ANTHROPOLOGY TEST 2 GUIDE - Chapter 8: Kinship & Family

What is a polygamous family?

A polygamous family is a family structured around plural marriages. (see polygyny vs polyandry) These family units often have either uneven sex ratios within a population (ex: more women in a society because mean leave the country for job opportunities.), religious ideologies (ex: the controversal practice of having multiple wives within The Church of Christ) or raising one's status (ex:

Why is it difficult to establish a universal definition of child abuse or neglectful behavior?

Because there is no absolute standard for optimal child rearing that would be considered valid cross-culturally.

Consanguineal vs. affinal

Consanguineal relationships are connections by blood, such as those between parents and their children. Affinal relationships are created through marriage ties, such as in-laws. Both of these ties are included in the term kinship.

What do critical sociologists emphasis?

Critical sociologists highlight the fact that North American families have been defined as private entities, the consequence of which historically has been to see family matters as issues concerning only those within the family. One focus of it is to highlight the polotical-economic context of the inequalities of power in family life. (ex, WHY are women expected to perform the "expressive" roles while the men perform the "instrumental" roles

The extra-domestic sphere vs the domestic sphere

Every family has a division of labor: The extra domestic sphere typically involves work outside of the family that provides finanical support and establishes family status (men tend to assume this instrumental role) The women tend to assume the expressive roles (the domestic sphere), which typically involve work inside of the family, which provides emotional support and physical care for children. According to functionalists, the differentiation of the roles on the basis of sex ensures balance and coordination.

Explain functionalism

Functionalists uphold the notion that families are an important social institution and that they play a key role in stabilizing society. They also note that family members take on status roles in a marriage or family. Family members perform certain functions that facilitate the prosperity and development of society.

What is intimate partner violence(IPV)?

In an effort to understand the different relationships that may experience aggression or abuse, resarchers use this term to include unmarried, cohabiting, and same-sex couples.

The perception of adoption varies across cultures. Name the two examples given in this chapter.

In some Pacific Island societies, adopted children are fortunate because they have two sets of parents; children are given up for adoption to honor the adoptive parents. (ex: a woman had a child for her grandmother to keep company in her old years. Another example is sim pua in Taiwan. In the mid-1900s, families preferred sons over daughters. Daughters were expensive because of dowries (payments or gifts given by the wife's family to the groom's family prior to the marriage) and gowns so a custom developed of giving their infant daughters to other families as future daughters-in-laws. The daughters were not treated well; they had many chores and were not given an education.

What is kinship?

Kinship is the word used to describe culturally recognized ties between members of a family. This includes the terms, or social statuses, used to define family members and the roles or expected behaviors associated with these statuses.

(Case Study) Define and explain the significance of Kin ngun phuu ying

Meaning to 'eat a woman's money'. For example, the term is used if a man decides to stay at home and leech off of his sister's prostitution money rather than leaving for an unskilled job.

(Case Study) Define and describe the significance of paediatric vs pedagognic

Paediatic (practiced in Gusii) is more concerned with protection and survival in the early years of childhood. Pedagognic (practiced by American mothers) is more concerned with learning and behavioral competencies.

Patrilineal decent vs matrilineal decent

Patrilineal decent is where a culture recognizes the fathers and their children as the main parental line or "side" of the family. (meaning you wouldn't recognize your aunt from your mothers side as your aunt; she's just a woman.) Matrilineal decent is the same, although it recognizes the mother's side of the family as the main parental line of the family. Both of these can vary across cultures.

What are the four basic categories of child maltreatment?

Physical abuse, physical neglect (can include medical neglect or educational neglect), emotional maltreatment and child sexual abuse.

What are the four types of behviors that is considered to be intimate partner violence (IPV)?

Physical violence, sexual abuse, stalking, and psychological aggression.

Polygyny vs polyandry

PolyGYNY is a male married to multiple females. PolyANDRY is a female married to multiple males.

What are the four universal residual functions of the family? (according to sociologist George Murdock)

Sexual, reproductive, educational and economic. Although the structure of families varies, every family performs these functions.

(Case Study) When considering child prostitution, how do most Thais view this type of work?

Since 1960 all forms of prostitution have been illegal in Thailand — a fact that contrasts starkly with the visibility of prostitution, especially that catering to tourists. However the laws against it are rarely enforced and, in many cases, the police are content to turn a blind eye

What is the best explanation on the emergence of and selection for family units and each members roles in it? (according to Geary and Flinn)

Social competition through coalition formation. This organization is consistently related to the competition for control of resources that covary with survival and reproductive outcomes. The nuclear and extended family are a reflection of this concept; evolved organization were social groups with kin are formed with individual functions to cooperate as to ease competition with other kin groups for access to and control of resources.

What is societal neglect?

Societal neglect refers to the level of harm or deprivation, such as poverty or war, that a country or nation tolerates or inflicts on its children.

(Case Study) How do children working as prostitutes, including their mothers and grandmothers, generally use concepts of 'filial duty' to explain entry into this dangerous and damaging work?

The children of Baan Nua were heavily influenced by their mother's views of the correct adult-child relationship which drew on conservative, rural notions of filial obligations, reciprocity and sacrifice. Where most families came from it is thought that children incur a debt of gratitude (bun khun) to their parents, through being born. Others have argued that children have lifelong responsibilities to their parents because they are 'moral debtors' and their parents 'moral creditors'.

What is symbolic interactionism?

This concept draws our attention to how the norms that define what a "normal" family is and how it should operate come into existence. Interactionists view the world in terms of symbols and their meanings. (ex, "parent" was a symbol of a biological and emotional connection to a child. With more adoptions, remarriage, or guardianship changes, the word "parent" today is less likely too be associates with a biological connection than whoever is socially recognized as having responsibility for the child's upbringing.

What are "chosen kin"?

Those who have no formal blood or marriage ties, but consider themselves to be family. An example of this would be parents who adopted a child.

Unlilineal vs bilateral decent

Unilineal decent includes both kinds of kinship (patrilineal and matrilineal decent) because they involve decent through only one line or side of the family. Bilateral descent means that families are defines by decent from both the father and the mother's sides of the family (most common in the U.S.). In this case, children recognize both sides of the family as relatives.

(Case Study) How has prostitution (not just child prostitution) in Thailand been viewed over time, both by Thais and the state?

Until the Prostitution Prevention and Suppression Act of 1996, child prostitution was extremely normal in Thailand and the law generally looked the other way. Thailand brought these new laws in to strengthen child protection because of international pressure and the fear of their reputation as a safe haven for pedophiles. Parents were content with not working and relying on their children's prostitution income, claiming it kept the family together. Visiting tourists would often be customers.

(Case Study) Define and explain the significance of Bun khun

Where most families came from it is thought that children incur a debt of gratitude (bun khun) to their parents, through being born and this debt of gratitude is vital for understanding the moral basis of parent-child relationships.

(Case Study) How are expectations of filial piety experienced differently for daughters and sons?

Women express the idea that one raises a child in expectation of explicit returns. A daughter repays the debt to her mother by remaining in the parental household to care for her parents in old age, while a son ordains as a Buddhist monk to pay his mother back for her breast milk. ...there was an understanding and acceptance that boys were not as committed to their families as girls were.

Name a few categories included in child abuse

child labor, child prostitution, selevtive negect (underinvestment)

When considering more recent demographic and household changes, which household types are increasingly common?

extended families, single parent households and serial monogamies

What is a kinship system?

the pattern of culturally recognized relationships between family members. (ex: patrilineal decent vs matrilineal decent in contrasting cultures)

(Case Study) What are the three universal goals of child-rearing as considered by LeVine? In what ways do examples in the case study demonstrate families violating these?

(1) The physical survival and health of the child, including the normal development of his reproductive capacity during puberty. (2) The development of the child's behavioral capacity for economic self-maintenance in maturity. (3) The development of the child's behavioral capacities for maximizing other cultural values - e.g. morality, prestige, wealth, religious piety, intellectual achievement, personal satisfaction, self realization - as formulated and symbolically elaborated in culturally distinctive beliefs, norms, and ideologies.

What is a nuclear family?

The nuclear family is two parents in their first marriage and their children. Despite such variation of family units and kinship systems, a notable segment of the U.S. population continues to believe that the nuclear family is the ideal and normal familial system.

What are the three definitional levels that have been suggested for culturally informed definitions of child maltreatment.

(1) Cultural practices vary, and what one group considers abusive, another group may consider well within the normative range of behavior. (2) Departing from one's own cultural standards and norms lets them get a cultural view that highlights individuals who violate the continuum of acceptable behavior. (3) Societal-level maltreatment of children is sometimes confused with culturally acceptable behaviors.

Because child maltreatment has not always been labeled as such in other cultures, some anthropological works have examined physical punishment or emotional as maltreatment requires that behaviors meet three criteria. What are they?

(1) The behavior must be proscribed by the culture in question (2) It must be proximate to the child and caretaker and not be harm that results from broader conditions beyond parental or caretaker control, such as warfare or famine (3) It must be potentially preventable

Identification of child maltreatment relies on a complex interaction of:

(a) harm to the child (b) caretaker behaviors that produced or contributed to that harm (c) societal or cultural assignment of responsibility or culpability

Why is a cross-cultural perspective important for understanding and interacting with the subject of child maltreatment?

A cross-cultural perspective has the potential to enhance understanding of the complex interaction of risk and protective factors that contribute to or prevent the occurrence of child maltreatment.

What is a single-parent family?

A single-parent family is where the parent is single (widowed, divorced, or never married) and their children.

What is a stem family?

A stem family is one composed of an older married couple and perhaps one of their adult children who has their own spouse and child (this family structure has increased in the U.S. in part due to economic uncertainties and peoples' difficulties getting by due to lower wages, job insecurities, and higher costs of living)

What is an extended family?

An extended family is a family composed of at least three generations living in the same household.

What is serial monogamy?

Where individuals marry a succession of spouses one after the other. Given the rates of divorce this is increasingly common in the U.S..