GESM130g Kinship Review PDF

EXAM STUDY GUIDE Format: Map, True False, Short Essay, Kinship Drawing 4 Fields of Anthropology: Comparative study of what it means to be human (across time, place and species) 1. Culture: Learn/shared patterns of behavior (how do people think, act, customs of marriage, healing, settle conflict, day...

EXAM STUDY GUIDE Format: Map, True False, Short Essay, Kinship Drawing 4 Fields of Anthropology: Comparative study of what it means to be human (across time, place and species) 1. Culture: Learn/shared patterns of behavior (how do people think, act, customs of marriage, healing, settle conflict, day to day life) 2. Archaeology: Study of non-human remains 3. Biological: Human evolution, genetics, primates, human fossils 4. Linguistic: Language and perception Kinship: The totality of relationships based on blood (consanguines), marriage (affines), and cultural constructions that link individuals in a web of rights and obligations ● How humans envision their relationships (politics, economics, gender roles, etc) Incest: A cultural notion of who is related to whom and therefore you cannot marry or have sex with ● Related to Bedouins: Marriage to close relatives is accepted, specifically patrilineal parallel-cousin marriage (marriage to father’s brother’s child or mother’s sister’s child) e: Royals marry each other (not incest because it’s accepted) Queer Kinship: Family is something that we do, perform ● QUEER STEPFAMILIES BY KATIE ACOSTA ● Doing Family: Challenges heteronormative bias through representations of rings, photos, last name, etc. to symbolize relationships and facilitate social recognition ● Queering Family: Redefines institutional images and reshaped it into something that no longer represents The Standard North American Family AFRICAN AMERICAN KINSHIP ● Point of View: Michigan Sociological Review, school of social work authors ● Audience: Social workers ● Kinship: Less intrusive on kinship and use of “kin for temporary placement” ● Population: African Americans ● Fictive Kin: Not recognized by law ● Relation to Film: 13th Amendment shows the criminalization of drugs imprisoning black males, disrupting families and using kin as a solution to reform communities ● Kamala Harris: “The family you are born into and the family you choose” (“chittis”) Kinship Functions: 1. Sex: Who you can have sexual relations with and be married to 2. Children: Socialization of who is to care for and pay for child 3. Transfers: Property, title, social position, goods 4. Support: Who can be depended on 5. Politics: We stand up for “our own” Why do we study kinship? 1. To understand how the locals see the world 2. Regulate behavior → tells you how to behave and tells them how to behave with you 3. Relationships to each other in law, economics, etc. 4. Shows history of the community (migration, disease, genetics, psychological predispositions) Terms to Know Affinal: Related by marriage Consanguineal: Related by blood Corporate Kin Group: People who share rights (property or resources), privilege, and liabilities ● Like a business → holds property, assets, political power, and religious rituals ● Can function as the government of a clan or descent group Bilateral Society: Kinship or family traced through men and women, but without the formation of descent groups ● USA Patrilineal: Descent through men ● Nuer and Bedouins Matrilineal: Descent through women Residence Patterns: Who you live with after marriage ● Patrilocal: Couple lives with the groom’s kin ● Matrilocal: Couple lives with the bride’s kin ● Natolocal: Stay with your birth family (Nuer at first) ● Neolocal: Couple moves to new place Monogamy: One spouse Polygamy: Many spouses ● Polygyny: Multiple wives ● Polyandry: Multiple husbands Exogamy: Cultural rules for marrying outside a group (ex. village, kin, clan) Endogamy: Rules for a preference for marriage inside a group (ex. race, religion, caste, cousins) Payments: Gifts/goods at marriage (Abu-Lughod calls it the trousseau) ● Bridewealth/Brideprice: Gifts from the groom’s family to the bride’s family ○ Nuer and Bedouin ● Dowry: Gifts from bride’s family to groom’s family ○ Nepali Brahmans Incest Taboo: Sex within a culturally forbidden group Royal Incest: Ancient nations (Hawaii, Inca, Egypt, etc) accepted sex within the nuclear family for Royals NUER On The Map: Sudan STRANGE BELIEFS ● POV: Sir Evans-Pritchard, British, white, male, anthropologist/ethnologist, 1930’s when Nuer a threat to Britain, studies the wealthier “aristocratic” Nuer ● Colonial Legacy of Anthropology: How do we rule these people? Who are they? Features of Patrilineal Descent 1. Pass on lineage (goods, titles) 2. Political units (political power, law, politics, economics, legal responsibility) 3. Religious duties (duties to ancestors) What do you get as a part of the patrilineage? ● Last name/titles/identity ● Power, status, and political council ● Responsibilities/obligations ● Property/land/wealth ● Business Where do women have power? ● Divisive because their sons have loyalty to them, but they also want to compete for inheritance. Only the half brother’s are fighting with each other because there are two different women and two different huts ● Women are central because they care for cattle, raise kids, do housework Descent Line: Traceable ancestor Clan: Not sure how you are related (totem: mythical founder, plant, or animal that symbolizes the clan) Nuer Marriage Chart Number M Bridewealth ● ● Monogamy and polygamy Polygyny → sign of wealth/prestige and solution for infertility Patrilateral Parallel Cousin Marriage Stages 1. Promise → natolocal 2. Clan names 3. Sex (consummate) 4. Child → move to patrilocal 5. Child #2 (no divorce) → all children belong to husband Woman-Woman Marriage: Marry woman for work, solution to infertility or to escape domestic violence Ghost Marriage: Marry deceased husband’s brother ● ● Gifts from groom’s family to the bride (cattle as currency) Woman-Woman Marriage: Woman pays woman bridewealth for her to have children for her Divorce ● ● ● Father’s authority Can be because of infertility (male or female) Women AND men have the power to divorce Children ● Woman-Woman Marriage: Children belong to infertile woman’s (pater’s) lineage (of her father) Exo ● Clan, lineage exogamy Endo ● Wealth, Class, Tribe Nuer endogamy Sex Premarital sex ● Blind-eye adultery ● Compensation (if have a child) Post-marital sex ● Adultery illegal but not immoral ○ Fee was collected from male offender ○ Man might divorce a wife if a persistent problem ○ Women not punished for it Genitor: “Sperm-donor” Pater: “Father” Solution to Male Infertility Blind Eye Adultery: Woman has sex with genitor to get pregnant with pater’s children Solution to Female Infertility ● Divorce wife (triple divorce) ● Take on multiple wives ● Woman-woman marriage Female Power ● Central: They milk the cows, bring in cows to their natal family, housework and children ● Divisive: They create brothers of the hut against brothers of the lineage, women divide the camp Woman-Woman Marriage in Tanzania ● Children and inheritance ● Male children inherit goods and land of dead husband ● Avoid domestic violence and alcoholism ● Help with chores/farming ● “Warm blanket” (the children) On The Map: Albania Burneshas: “Men-Women” in Albania ● Sworn Virgin ○ Vow of celibacy ● ○ Rights of a man ○ Not lesbian ○ Male clothes ○ Speak their opinions ○ Do “men’s jobs” ○ Positions of leadership 2 Reasons: Preference or no male heir BEDOUIN On The Map: Egypt WRITING WOMEN’S WORLDS AND ABU-LUGHOD ● POV: American-Palestinian, female, stories from women in a small village community in Egypt, anthropologist, critical ethnography ● “Writing Against Culture”: Using personal stories to avoid generalizations and stereotyping groups of people into a universal experience of “Culture” ● Solutions: Includes herself and her standpoint, writes of particular people and stories (not generalizations, looks at political/historical context 5 Pillars of Islam: 1. Faith (belief in one God) 2. Prayer (5 times a day) 3. Fasting (Ramadan) 4. Almsgiving 5. Pilgrimage (to Mecca) Folktales: ● Hyena story ● Clever wife vs beautiful wife ● Woman yells are husband calling him infertile, leaves, returns to his house because she can’t get pregnant, sees his new wife with tons of kids Main themes: 1. In patrilineality women can have power: a. Migdim’s Power in This Patriarchy: Resisted many of the marriages her father tried to arrange for her, giving birth alone, female head of household, take care of husband/sons, in charge of women’s community, domestic cycle as the mother in law, grown sons are your power b. No Power: Argues with sons over marriage and does not always win, polygyny, land given away c. Does patrilineality denigrate women? Abu-Lughod says we can’t assume patrilineality denigrates women d. Women’s Power: Bringer of wealth (bridewealth), marry a cousin (stay home), joint family, women’s community (mother in law, co-wives, kids, neighbors), resistance (food, sex, work, etc) 2. How can the marriage arrangements: polygyny, transfers of wealth, location after marriage, etc. help or hinder women's freedom/power? a. By moving to their husbands village, the women are seen as more of an asset for the husbands family rather than her own so they are seen as lesser and have less power/freedoms b. Polygyny can help alleviate the amount of work that a woman might have to do to provide for her family thus giving her slightly more freedom/agency 3. In order to write against "culture," (meaning no stereotyping) Abu-Lughod adds history and change to the narrative: How does the global political-economy affect the local, migrating Bedouin goat herders. (Rubbishing, irrigation, women less freedom, weddings). Explain ● Rubbishing: Whole clan wiped out by bombers mistaking Bedouin tents for the enemy so no wells, no crops, land filled with scrap metal → rubbishing (solid metals, tires, glass, iron, copper, shoes, guns, etc) but thousands of Bedouins killed by mines ● Irrigation: Technology and farming, Bedouins were pastoralists, with irrigation they could farm “useless land”, had to buy the land they had previously used, settle on it or lose it to Egyptians, family had money from smuggling then land and orchards ● Women: 1979 Islamic Revolution, now husbands/brothers limit the girls freedom (such as herding) Why polygyny? ● Polygyny is mainly used as a solution for infertility or for more children (specifically for sons as heirs) ● However, sexual autonomy is prevalent, therefore, affairs are accepted What does Islam say about polygyny? And Islamic feminists? ● Early Islam: At war, lots of widows, Prophet said to marry the widows to take care of the women, only 4 at a time, treated equally What is the relationship of the wives and why? ● Co-wives ● Hierarchy of wives (Gateefa is “higher”) ● Sagr doesn’t divorce because important to keep all kids together Contrast the three wives and women we meet: How is modesty described? a. Gateefa: Always remains loyal / take responsibility as wife, patrilateral parallel cousin, senior wife, modest, veiled b. Azza: Different culture (Turisian), rude, loud/non-religious, lacking in modesty, her lifestyle contrasts with the traditional expectations of Bedouin women, favored with gifts from Sagr, calls Sagr by his name c. Saffiya: “Released” from her cousins, married soon after Gateefa’s wedding What are the underlying rules for marriage and divorce? - Men can divorce anytime - Women can run away and leave if they are not getting pregnant. - Wives can leave if he is infertile - Women’s mothers can also pull them from the marriage How do men and women manipulate the other in marriage? What are the e of marrying a cousin for a man? For a woman? ● Less bridewealth ● Prior claim, guaranteed wife ● Live close to home ● Keep wealth in family Can you draw a patrilateral parallel cousin? A cross-cousin? ● Is this incest? Cousin marriage is not incest, and Bedouins prefer cousin marriage How successful do you think Abu-Lughod is in “writing against culture?” Abu-Lughod is fairly successful in “writing against culture” because in her writing she compiles the actual stories of people within the culture and asks questions that do not undermine the individuals and their cultures but rather deepen an outsider's understanding of the culture. Additionally, she makes it clear that she is talking about specific members/families of a community and not the entirety of a culture. Overall, she leaves in the human interactions quite well and does not overly edit the content to make it more appealing in western eyes. What is the magic they believe in for stopping reproduction or for encouraging reproduction? ● To Conceive: Amulets, pay traditional healer, virginity cloth, special numbers/days/places ● Blockage: Misplaced blood, funeral, weaning ● Shock: Freight met with another freight, amulets, healers What is some of the magic that we do in our cultures? ● Performance rituals/traditions/superstitions (sports, dance, music, etc) ● Lucky and unlucky numbers What are the stories that Bedouins tell and what do they mean? ● Humanizing, Islam and pious, for kids and old ladies (therapy for the ladies) ● Personality shown (bathroom humor, vulgarity) ● Shows values in culture → co-wives, cousins, boys, girls, step-mothers, blood revenge, gift giving, healers, Islamic calendar ● Endings of “they went away and I came back” How does this differ from the Nuer, the Brahmans, and the Brahmans? ● Marriage: - Nuer → divorce is allowed, if one of the partners can’t have a baby or they want to divorce. - Brahmans → divorce is not allowed, but men can have a second wife if they are not satisfied with their first wife. ● Sex: - → Women could have sex with other men (relatives) if the man is barren. - Brahmans → Women are not allowed to have sex with others, but men could. What does the author mean by shock? Or by blocking? Give examples. What are the stages of M, how is it different from our M, and that of the Nuer. Or the other cultures that we study? What is the core of the marriage ceremony? Henna and blood. How is the wedding changed these days with Islamic influences? Why? And strange men around more (settled out lives, not in tents). What is the bridewealth for these Bedouins? Who saves up the goods? - Beds, pots, blankets, wardrobe, suitcase, gold, jewelry What is the significance of the blood of honor; why is it called that? What are the essential elements? ● Virginity cloth proves that bride is a virgin at marriage ● Woman gains trust Why do they feel that Euroamericans are so barbarian in our wedding customs? 2. What are the considerations when a marriage is arranged? Arranging Marriages ● Father decides → a girl cannot say anything until after the marriage ● Economical, political, geographical, sequential, familial ○ Does the family have the same culture as us? ○ Family tensions? Blood revenge targets? ○ How many wives? Workload? ○ Money negotiations ○ Cousin has first right (“tyranny of the cousin”) What are the benefits of cousin marriage? ○ Marry within their lineage (lineage endogamy) ○ Claim on cousins ○ Keep resources within the family ○ Keep children close ○ Less bridewealth ○ Same culture What are the marriage preferences: what endogamy and what exogamy (there is a chart at the start of Ch. 4 for the exogamous preferences. ● Endogamy: same caste, class and wealth of the family ● Exogamy: outside of clan Do you think arranged marriages show that men control women’s sexuality? why or why not? Bedouin Marriage Chart Number ● ● M ● Patrilateral parallel cousin marriage ○ Marry within their lineage (lineage endogamy) ○ Claim on cousins ○ Keep resources within the family ○ Keep children close ○ Less bridewealth ○ Same culture ● Father decides → a girl cannot say anything until after the marriage Levirate: Husband dies and wife has the option to marry the brother ● Levirate gives woman chance to live patrilocal ● Ghost-marriage only refers to the Neur Bridewealth Beds, pots, blankets, wardrobe, suitcase, gold, jewelry, animals Ceremony ● ● ● ● ● ● ● Polygamy Up to 4 wives, but have to treat all equally (hierarchy of wives) Bride gets ready with female relatives and neighbors Men come with cars to get them (procession) Car circles around local saint’s tomb 4 times then goes to groom’s father’s house (groom not there, too embarrassed to be around his father) Bride’s face covered and greeted into her room by women singing and drumming Then young men bring groom Groom takes bride’s blood by finger in white cloth (often screams, struggle, fight, daytime ceremony) Cloth hung outside tent (virginity cloth) ● Bride returns home after 15 days with sheep and food for a meal with family, accompanied by men (not husband) Divorce ● ● ● ● Return of bridewealth (if earlier in marriage) Children stay with the patriline If the couple does not have kids, the woman will leave Men can divorce any time (triple divorce/triple Talaq) Exo ● ● Requiring marriage outside of their village, close kin, clan Nuclear family exogamy Endo ● ● Requiring marriage inside some group; race, religion, caste, cousin. Lineage endogamy Sex ● ● Men allow to have sex with his other wife Women can only have sex with her husband, except ghost marriage NEPALI BRAHMANS On The Map: Nepal KINSHIP AND GENDER BY STONE AND KING What is the time, place and main point for Stone on the Nepali Brahmans? ● Nepal: Country in the Himalayas, Indo-Nepalese are Kindu, Buddhist traditions also mixed with Hindu, Hindu Kingdom starting 18th century, abolished monarchy and became a republic in 2008 ● The only generalizations we can make about marriage is that everywhere it entails intimate relationships between spouses and creates in-laws Caste: Ranked status groups, ranked by religion ● System expressed through Hindu religious ideas concerning purity and pollution ● Higher = purer ● Brahmans are highest ● Matwali: “Liquor-drinking” mid-ranking castes ● Untouchables: Bottom caste, considered impure and physical contact with them is polluting → if accidental contact, purification ritual necessary to restore caste purity HHER (mnemonic -- Hereditary, Hindu, Endogamous, Ranked Why are women seen as threatening, dangerous, and inferior? or Why are women seen as a “necessary evil”? ● Males considered purer than females ○ Why: women menstruate, menstrual blood seen as polluting, must segregate themselves and become untouchables during cycle then take a ritual bath to restore purity ● Brahman women controlled sexually (virgin at marriage) ● Sexuality seen as threatening to male solidarity and purity, yet crucial for patriline continuity ● Inferior status present in everyday life ○ Ex. Bow to husband before meals Dangerous Wives ● Divide family ● Female outsider ● Sex → “polluted womb” (body from then on is considered impure) ● Idea that women lure husband into sex for control ● Her fault if he dies young ● Impurity of menstruation ● Rituals of submission What are the three principles important to the Nepali patriline? 3 Core Concerns of Brahman societal patrilines: 1. Solidarity: Males of patriline should maintain solidarity 2. Continuity: Line should continue (sons should be produced) 3. Purity: Line of descent should be kept “pure” USC - Purity, Solidarity, Continuity What two features make up purity of descent? ● Caste ● Virginity When we focus away from the father of the family (patrifocal) to filiafocal (on the daughter) how do we see women in a different light? What is Erin's critique and why? Filiafocal: Focused on the daughter ● Worship the daughter ● Considered sacred to their fathers and brothers ● Daughter gives father religious merit by marrying her to another family DR. MOORE’S OPINION: This focus does not exist, it is so insignificant compared to the hardships and disrespect that the woman faces in her husband’s family. Filiafocal does not “even out” or provide a safe space from the hardships of being a woman. Also, women are still just objects for fathers to give up. What is meant by “motherhood purifies the sexuality”? - Women’s trust within the husband’s family increases after the birth of the first child. Contrast Brahman, Nuer and uin ideas of fertility, sexuality and the family. What are the major values of each community and how do they influence kinship and marriage structures? What do they mean that Nepali Brahman’s have “to grow their own” children…. Don’t we all? Contrast to the Nuer! ● Nuer don’t have to “grow their own” children because of practices such as woman-woman marriage, etc. therefore have children that are not biologically theirs as their own ● Brahmans only have their own children What did you learn from the film “Dadi and her family?” - Keeping the family together keeps the family alive - Kinship is survival within certain cultures (they all stay together to share the load of work, but also to share those very resources with the entirety of the family.” What is the power of Dadi? Dadi is in the prime of her power, when a woman becomes a mother in law, it is she who dictates the lives of those around her- especially her sons and their wives. Who they marry has a lot to do with what the mother thinks, she will be the one to heavily influence the new generation of mother in laws with her daughter in laws. She is also who becomes the eye of the family, the more she keeps it together, the more she succeeds as mother in law. How is this film like Migdim and the Bedouins, like the Brahmans? Migdim Bedouins Brahmans Bedouins Brahmans How is it different? Migdim Brahman Marriage Chart Number ● ● Monogamy and polgamy Polygyny → usually only arranged when first wife is childless, women view it as a negative punishment for their childlessness M Bridewealth ● Patrilineal and patrilocal Dowry ( clothing, jewelry, household things) Ceremony Children ● Brahman’s can only have a caste-pure child through a religiously sanctioned caste-endogamous marriage (“gift of the virgin” marriage) Woman gets to decide paternity of children Divorce ● No divorce Exo ● ● ● ● Lineage exogamy Clan exogamy Gotra exogamy Thar exogamy Endo ● ● ● Caste endogamy Hindu endogamy Culture endogamy Sex ● Men → Sex okay except untouchables Women → virgin until marriage, only sex with husband, no divorce NYINBA On The Map: Nepal Nyinba Marriage Chart Number ● ● ● Monogamy and polgamy Polyandry → solution to reduce population Polygyny accepted if first wife is childless or if too many brothers for one wife ○ Brothers add another wife ○ M Dowry Childless women are pitied, but childlessness is not an acceptable reason for divorce ● Patrilineal and patrilocal ○ Unless no sons/brothers, then they may bring in a husband to live matrilocal and inherit their estate Fraternal Polyandry: A set of brothers shares a wife ● All brothers are equally husbands to their wife ● Wife expected to give sexual equity Conjoint Marriage: One or more brothers dissatisfied in polyandrous marriage so seek to bring in another wife → sororal polygyny (brothers equally share new wife also, but also may form more exclusive sexual relationships) ● Woman gets dowry at marriage from her parents (assigned father) to the groom’s house Children ● Women get to assign paternity Divorce ● Women may initiate divorce then return to her natal family but then loses kids and possessions (d0wry) Exo ● Clan exogamy ○ Clan worships a set of common clan gods ○ Sexual relations between clan members are forbidden and considered incest Endo ● Same caste Sex ● Men and women can have sexual relations outside of marriage ○ Women can be punished for public affairs ○ Little that women can do if husband is adulterous Female sexuality subject to little constraint Ceremony ● Bedouins: Man can divorce just by saying Triple talaq, women cannot