistribution and market or commercial exchange, each of which is associated with a society's food getting technology and level of economic development

rules of descent

rules that connect individuals with particular sets of kin because of known or presume common ancestry

Peasants

rural people who produce food for their own subsistence but who must also contribute or sell their surpluses to others who do not produce their own food

Freud's psychoanalytic theory

the incest taboo is a reaction against unconscious, unacceptable desires, but it does not explain why society needs an explicit taboo nor does it account for some evidence of childhood aversion

Extensive Cultivation

type of horticulture in which the land is worked for short periods and then left to regenerate for some years before being used again - also called shifting cultivation

bilateral kinship

type of kinship system in which individuals affiliate more or less equally with their mothers and fathers relatives

Caste System

virtually closed classes -ranked group into which one is born and in which marriage is restricted to members of one's own caste

Bride Price

a substantial gift of goods or money given to the bride's kin by the groom or his kin at or before the marriage - also called bride wealth

corvee

a system of required labor

phratry

a unilineal descent group composed of a number of supposedly related clans

moiety

a unilineal descent group in a society that is divided into two such maximal groups; there may be smaller unilineal descent groups as well

General Purpose Money

a universally accepted medium of exchange

Reciprocity

-giving and taking without the use of money -do not involve money sharing may a) create social relationships that ensure help when needed, b) equalize distribution of goods within and between communities, and c) be most likely when resources are unpredictable

Theories suggest that women have higher status when

1) women contribute substantially to primary subsistence activities: (not supported by research) 2) where residence is organized around women; 3) where warfare is unimportant; (Not supported by research) 4) where political hierarchies are less centralized -Education almost always increases status, and the more girls and young women are educated, the greater the likelihood that their status will increase

Omaha and Crow System

are associated with unilineal descent. The terms differ on each side of the family and are lumped across generations on the less important side of the family -The terms used for the mothers and fathers side of the family are not the same

Kindred

describes one's bilateral relatives but it is usually not a clearly defined group. IN bilateral kinship, aside from brothers and sisters, no two people belong to exactly the same kin group. People in a kindred have in common only the focal person who brings them together.

Inbreeding theory

focuses on the damaging biological consequences of the practice. Evidence supports that societies are aware of these dangers. Adaptive reproductive and hence competitive advantages probably accrued to groups practicing the taboo

Iroquois System

like the Omaha and Crow system in having terms for mother and father extend beyond the nuclear family but the Iroquois system does not have lumping across generations. No cousins have the same terms as in the parental generation -The terms used for the mothers and fathers side of the family are not the same

Aggression

most consistent personality difference: boys try to hurt others more often than girls do. This difference appears early, so it may have biological causes, possibly hormonal. But societies may have raise boys and girls differently from very early ages, so nature and nurture are hard to separate. -studies do not confirm that girls are more passive than boys but they do show that older girls were less likely than boys to respond to aggression with aggression

Domestic Production

the family controls conversion of resources - often work less than people in commercial economies with tributary or industrial mods of production and tend not to produce more than they need

Expendability Theory

the idea that men will tend to do the dangerous work in the society because the loss of men is not as great a disadvantage reproductively as the loss of women. However, it does not explain why men put themselves in danger.

Kinship Terminology

used in a society may reflect is prevailing kind of family, rule of residence, rule of descent and other aspects of its social organization -major systems of kinship terminology are the Inuit system, the Omaha system, The Crow system, The Iroquois system, the Sudanese system, the Hawaiian system

The Spread of Food Production

-Food production is generally more productive per unit of land than food collection, although it can be more difficult and time consuming -Greater food productivity appears to lead to population growth, which may partially explain competition for land, which gives food producers and advantage over foragers -When emigration is not feasible, greater population growth may lead to intensive agricultural system, and the need to pay taxes or tribute to a political authority may also stimulate continued intensification

Neolocal Residence

In many industrial and postindustrial societies, a young man and woman establish this when they marry, setting up a new household apart from their parents and other relatives. Worldwide, that practice is much less common.

Division of Labor

Many societies divide labor only by gender and age; other societies have more complex specialization. Horticultural societies may have some part-time specialists. Societies with intensive agriculture have some full time specialists and industrialized societies have many -In many food collecting and horticultural societies, there is little formal organization of work. The need to coordinate labor is highest in industrialized societies -Optimal foraging theory assumes that individuals seek to maximize the returns, in calories and nutrients, on their labor by deciding which animals and plants to hunt or collect

Subsistence Economies

economies in which almost all able-bodied adults are largely engaged in getting for for themselves and their families

3 types of society

egalitarian, rank, and class societies

Market Exchange

-transactions in which the prices are subject to supply and demand, whether or not the transactions occur in a marketplace involves the buying and selling of goods and transactions of labor, land rentals and credit. -Societies may begin to use money when trade and barter increases or when political authorities demand noncommercial fees such as taxes. Social bonds between individuals may become less kinlike in more complex and populated societies, making reciprocity less likely.

Class

A category of people who have about the same opportunity to obtain economic resources, power and prestige

Pastoralism

A form of subsistence technology in which food-getting is based directly or indirectly on the maintenance of domesticated animals

Bilocal Residence

A pattern of residence in which a married couple lives with or near either the husband's parents or the wife's parents

Parallel Cousins

Children of siblings of the same sex. One's parallel cousins are the fathers brothers children and the mothers sisters children

Cash Crops

a cultivated commodity raised for sale rather than personal consumption by the cultivator

Levirate

a custom where a man is obliged to marry his deceased brothers wife

sororate

a custom where a woman is obliged to marry her deceased sister's husband

nuclear family

a family consisting of a married couple and their young children

Extended Family

a family consisting of two or more single-parent, monogamous, polygynous, or polyandrous families linked by a blood tie

independent family

a family unit consisting of one monogamous family (nuclear family) or one polygynous family or one polyandrous family

Balanced Reciprocity

giving with the expectation of a straightforward immediate or limited-time trade

Indirect Dowry

goods given by the groom's kin to the bride (or her father who passes most of them to her) at or before the marriage

Steppe

grassland with a dry, low grass cover

Praire

grassland with a high grass cover

ego

in the reckoning of kinship, the reference point or focal person

Racism

is the belief that some races are inferior to others -almost invariable associated with social stratification. Races make up a larger proportion of lower social classes or castes and can be discriminated against even in open-class systems

Special purpose money

objects of value for which only some goods and services can be exchanged

Endogamy

obliges a person to marry within a particular group. The case groups of India traditions have endogamous

Adoption

occurs when a family does not have enough kin to perform chores or to inherit or when one family needs to relieve pressure on resources

consanguineal kin

one's biological relatives; relatives by birth

affinal kin

one's relatives by marriage - in-laws

Soral Polygyny

the marriage of a man to two or more sisters at a time

Who Works More

-In horticultural and intensive agricultural societies, studies so far suggest that women typically work more total hours per day than men -Usually both women and men contribute a good deal toward primary food getting activities but men usually contribute more in most societies. The type of agriculture may help explain some of the variation -Cross cultural studies suggest that when women contribute a lot to primary food getting activities, infants are fed solid foods earlier, enabling other to feed them; girls are likely to industrious, probably to help their mothers and female babies are more valued.

How Many Does One Marry

-Most Western societies allow only monogamy and prohibit polygamy. However, most societies known to anthropology have allowed some form of polygamy- polygyny or more rarely polyandry or group marriage

Rank Societies

do not have very unequal access to economic resources or to power, but they do contain social groups with unequal access to prestige, often reflect in the position of chief, a rank which only some members of a specified group in the society can achieve -practice agriculture or herding, but not all agricultural or pastoral societies are ranked. -Although chiefs in a rank society enjoy special prestige there is some controversy over whether they also have material advantages or increased power

Group Marriage

- more than one man is married to more than one woman at the same time - sometimes occurs but is not customary in any known society

Polyandry

- the marriage of one woman to more than one man at the same time - is practiced in just a few societies. Polyandry may be practiced when there are shortage of women or as an adaptive response to severely limited resources

Pastoral Societies

-depend mostly on domesticated herds of animals that feed on natural pasture. They tend to be found in drought pro regions. -mostly live in small communities that are typically nomadic or seminomadic. -typically do not eat their animals but use their milk and blood; they get other foods from trade with agricultural groups

Possible Factors influencing food production

1) as growing populations expanded further from bountiful wild resources, they domesticated animals and plants in an effort to reproduce former abundance. 2) global population growth may have filled most of the world's habitable regions, forcing people to domesticate plants and animals. 3) climate change may have favored settling near seasonal stands of wild grain, and growing populations in such areas may have led to domestication of plants and animals

Intensive Agriculture Societies

Individual ownership of land resources is common -some communist and socialist nations undertake intensive agriculture by forming state-run agricultural collectives

Gender Concepts

The division into two genders - male and female - is very common cross culturally but a strict dichotomy is far from universal -Some cultures have additional gender designations besides male and female

8000 BC

The first evidence of a changeover to food production - the cultivation and domestication of plants and animals - a shift that occurred probably independently also in other areas

Family

a social and economic unit consisting minimally of one or more parents and their children. Family members have reciprocal rights and obligations, particularly economic ones. -All societies have these but forms vary

Forced Labor

are found in more complex societies and can be indirect (taxation and corvee) or direct (slavery).

Economic Resources

are things that have value in a culture and include land, technology, goods and money

Pastoral Societies

combine the adaptive habits of both foragers and horticulturalists because they need large territories for grazing herds. While they tend to hold grazing land communally, pastoralists customarily own their herds individually

Foraging

hunting gathering and fishing - depends on wild plants and animals and is the oldest human food-getting technology

40000-15000 ya

people seem to have gotten most of their food from hunting migratory herds of large animals

Cultural Features Associated with Stratification

social classes, fixed settlements, political integration beyond the community level, the use of money as a medium of exchange and the presence of at least some full-time specialization -may be related to the accumulation of surpluses and conflicts over control of those surpluses, the ability of a group to transmit advantages to offspring generation after generation, or to population pressure in rank or chiefdom societies

Marriage

socially approved sexual and economic union, usually between a woman and a man -customary in nearly every known society, even though humans can survive and reproduce without marriage -presumed, by both the couple and others, to be more or less permanent, and it subsumes reciprocal rights and obligations between the two spouses and between spouses and their future children

Sociability

studies show no reliable differences in levels of sociability between the sexes, although male and female styles of sociability may differ

Ethnicity

usually involves a group of people, either outside or inside the ethnic group, emphasizing common origins and languages, shared history, and cultural differences. -Racial classification might be better described as ethnic classifications -In a country with one large core majority group, the majority group often doesn't think of itself as an ethnic group but considers only the minority groups to have ethnic identities -Shared ethnic identity often makes people feel comfortable with similar people and provides a strong sense of belonging. Still, ethnic differences in multi ethnic societies are usually associated with inequalities in wealth, power and prestige and are part of the system of stratification -The origins or ethnic stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination usually follow from historical and political events that give some groups dominance over others

Extended Family Households

usually occur in sedentary, agricultural societies and may be a social mechanism that prevents economically damaging division of family property. But agriculture is only a week predictor of extended family households -generally favored when a mother's work outside the home makes it difficult to also care for her children and do household tasks or when the required outside activities of a father interfere with subsistence tasks -in commercial societies, a family may be able to obtain the necessary help by buying the required services -IN the US, layoffs, fewer jobs and more working mothers, affordable housing shortages, high costs, a rising divorce rate, increasingly later marriages and increases in the over 65 population are leading to increases in the number of extended families

3 types of advantages

wealth/economic resources, power, prestige

Explaining Variation in Residence

-Cross cultural evidence shows that neolocal residence is related to the presence of a commercial economy. Perhaps this is because when people can sell their labor or their products, they can buy what they need to live without depending on kin -Cross cultural evidence does not support the idea that in societies in which married children live near or with kin, the pattern of residence will tend to be patrilocal if males contribute more to the economy and matrilocal if women contribute more -Where warfare is at least sometimes internal, residence is usually patrilocal, probably because people may want to keep their sons at home to ward off attack from neighboring communities. Residence is usually matrilocal when warfare is purely external, particularly if women contribute substantially to subsistence. -The frequent absence of men because of long distance trade or wage labor in distant places may also provide an impetus for matrilocal residence -Theory and research suggests that bilocal residence may occur out of necessity in societies that have recently suffered a severe and drastic loss of populations resulting from the introduction of new infectious diseases and in small hunter-gatherer societies with unpredictable rainfall -Avunculocal residence, which puts matrilineally related males together, may be favored by internal warfare when the society is matrilineal

Cousin Marriages

-Large densely populated societies may permit cousin marriages more often because such marriage are less likely in large populations. Small societies that have lost many people to epidemics may permit cousin marriage to provide enough mating possibilities -usually between cross-cousins and sometimes between parallel cousins

Technology

-every society has this -a set of tools, constructions and skills with which it converts resources into food and other goods. Technological access varies, generally being widespread among forager and horticultural societies and not among industrial or postindustrial societies

Political Leadership

-men tend to lead in political arenas, possibly because men's role in warfare may give them the edge in political leadership and because men spend more time in the outside world than women.

Ambilineal Societies

-societies with ambilineal descent groups are far less numerous than unilineal or even bilateral societies -Ideas in ambilineal societies about descent from a common ancestor, identifying names or emblems, and regulation of land use and marriage resemble those of unilineal societies

Universal Marriage

Various traditional explanations for marriage suggest that marriage solves problems found in all societies - how to share the products of a gender division of labor; how to care for infants, who are dependent for a long time; and how to minimize sexual competition. -Marriage not only solution though -Bird and mammal species in which mothers cannot feed themselves and their babies at the same time do typically form male-female bonds, which may be true also for humans and may support a reason for marriage

Unilineal Descent Groups

groups exist in societies at all levels of cultural complexity but are most common in noncommercial food producing societies. -often have important functions in the social, economic, political, and religious realms of life -Specific functions of descent groups include regulating marriage, economic aid, assistance with work enterprises, contributions to social occasions, assigning land rights, defense, and settling of disputes within and outside the society --Unilocal residence, whether patrilocal or matrilocal, is probably necessary for the development of unilineal descent but does not by itself predict unilineal societies -There is evidence that unilocal societies that engage in warfare are more apt to have unilineal descent groups than those without warfare

Food Collecting Societies

individual or family ownership of land is generally lacking. If there is ownership, it tends to be by collective groups such as kinship groups or through communities. Territoriality is stronger when the plants and animals collected are predictable located and abundant

Power

influence based on the threat of force and is generally related to unequal access to resources.

Post Industrial Production

information and services are the main products

Unilineal Descent Groups Four Types

lineages (kin of definite descent from an ancestor), clans (kin believed descent from an ancestor), phratries (unilineal groups of supposedly related clans) and moieties (either of a society's two unilineal groups)

Sexuality

-All societies have rules governing proper sexual conduct, but they vary. In addition, a society's degree of restrictiveness is not always consistent throughout the life's pan or for all aspects of sex. Approval or disapproval of premarital sex varies greatly cross culturally -Sexual attitudes an practices can change markedly over time in societies -Attitudes toward marital sex and its frequency and location vary widely cross culturally. The restrictive codes for extramarital sex in many societies vary greatly from actual practice -Cross culturally the meaning of homosexuality may differ and acceptance or limitations vary greatly. In most societies, males and females are expected to marry, and homosexuality if tolerated or approved occurs either as a phase in one's life or along with heterosexuality -Current research suggest that societies that are restrictive with regard to heterosexual sex may not be restrictive about homosexuality. Homosexuality may be tolerated or encourage in societies that minimize population growth -Greater restrictiveness toward premarital sex tends to occur in more complex societies - societies that have hierarchies or political officials, part time or full time craft specialists, cities and towns and class stratification

Environmental Restraints on Food Getting

-Cross-cultural evidence indicates that neither foraging nor food production is significantly associated with any particular type of habitat -foragers farther from the equator depend much more on animals and fish; those closer to the equator depend more on plants. It is through that foragers in tropical forests could not survive without the carbohydrates that they obtain from agriculturalists -approximately 80% of all societies that practice horticulture or simple agriculture are in the tropics, whereas 75% of all societies that practice intensive agriculture are not in tropical forest environments; an exception is tropical rice paddies. Pastoralism is typically practiced in grassland regions -The physical environment does not by itself account for the system of food getting in an area; technological , social, and political factors rather than environmental factors mostly determine food-getting practices in a given environment

Who Should One Marry

-In addition to the familiar incest taboo, societies often have other rules regarding the mate such as whether they may be cousins, whether they should come from the same community and even whether the couple has choice in the matter --Parents invariably play a role, directly or indirectly, in who their offspring marry, including negotiating arranged marriages, which tend to increase economic benefits. Arranged marriages are becoming less common, and couples have stronger voices in selected partners

Explaining Ambilineal and Bilateral Systems

-Societies with unilineal descent groups may be transformed into ambilineal ones under special conditions, particularly depopulation, and may be a recent development resulting from depopulation caused by the introduction of European diseases -The condition that favor bilateral systems are generally opposite to those that favor unilineal descent -In complex political systems, standing armies provide the fighting force, so mobilization of kin is less important. Neolocal residence, more common with commercialization, also works against unilineal descent and makes a bilateral system more likely

Worldwide Trend Toward Commercialization

-The expansion of Western societies and the capitalist system has led to an increasingly worldwide dependence on commercial exchange. Inevitable, social, political, and even biological and psychological changes accompany such a change -Many anthropologists have noted that with the introduction of money, customs of sharing seem to change dramatically -Commercialization can occur when some society members move to places that offer possible work for wages, when a self-sufficient society increasingly depends on trading, and when people cultivating crops produce a surplus and sell it for cash -Commercial systems of agriculture may become industrialized. The introduction of commercial agriculture brings several important social consequences, including class polarization.

Patterns of Marital Residence

-The more common practice of living with and near kin has meant that kin have been an important basis of social organization in many cultures -Patterns of marital residence include patrilocal, matrilocal, bilocal, avunculocal, and neolocal. Place of residence largely determines which people the couple and their offspring interact with and depend on and can affect what status a wife or husband has

Class Societies

-found in all countries of modern world. -groups of people are stratified according to their degree of access to prestige, economic resources and power. -The potential for an individual to change class affiliation varies among class societies. perpetuate themselves through inheritance, which becomes increasingly important at higher levels of wealth. Other mechanisms of class perpetuation include limited contact between class and land zoning restrictions -Classes vary in terms of religious affiliation, closeness of kin, ideas about childrearing, job satisfaction, leisure-time activities, style of clothes and furniture, and styles of speech

Racial Classification

-social categories to which individuals are assigned to separate one's own groups from others based on biological differences. -problematic because there can be more physical, physiological, and genetic diversity within a single geographic racial group than there is between supposed racial groups

The Family

-the extended family is the prevailing form of family in more than half the societies to known to anthropology and may consist of two or more single-parent, monogamous, polygynous, or polyandrous families linked by a blood tie. -In most societies known to anthropology, one-parent families are relatively uncommon. However in many western countries there has been a dramatic increase recently in the percentage of one-parent families most of which are female-headed. -Single parenthood occurs more with higher male unemployment and lower ratios of men to women of comparable age and in commercial economies. Evidence does not support the idea that single parenthood increases because the state supports women to manage independently -Marriage in an extended family does not bring as pronounced change in lifestyle as it does when marriage forms an independent unit. The extended family is more likely than the independent nuclear family to perpetuate itself as a social unit.

Polygyny

-the form of marriage that allows a many to be married to more than one woman at the same time, has been and is very common, especially among those with high status, Evidence seems to show that polygyny provides economic and political advantages -The theory that polygyny is permitted in societies that have long postpartum sex taboo predicts it less strongly than explanations that it is a response to an access of women over men and that a society will allow polygyny when men marry at an older age than women

3 types of affiliations

-unilineal, ambilineal and bilateral kinship -Unilineal and ambilineal rules of descent connect individuals through known or presumed common ancestry. Bilateral descent is not based on a line of descent but moves outward to relatives on both sides of one's family --Unilineal descent forms clear and unambiguous groups of kin. This may also be true of ambilineal descent.

Intensive Agriculture Societies

-use techniques that enable them to cultivate fields permanently, including fertilization, crop rotation, irrigation, and plowing under stubble. -more likely than horticulturalists to have towns and cities, a high degree of craft specialization, complex political organization and large differences in wealth and power -Food production characterized by the permanent cultivation of fields and made possible by the use of the plow, draft animals or machines, fertilizers, irrigation, water-storage techniques and other complex agricultural techniques

How Does One Marry

-varies considerably across cultures -Marking the onset of marriages seems to be important whether or not an actual ceremony takes place. Marriage ceremonies may symbolize hostility between the two families or promote harmony between them. -involves economic factors, explicit or not, in about 75% of the societies know to anthropology. Bride price is the most common form; bride service is second most common. Other forms include exchange of females, gift exchange and forms of the dowry

10000 ya

Substantial inequality generally appears only within permanent communities, centralized political systems and intensive agriculture, cultural features that began to appear in the world -Before that time most societies were probably egalitarian. However, the increase in inequality may have lessened somewhat with industrialization

Warfare

Males almost universally dominate in warfare, perhaps because warfare requires strength and quick bursts of energy, combat is not compatible with child care, and women's fertility is more important to a population than their usefulness as warriors

Dependency

girls are no more likely to show dependent behavior than boys if dependency is seen as seeking help or emotional reassurance from others; however, studies show that boys and girls have somewhat different styles of dependency

Horticulture

grow crops of all kinds with relatively simple tools and methods and do not permanently cultivate fields. Many also hunt or fish; a few are nomadic for part of the year -nature is allowed to replace nutrients in the soil, in the absence of permanently cultivated fields

Open Class System

allow some possibility of moving from one class to another -Societies with more inequality generally have less mobility from one class to another. -vary in the degree to which members of the society recognize that there are classes

Sexual Dimorphism

females have proportionately wider pelvises and larger proportion of fat; males typically are taller and have heavier skeletons, a larger proportion of muscle, greater grip strength, proportionately larger hearts and lungs and more aerobic capacity -Gender differences may be the result of both culture and genes

Egalitarian Societies

contain no social groups with greater or lesser access to economic resources, power or prestige - given age-sex category have equal access to advantages - they can be found among forager and horticultural societies -some people may be better hunters or more skilled artists than others, but there is still equal access to status positions for people of the same ability, so society is not socially stratified -Any prestige gained by one is neither transferable nor inheritable and there are no groups with appreciably more influence over time. Egalitarian groups depend heavily on sharing, which ensures equal access to economic resources despite differences in acquired prestige -have all but disappeared because of the global spread of commercial exchange and the voluntary or involuntary incorporation of many diverse people in large, centralized political systems

Natural Resources

every society has access to this and cultural rules determining who has access to particular ones -land, water, plants, animals, minerals

Matrilineal Societies

descent affiliation is through females, but females do not usually exercise authority in many spheres of life -women tend to control property. They also tend to have more domestic authority, have more equal sexual restrictions, and be more valued

Patrilineal societies

descent affiliation is through males, and males also tend to exercise authority -are very likely to detract from women's status

Foraging Societies

live in small communities that are nomadic or seminomadic. Division of labor is usually only along age and gender lines, personal possessions and land rights are limited, people are usually not differentiated by class, and political leadership is informal -Complex - have bigger and more permanent communities as well as more social inequality; they tend to depend heavily on fishing - these societies tend to have higher population densities, food storage, occupational specialization, resource ownership, slavery and competitiveness

Redistribution

one person or agency accumulates goods or labor for the purpose of later distribution. -found in all societies but is an important mechanism only in societies that have political hierarchies

Tributary Production

people pay a tribute of labor or goods to an authority for access to land. In industrial production, people labor as wage earners

Hunter Gatherers

people who collect food from naturally occurring resources, that is wild plants, animals and fish. The term hunter gatherers minimizes sometimes heavy dependence on fishing - also referred to as foragers or food collectors

Childhood familiarity theory

people who have been closely associated with each other since earliest childhood are not sexually attracted to each other and would avoid marriage with each other but it does not explain incest taboos for first cousin marriage

Incest Taboo

prohibits sexual intercourse or marriage between some categories of kin, most universally, between mother and son, father and daughter and brother and sister. -most rigid regulation cross-culturally

Exogamy

requires that the marriage partner come from outside one's own kin group or community

Strength Theory

says that males generally possess greater strength and superior capacity to mobilize their strength in quick bursts of energy; however not all male activities require strength and women do hunt in some societies

14000 ya

some populations began to depend more on relatively stationary food resources such as fish, shellfish, small game and while plants, which may have supported an increasingly settled way of life

Theories of Gender Roles

strength theory, compatibility with child care theory, economy of effort theory and expendability theory -As societies change, gender roles tend to change but still remain divided in some way.

Production

the conversion of resources through labor into food, tools and other goods

Family Disruption Theory

the familial incest taboo curtails sexual competition among family groups by supporting interfamily marriage, thus helping communities to survive, but the evidence does not seem to support it

Hawaii System

the least complex, uses the smallest number of terms. All relatives of the same sex in the same generation are referred to by the same term