Unit 2: Apes & Humans

Marriage and Post-Marital Residency Terms

In American culture, marriage forms the basis of the kin group called the nuclear family, which in our culture is the primary group designated for the care and socialization of children. Hopefully by this time you are familiar (from Lenkeit Chapt. 7) with the basic kin symbols used by anthropologists, where a triangle indicates a male, a circle a female, and two parallel lines indicate marriage. (In some texts, a straight line connecting the male and female at the bottom of each symbol also means marriage, as in diagram on the right, below.)

Marriage

OR

The nuclear family refers to the husband(s), wife (or wives), and children, own, adopted or even step, as depicted below:

The nuclear family exists regardless of the marriage form, and regardless of the descent system (more on this last later). It may or may not be the primary group responsible for care and socialization of children.

With regard to marriage form or type, there are three terms you need to remember.

  1. Monogamy (literally one spouse) refers to the marriage of one woman to one man. Monogamy is the only marriage form permitted in the United States, although many other cultures allow other forms. It tends to be the most common form in most cultures, if for no other reason than that most cultures assume adults will marry and the sex ratio of males to females is generally equal.
  2. Polygyny (literally many women: "gyn" is the same root word as in gynecologist) is a marriage form where a man has two or more wives. It was probably the preferred marriage form in the majority of the world's cultures. While Americans often view it negatively, in part because they believe it connected to the subjugation of women, women in polygynous cultures often prefer to be in this sort of marriage. Your text points out the advantages to polygyny from a male perspective: more access to women, more children, a larger labor force, and more prestige. For women, the advantages often were companionship (from co-wives) and constant help doing necessary work, including child care. (When women are interviewed in polygynous cultures, they often report encouraging their husbands to obtain a second wife, to reduce the workload.) In addition, a larger labor force provided security as well as prestige for women. (I can think of many situations with regard to child care in our own culture where co-wives would be enormously helpful!) In any event, most horticultural and pastoral societies preferred polygyny, including the Nuer, the Yanomamo, the Tiv, and the traditional Hmong. (Be sure to read required article on polygyny.)
  3. Polyandry (literally many men) is a marriage where a woman has two or more husbands. While preferred in only a few cultures (including Tibet/Nepal in the article When Brothers Share a Wife), polyandry was permitted in many others. While in certain situations (including Tibet) polyandry allowed families to retain rights to scarce resources, cultural materialists might view it as a means to restrain population growth (see article).

To repeat: please avoid use of the term polygamy. Polygamy means literally "many spouses", and includes both polyandry and polygyny. It is not specific enough for this class, and you should avoid using the term. (The fact that polygamy is assumed to be the same as polygyny by most Americans only demonstrates that most Americans are not very creative, in my view!)

There are two special marriage practices found in many cultures, including the traditional Hmong and the Nuer.

  1. Levirate is a practice where when a woman's husband dies, she marries his brother. This may result in polygyny if the brother is already married.
  2. Sororate is a practice where when a man's wife dies, he marries her sister. In a few cultures he should marry the sister even if she already has a husband, and the result would be polyandry.

Post Marital Residency

In addition to the basic marriage forms, you should be aware of cultural expectations as to residency (for the married couple) after marriage. Know the following terms.

  1. Neolocal means literally "new place", and is a form of residency where the new husband and wife are expected to live in a new place of residence, apart from either the husband's family or the wife's family. The United States prefers neolocal residency, although for various reasons (including economics and preference) the couple may end up residing with the bride's or the groom's parents.
  2. Patrilocal residency is where the newly married couple go to live with or near the groom's family. "Family" in this case may include the entire lineage or clan, since patrilocal residency is often found in patrilineal cultures. Of the cultures introduced in this class, patrilocal residency is found among the patrilineal Tiv, traditional Hmong, Nuer, and Yanomamo, as well as the bilateral San.
  3. Matrilocal residency is where the newly married couple go to live with or near the bride's family. Again, this may include the entire lineage or clan, since this form of residency is strongly associated with matrilineal descent. It is also strongly associated (as is matrilineal descent) with horticultural societies. We will not be looking at any matrilineal cultures in this course, but they were common in horitcultural societies in the Americas, Africa, and the Pacific.
  4. Avunculocal residency is a where the newly married couple go to live with or near the groom's mother's brother. It was also found primarily in matrilineal, horticultural societies.