SOC111Introduction to Anthropology

FAMILIES, KINSHIP AND DESCENT

• Why and how do anthropologists study kinship?

• How do families and descent groups differ and what are their social correlates?

• How is kinship calculated and how are relatives classified in various societies?

FAMILIES

• Kinship and descemt have organized human life during much of our history.

• To understand the social structure of a society, a sociologist/an ethnographer/ an anthropologist must investigate such kin ties.

• Nuclear family: mother+father+children

• Extenden family: 3 or more generations of a family, descent groups.

• Descent groups: composed of people claiming common ancestry.

FAMILIES

• Most people belong to at least 2 nuclear families at different times in their lives.

• Family of orientation: Nuclear family in which one is born and grows up.

• Family of procreation: Nuclear family established when one marries and has children.

• An example: a culture in former Yugoslavia. ‘Zadruga’

Industrialism and Family Organization

• Family isolation arises from geographic mobility, which is associated with industrialism, so that a nuclear family focus is characteristic of many modern nations.

• Neolocality: Couple establishes new residence.

• Values systems and kinship differ from class to class. There are significant differences between middle class and welfare dependent families.

• Extended family household: House with 3 or more generations.

Industrialism and Family Organization

• The higher proportion of extended family households among poorer people has been explained as an adaptation to poverty.

• Adaptation to poverty causes kinship values and attitudes to diverge from middle class values.

• Eventhough, we see nuclear family as a cultural ideal for industrialized communities, when we look at America, only 23% of American households are in nuclear family form today.

Industrialism and Family Organization

• Women’s companionship to business world.• Job demands compete with romantic

attachments. • Average age for marriage in USA.

1970 – Age 21 1970- Age 232008 – Age 26 2008- Age 27

• Divorce rate has risen.• Contemporary Americans maintain social lives

through work, friendship, sports, clubs, religion and organized social activities. So, there is a growing isolation from kin in American society, which also researches suggest.

The role of family comparisonUSA and BRAZIL

• Two most populous nations of the western hemisphere of the world.

• For Americans family is spouses and children.

• For Brazilians family is parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins. Later they add their children and spouses.

• Marriage assumes more importance in Americans because they lack an extended family support system.

TÜRKİYE

• 1950 – a rapid change and moving from rural to urban life.• Today – women ratio of maternity 2.1• Fertility age- moved from 20-24 to 25-29• First marriage for women- 16 in 1970

24 in 2000• Nuclear family rate in 1968 – 60%

2008- 69%• Extended family rate declined about 161%• Today 71% of families live in nuclear family form in cities

and 66% of families live in nuclear family form in rural ares.• In all regions, nuclear family is the most common

household type.

The Family Among Foragers

• Populations with foraging economies are far removed from industrial societies in terms of social complexity, but they do feature geographic mobility, which is associated with nomadic or seminomadic hunting and gathering.

• The 2 basic social units of traditional foraging societies are the nuclear family and the band.

DESCENT

• Descent group membership is determined at birth and is lifelong. In this case, it is an ascribed status.

• Matrilineal Descent – mother’s blood

• Patrilineal Descent- father’s blood

• Descent groups may be lineages or clans.

• A lineage uses demonstrated descent.

• A clan uses stipulated descent.

KINSHIP CALCULATION

• The system by which people in a society reckon kin relationships.

• To study kinship calculation, a sociologist must first determine the word or words for different types of relatives used in a particular language.

• Like race and gender, kinship is also culturally constructed – it is a person’s perspective looking out his/her kin.

KINSHIP CALCULATION

• Kin terms are the words used for different relatives in a particular language. They reflect the social construction of kinship in a given culture.

• Cross-cultural comparison between English

and Turkish languages.