ANTH 120 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

Thursday, October 923, 2003

Video:Marriage and the Family

Notes from Video: Marriage and the Family

• Turkana and polygyny • Zaire pygmies - exogamy & alliances

with other tribes • northern India and extended families • Greek Americans and arranged marriage

The family as the cornerstoneof our culture

• Minimizes sexual competition

• Provides cooperative alliances

• Forms the basic economic unit

• Provides emotional support

Engels on the Family

• Savagery - group marriage - societas• Barbarism - pairing marriage - clan

organization based on kinship - societas - matriarchy

• Civilization - monogamy, supplemented by adultery and prostitution - civitas, based on property - the state - patriarachy

ANTH 120 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

Tuesday, October 28, 2003

Video:Kinship and Descent

Part I

Notes from Video: Kinship and Descent

• Trobriand Islanders • Mendi (New Guinea)• Unilineal descent” patrilineal &

matrilineal

Lenski: Societal Types & History

Lewis Henry Morgan

Systems of Consanguity and Affinity in the Human Family (1870)

Lewis Henry Morgan

societas -- kinship -- classificatorycivitas -- property -- descriptive

Kinship

Kinship is not biological but a cultural construct. Kottak’s term, “biological kin types” is misleading.

Kinship is one of the great cultural inventions of our species, an invention that is essential for all human society

“Kinship Algebra” &basic kin relations

F - fatherM - motherB - brotherZ - sisterS - sonD - daughterH - husbandW - wife

“Kinship Algebra” &basic kin relations

See charts

That’s all for today!