• Rules specifying that a person must marry outside a particular group.
• Almost a universal concept within the primary family group.
• Leads to alliances within different families and groups.

• Rules that marriage must be within a particular group.
• In the U.S., social classes tend to be endogamous.

Both Endogamous & Exogamous.

• Endogamous: marriage is permitted within the same caste or intercaste marriage is not permitted.
• Exogamous: marriage should be outside of the sub-caste of the same caste.

Marrying the children of a parent's siblings of the opposite sex.

• A rule that permits a person to be married to only one spouse at a time.
• This rule is only the norm in Europe and North America.
• 75% of the world's societies allow plural marriage.

Love Marriage

(Indian English)

• Sexual access of husband and wife to each other.
• Obligations by one or both parents to care for the children born into the union.
• Rights of husband and wife to the economic services of one another.

• Bridewealth
• Bride Service
• Dowry

Goods presented by the groom's kin to the bride's kin to legitimize a marriage.

(Luas of Thailand)

Work that a groom performs for his bride's family for a variable length of time either before or after the marriage.

(Many African Societies)

Presentation of goods by the bride's kin to the family of the groom or the couple.

(Practiced in South Asia)

• The family organized around the relationship between husband and wife. 
• This family consists of a husband, a wife, and their children. 

• Aggregates of nuclear families linked by a common spouse/s.
• Example: Polygamous household consisting of one man / men or woman / women with several husbands / wives. 

• Blood relations extending over three or more generations.
• Economic Advantages: keeps land intact and provides security in times of crisis.
• Provides a sense of participation and dignity for the older family members. 

• Family of blood related member. 
• For example: brothers living together with their children in a family. 

A household unit, that usually, but not always, consists of members of a family. 

• Neolocal Residence
• Patrilocal Residence
• Matrilocal Residence
• Bilocal Residence

System under which a couple establishes an independent household after marriage.

System under which a bride lives with her husband’s family after marriage.

System under which a husband lives with his wife’s family after marriage. 

System under which the married couple has the choice of living with the husband’s or wife’s family. 

• Refers to the culturally defined relationships between individuals who are commonly thought of as having family ties.  
• There is a great amount of variability in the rules and patterns around the world. 

• Establishes relationship to other persons.
• Establishes rights and duties towards them.
• Inheritance: The transfer of property between generations.
• Succession: The transfer of office or social position between generations.
• Makes a person social.
• Cultural mechanism for survival. 

• By Birth (consanguineal / blood): father, mother, brother, sister, etc.
• By Marriage (affinal): father-in-law, mother-in-law.
• By Fictive Relationship (faith/ social courtesy/ functionality)
• Faith: Mother Teresa, Godparenthood, and the adoption of children in European and Latin American cultures.
• Social Courtesy: Hi bro! Hi sissy! Brother Ahmed (social courtesy).
• Functionality: ritual of establishing friendship: Mitba (father-in-friendship, Nepal).
• By Law: legal adoption. 

• Genitor: a biological father.
• Pater: socially designated father of a child, who may or may not be the biological father.
• Religious/ Social: father miller, baba ramdas.
• Godfather: father by faith.
• Mitba (Nepali): father by friendship.
• Dad versus Father: dad is term of address.  Father is term of reference. 

• Square: Ego (the person whose perspective determines the kinship).
• Triangle: Male.
• Circle: Female.
• Vertical Line: Ascending and descending generation.
• Horizontal Line: Collateral kin (same generation).
• Equal Sign: Affinal (marriage). 

The culturally established affiliation between a child and one or both parents.

Group of kin who are lineal descendants of a common ancestor, extending beyond two generations. 

• Organize domestic life.
• Enculturate children.
• Allow transfer of property.
• Carry out religious ritual.
• Settle disputes. 

Lineage

• A group of kin whose members trace descent from a known common ancestor.  
• Descent based on links through paternal or maternal line. 

• Descent is traced through male lineage.
• Inheritance moves from father to son, as does succession to office.
• Man’s position as father and husband is the most important source of male authority. 

• Descent is traced through the female line.  
• Children belong to the mother’s descent group.
• The inclusion of a husband in the household is less important.
• Women usually have higher status.

Example: Hopi. 

• Ambilineal Descent
• Bilateral Descent
• Bilineal Descent
• Parallel Descent

Nonunilineal Descent

or

Cognatic Descent

Any system of descent in which both father’s and mother’s lineages have equal claim to the individual.

A form of bilateral descent in which an individual may choose to affiliate with either the father’s or mother’s descent group.

“or”

The cognatic pattern of descent in which every biological ancestor and descendant is a socially recognized relative.  Everyone is a member of both his or her father’s and mother’s family.

“and”

The cognatic pattern of descent in which an individual is both a member of his mother’s matrilineage and his father’s patrilineage.  Also known as “double descent.”  This is not the same as bilateral descent.

“sex of parents”

The cognatic pattern of descent in which males trace their descent thought the male line of their father and females through the female line of their mother.  Unlike bilineal descent, every individual is a member of only one unilineage.

“sex of the individual” 

Hermaphrodites:

Half-man Half-woman

The term “hermaphrodite” derives from Hermaphroditus, the son of Hermaphrode and Aphrodite in Greek mythology, who was fused with a nymph, Salma, resulting in one individual possessing physical traits of both genders.  The Hermaphroditus could be called, using modern terminology, a simultaneous hermaphrodite.  

Ardhanariswara

Hijra

"The Third Gender"

A first person account of India’s little known Eunuchs.  

A ritual that marks a person’s transition from on status to another.

A ritual that marks the passage from childhood to adult status. 

A Rite of Passage.

Rite of Passage

Anthropological Theories:

Psychological & Social Function

• Culturally validate male dominance.
• Legitimate the status from child to adult.
• Separate the initiate from society so he can learn to be an adult member of society.
• Makes a responsible citizen.  

A solemn ceremony held in the synagogue, usually on Saturday morning, to admit as an adult member of the Jewish community a Jewish boy 13 years old who has successfully completed a prescribed course of study in Judaism. 

Vratavandha:

A Hindu Rite of Passage

A crucial event in the life of the orthodox, upper-caste Hindu male is an initiation ceremony, which takes time for some young males between the ages of seven and twelve to mark the transition to awareness adult religious responsibilities. 

• Performed during a girl’s first menstruation.
• More common in societies in which girls continue to live with their mother after marriage.
• Manipulation of the body is often central to these ceremonies. 

Bahra:

Female Initiation Rite among the Newars of Nepal

After Ihi (married to the Bel fruit), a Newar girl undergoes bahra, a ritual confinement of a girl before the onset of menstruation.  A girl is kept separated from all males and from sunlights for 12 days.  On the 12^th day the girl has to pay homage to the sun.  Making her different from her male friends.  Physical, psychological, and social functions.

• Variations in: sniffing, kissing, holding, hugging, grooming, and caressing.
• Variation in outgoing.
• Variation in premarital sex.
• Variation in homosexuality.