Q&A Hero

Q: A Nuer woman married to a woman can be the pater of a child she did not father. Native American berdaches, biological men who represent a third gender, sometimes assume the role of a wife when married to a man with whom they share the products of their labor. Cross-cultural examples such as these illustrate A. that the concepts of gender and marriage are more socially constructed in some societies than in others. B. how, if they were to be made legal, same-sex marriages could easily benefit from the same legal rights different-sex marriages already enjoy. C. the rare social phenomenon of polyandry. D. how same-sex marriages make good economic sense. E. how Edmund Leach was wrong to suggest that all societies define marriage similarly.

Q: A lobola, a substantial marital gift from the husband and his kin to the wife and her kin among the BaThonga of Mozambique, is A. a form of bride theft. B. only given for elopements. C. the same as a dowry. D. widespread in patrilineal societies. E. widespread in matrilineal societies.

Q: What is the term for the marital exchange in which the bride's family or kin group provides substantial gifts when their daughter marries? A. polygamy B. bridewealth C. dowry D. progeny price E. brideservice

Q: Divorce tends to be more common A. when the dowry is very small. B. when marriages are political alliances between groups. C. in matrilineal than in patrilineal societies. D. in societies in which marriage residence is patrilocal. E. in all societies when romance fails.

Q: What is the name of the custom by which a widower marries the sister of his deceased wife? A. sororate marriage B. serial polyandry C. filial marriage D. levirate marriage E. fraternal marriage

Q: Polygyny, although formally outlawed, has survived in Turkey since the Ottoman period, when having several wives was viewed as a symbol of power, wealth, and sexual prowess. Unlike in the past, when the practice was customary and not illegal, polygyny can put contemporary women at risk. How? A. Women in polygynous unions have less of a chance to marry several men themselves. B. Because their marriages have no official status, secondary wives who are abused or mistreated have no legal recourse. C. The increase in the number of wives a man takes on increases inter-wife feuds. D. As cross-cultural studies have shown, violence against women is correlated with the presence of polygyny in society. E. Unlike in the past, polygynous unions are no longer unions based on romantic love.

Q: Which of the following best defines polygyny? A. the type of marriage in which there is more than one husband B. the custom whereby a wife marries the brother of her dead husband C. the type of marriage involving only two spouses D. the custom whereby a widower marries the sister of his dead wife E. the type of marriage in which there is more than one wife

Q: All of the following are a form of polygamy EXCEPT A. a man who marries, then divorces, then marries again, then divorces again, then marries again, each time to a different woman. B. a man who has four wives simultaneously. C. a woman who has three husbands, all of whom are brothers. D. a man who has three wives, all of whom are sisters. E. a woman who has two unrelated husbands.

Q: Which of the following statements about polygynous marriages is true? A. They are characteristic of high social instability, as with serial monogamy in southern California and Washington, D.C. B. They frequently involve a hierarchical arrangement among the wives. C. They are associated with male infanticide. D. They are characterized by there being more than one husband in a single household. E. They tend to occur in societies that have more men than women.

Q: Which of the following statements about polyandry is most likely true? A. It is found only among fishing communities in Madagascar. B. It is a cultural adaptation to the high labor demands of rice cultivation. C. It is a cultural adaptation to mobility associated with male travel for trade, commerce, and warfare. D. It is almost always sororate. E. It is legal in the United States.

Q: Which of the following is NOT true of the role of the Internet in marriage in contemporary societies? A. Like the workplace, bars, parties, and churches, the Internet is part of what has been labeled the "marriage market." B. The Internet has largely supplanted traditional "offline" partner shopping, which has dramatically faded in significance. C. Use of the Internet for partner shopping first began to soar when dynamic websites based on databases were introduced. D. By 2009, over 30 percent of Internet-enabled couples were meeting through online dating. E. While the Internet can enhance opportunities to form new personal relationships, it can be disruptive to existing relationships, sometimes spurring jealousy in a spouse or partner.

Q: To understand royal endogamy, it is useful to distinguish between the manifest and latent functions of customs and behavior. The manifest function of a custom refers to the reasons people in a society give for it. Its latent function is A. the genetically motivated reason for the custom. B. a subconscious effect the custom has on the society members' identification with that belief. C. the socially constructed perspective of why the custom exists. D. an effect the custom has that the society's members don't mention or recognize. E. the emic effect the custom has on the society, recognized only by anthropologists.

Q: A recent cross-cultural study of 87 societies, all of which had incest taboos, investigated the rate at which such taboos were broken. The results of this study add to the evidence that A. cultural universals, like the human ability to make fire, always have a genetic basis. B. Freud was right: Children everywhere have sexual feelings toward their parents. C. although tabooed, incest does happen. D. many societies need better educational systems. E. many societies need better techniques of social control.

Q: The incest taboo is almost culturally universal, but A. not all cultures have one. B. not all cultures define incest the same way. C. not all cultures know about the consequences of incest. D. some cultures have replaced it with the levirate. E. some cultures practice gerontology anyway.

Q: There is no simple or universally accepted explanation for the fact that nearly all cultures ban incest. However, the most accepted explanation for the incest taboo is A. a genetically programmed instinctive horror. B. a widespread and well-founded fear of biological degeneration. C. that following rules of exogamy is adaptively advantageous. D. that isolated social groups are better at survival. E. a genetically determined attraction for those most different from us.

Q: What term refers to the culturally sanctioned practice of marrying someone within a group to which one belongs? A. incest B. exogamy C. hypogamy D. endogamy E. endosperm

Q: Which of the following marital customs functions to maintain distinctions between groups? A. progeny price B. levirate C. sororate D. sororal polygyny E. endogamy

Q: The rise in female employment in the United States, especially in professional careers, when coupled with ________, has dramatically increased household incomes in the upper classes. This pattern has been one factor sharpening the contrast in household income between the richest and poorest populations of Americans. A. homogamy B. serial monogamy C. endogamy D. sororal polygyny E. exogamy

Q: Which of the following is an example of a rule of endogamy? A. a taboo on marrying members of the same totemic group B. the Nazi law forbidding Aryans from marrying anyone but other Aryans C. a taboo against marrying within the same village D. a taboo on mating with members of one's extended family E. the incest taboo

Q: How do the rules of endogamy function in society? A. They prove that the incest taboo is not the cultural universal it was once thought to be. B. They encourage the extension of affinal bonds to an ever-widening circle of people. C. They tend to maintain social distinctions between groups. D. They expand the gene pool. E. They extend kin ties across classes.

Q: All cultures have taboos against ________, sexual relations with someone considered to be a close relative, although precisely what constitutes a close relative varies across cultures. A. levirate B. sororate C. fraternal D. incest E. exogamy

Q: Why does exogamy, the practice of seeking a husband or wife outside one's own kin group, have adaptive value outside of biological concerns? A. It increases the likelihood that disadvantageous alleles will find phenotypic expression and thus be eliminated from the population. B. It creates new social ties and alliances, providing access to more resources and social networks. C. It impedes peaceful relations among social groups and therefore promotes population expansion. D. It was an important causal factor in the origin of social stratification. E. Exogamy is not adaptive; it is just a cultural construction.

Q: Although the incest taboo is a cultural universal, cultures define incest differently. For example, in many cultures it is incestuous to marry parallel cousins but not cross cousins. What is the difference? A. The children of two brothers or two sisters are parallel cousins. The children of a brother and a sister are cross cousins. B. Parallel cousins are socially recognized relatives, but cross cousins are true biological cousins. C. The children of a brother and a sister are parallel cousins. The children of two brothers or two sisters are cross cousins. D. Parallel cousins are true biological cousins, whereas cross cousins are simply socially recognized relatives. E. There is no symbolic difference between the two, only a biological difference.

Q: Which of the following is ego's cross cousin? A. MBS (mother's brother's son) B. FBS (father's brother's son) C. MZD (mother's sister's daughter) D. FBD (father's brother's daughter) E. MZS (mother's sister's son)

Q: In a society with two exogamous lineages or moieties, who is the preferred cross-cousin bride for a male ego? A. MBD (mother's brother's daughter) B. MZD (mother's sister's daughter) C. FBD (father's brother's daughter) D. FZS (father's sister's son) E. FZB (father's sister's brother)

Q: Among the Yanomami of Venezuela and Brazil, as in many societies with unilineal descent, which of the following is true? A. Marriage between parallel cousins is preferred, whereas marriage between cross cousins is considered incest. B. Marriage between cross cousins is preferred; marriage between parallel cousins is considered incest. C. Marriage between first cousins is preferred, but marriage between second cousins is considered incest. D. Marriage between sororate cousins is preferred, although marriage between levirate cousins is considered incest. E. Marriage between Crow cousins is preferred; marriage between Omaha cousins is considered incest.

Q: What term refers to one of two descent groups in a given population? A. levirate B. sororate C. moiety D. patriline E. matriline

Q: With unilineal descent, sex with cross cousins is proper, but sex with parallel cousins is considered incestuous. Why? A. Cross cousins are actually parallel cousins. B. Societies with unilineal descent share a gene that impedes them from developing sexual urges for parallel cousins. C. This behavior is a human universal explained by Freud's theory of attempt and contempt. D. Cross cousins are considered closer relatives than all other kin. E. Parallel cousins are considered closer relatives than cross cousins.

Q: What is the difference between kin terms and genealogical kin types? Why would an anthropologist want to make such a distinction? Can you see any problems with this distinction? In your everyday experience, do you distinguish between kin terms and genealogical kin types?

Q: This chapter offers a brief overview of kinship-related demographic changes in the United States and Canada. How have kinship arrangements changed? How do these changes relate to other cultural changes? Do you find any of the current trends surprising? If so, why?

Q: In South Sudan, a Nuer woman can marry a woman if her father has only daughters but no male heirs. This is done to maintain the patrilineage. The "wife" has sex with one or more men until she gets pregnant. The children born are then accepted as the offspring of both the female husband and the wife. What is important in this example is A. the fact that only same-sex marriages are recognized in patrilineal societies. B. social rather than biological paternity, again illustrating how kinship is socially constructed. C. how biology overrides culture regardless of human intentions. D. how often marriage is simply about property. E. that it illustrates how romantic love is both universal and complicated.

Q: What is the term that anthropologists use to refer to the biological father of a child? A. pater B. creator C. moiety D. genitor E. provider

Q: What is the term that anthropologists use to identify ego's socially recognized father? A. pater B. genitor C. creator D. father E. mater

Q: The most common postmarital residence rule is matrilocality, in which the married couple moves in with the husband's family.

Q: With unilineal descent, one's lineage affiliation is ascribed at birth, but with ambilineal descent, lineage affiliation is more fluid, because each member chooses his or her own descent group.

Q: A functional explanation attempts to correlate particular customs (in this case kinship terms) to other features of society.

Q: A bifurcate merging kinship terminology distinguishes between collateral and lineal relatives.

Q: Between 1970 and 2012 the number of divorced Americans increased sixfold.

Q: Cite evidence confirming or denying the universality of the nuclear family. Give examples from different cultures. What other social units might assume the functions associated with nuclear families?

Q: Discuss ways in which kinship and descent help human populations adapt to their environments.

Q: "Anthropologists spend much of their time studying trivia like kinship." Do you agree with this statement? If so, why? If not, why not?

Q: In some systems of kinship terminology, lineal and collateral relatives are grouped together under the same kinship terms, and in others they are not. In terms of the sociocultural setting in which these terminologies exist, discuss reasons for the differences.

Q: In what kinds of situations would you expect to find ambilineal descent? Unilineal descent? Why?

Q: There are rights, duties, and obligations associated with kinship and descent. Many societies have both families and descent groups. Give an illustration of how obligations to one may conflict with obligations to the other. How does your example relate to your experience managing rights, duties, and obligations in your own family?

Q: After reaching an all-time low for the 20th century in the 1970s, the nuclear family is now making a rebound, accounting for a greater number of U.S. households each year.

Q: Recent census data reveal that more U.S. women are now living without a husband than with one.

Q: Industrialization increases mobility, which plays a major role in the disappearance of extended families in the United States.

Q: Comparing notions of family between the United States and Brazil, the extended family still plays a central role for most Brazilians.

Q: A descent group consists only of a married couple and their children.

Q: With patrilineal descent, someone takes his or her father's last name but recognizes descent through both parents.

Q: In unilineal descent, one's ancestry is traced through only one line of descent.

Q: Members of a clan say they are descended from a common apical ancestor.

Q: Neolocal postmarital residence rules require newly married couples to establish their own residence.

Q: U.S. kinship calculation is bilateral, traced equally through males and females; for example, father and mother.

Q: Outside North America, Western Europe, and the European-derived cultures of Latin America, neolocal residence isn't all that common.

Q: A nuclear family includes ego, ego's parents, and ego's grandparents.

Q: Like race, kinship is a cultural construction, in that it exhibits considerable cultural diversity.

Q: Your family of procreation is the one into which you were born.

Q: Although nuclear families are found in many societies around the world, this phenomenon is not a cultural universal.

Q: The higher proportion of expanded family households among poorer Americans has been explained as an adaptation to poverty.

Q: In a lineal system of kinship terminology, which of the following pairs would be referred to by the same term? A. M and FZ B. M and MZ C. FB and MB D. FB and FZ E. F and FB

Q: Which of the following does NOT belong to ego's matrilineage? A. FM B. B C. ZS D. MB E. M

Q: In a bifurcate merging kinship terminology, what is merged? A. same-sex siblings of each parent B. members of the family of orientation and those of the family of procreation C. affinal relatives and collateral relatives D. affinal relatives and lineal relatives E. lineal relatives and offspring

Q: In a bifurcate merging kinship system, which of the following would be referred to by the same term? A. F and MB B. M and MZ C. MB and FB D. FZ and MZ E. JR and BJ

Q: Which of the following statements about bifurcate merging kinship terminologies is NOT true? A. They generally are found in societies with unilineal descent. B. They use the same term to describe F and FB and the same term for M and MZ. C. They generally are found in societies with unilocal residence patterns. D. They often are found in association with the kinship distinction between parallel and cross cousins. E. They use the same term to describe MB and FB.

Q: Like bifurcate merging kinship terminology, generational kinship terminology A. is common in North America. B. makes sense only from the perspective of ego. C. illustrates the complicated ways in which adults confuse their children about the realities of biology. D. uses the same term for parents and their siblings, but lumping is more complete (there are only two terms for the parental generation). E. uses the same term for parents and grandparents, so there is less lumping than in the bifurcate merging kinship system.

Q: According to genealogical kin types used by anthropologists to study kinship relations, what kind of relative is ego's mother's brother? A. lineal relative B. affinal relative C. collateral relative D. nuclear family member E. member of the P2 generation

Q: The Bari of Venezuela recognize multiple fathers, even though biologically there can be only one actual genitor. This example shows A. that women have a better understanding of biological processes than do men. B. that like race and gender, kinship is culturally constructed. C. cultures' explanations for biological processes vary because the access and quality of educational systems vary as well. D. how, as in the United States, having more than one father is detrimental to a child's development and adjustment in society. E. that multiple (partible) paternity is a common and beneficial biological fact.

Q: What does ego represent in a depiction of a kinship system? A. the sense of distinct individuality that is present in any society B. the emotional attachment felt by the people who use the system C. the point of reference used to determine which kin terms go where D. the boundary between one's kin group and outsiders E. a gender-free way of reckoning kinship

Q: What kind of kinship is most common in the contemporary United States? A. matrilateral kinship B. bilateral kinship C. patrilateral kinship D. collateral kinship E. generational kinship

Q: Anthropologists distinguish between kin terms and genealogical kin types. What is the difference? A. Kin terms refers to the actual genealogical relationship; genealogical kin types are the words used for different relatives in a particular culture. B. The difference is only a methodological onein practice, they are the same thing. C. Kin terms are the words used for different relatives in a particular language, but genealogical kin types refers to the actual genealogical relationship. D. Kin terms are the words used for socially constructed relationships, whereas genealogical kin types refers to relatives. E. Kin terms are the terms used for different relatives from the ego's perspective, whereas genealogical kin types refers to objective relatives from no perspective in particular.

Q: In what kind of kinship calculation are kin ties traced equally through males and females? A. bilineal B. bifurcate merging C. bifurcate collateral D. bilateral E. biluminous

Q: Kinship terminology is a classification system, a taxonomy or typology. More generally, a taxonomic system A. is based on how people perceive similarities and differences in the things being classified. B. is accurate only when based on Western science. C. is based on categories given by nature. D. usually changes with every generation. E. applies best to nonliving things.

Q: What makes up ego's nuclear family of orientation? A. parents and siblings B. spouse and offspring C. extended family D. lineal kin E. collateral kin

Q: A lineal kinship terminology A. is generally found in societies with patrilineal descent rules. B. uses two terms to identify ego's parents' siblings: one term for both FZ and MZ and another term for both FB and MB. C. is often found in association with the distinction between parallel and cross cousins. D. stresses relationships with collaterals. E. uses the same term to refer to M and MZ.

Q: Which of the following kin types is NOT ego's lineal relative? A. M B. B C. MM D. F E. FF

Q: What term refers to the kind of descent in which people choose the descent group that they join? A. neolineal B. patrilineal C. ambilineal D. matrilineal E. bilineal

Q: What postmarital residence rule is most often found in societies with lineal kinship terminologies? A. ambilocal B. neolocal C. patrilocal D. matrilocal E. bilocal

Q: Anthropologists are interested in kinship calculation, which is A. the position from which one views an egocentric genealogy. B. the rules people use to determine their ethnic affiliation to a group. C. the process by which people choose their postmarital residence. D. the system by which people in a society reckon their kin relationships. E. people's emic perspective on family values.

Q: What does it mean that kinship, like race, is culturally constructed? A. The educational system is failing to educate people about real, biologically-based human relatedness. B. Like race, kinship is a social fiction, with no real social consequence. C. It is a phenomenon separated from other real aspects of society, such as economics and politics. D. Studies of kinship tell us little about people's actual experiences, only about what they think those experiences are like. E. Some genealogical kin are considered to be relatives whereas others are not, and the rules underlying such considerations vary across cultures.