ANTH 203
Kinship as descent
Marriage and Relatedness
Gender and Age
Social systems and networks
• Social structure – an established pattern of rules, customs, and the role of social institutions
• Social organisation – dynamic aspect of structure: where people actually act (make decisions,
perform actions, etc) within the framework of the structure
• Social systems – set of social relations which are regularly actualized and reproduced as systems
through interaction
• Boundaries of a system lie at the points where
interaction decreases dramatically.
What is the ‘scale’ of a society? Let us explore from
Case Noyale (Mauritius)
Group and Grid
• Introduced by Mary Douglas to map the
relationships between individuals and levels
of cohesion within a society
• A possible implication of the model could be
that the people who are not fully integrated
are pathological and the social and symbolic
integration is the ‘aim’ towards which every
society strives.
• Can a society have ‘needs’ and ‘aims’?
Moving together in a good
way
• Ethnography – study of the people
• Moving together in understanding rather than
‘othering’ - a balance between theory and
practice.
• The relationship between people and nature in
‘society-formation’. Do non-human actors
contribute to the making of a society?
• Let’s hear a Filipina anthropologist speak
- How does the language shape our
understanding?
- It is a structural, functional, or structural-
functional approach in studying the relationship
with the ocean?
- How do we ‘map’ relationships?
- Is the individual always integrated within the
making of a society?
The Bajau peoples of the Philippines (photographed in 2017)
“Kinshipology”
• Endogamy and exogamy • Inheritance and succession
• Incest taboo • Lineage and Clan
• Corporate groups of kin • Conical and ‘acephalous’ clans
Tasks from Ch. 7 for Oct 2nd
• When considering kinship networks, can we
explain homosexuality within a strict evolutionary
framework?
• Think about “kinning” for adopted children. How
does anthropology explain this kinship relation?
• Sharing food, making relatives. What makes a kin
a kin?
• Watch: Her name on the Arrows – login through
UofC library site
Marriage and Relatedness
• Marriage is commonly perceived as a relationship
between groups, not primarily between individuals.
• Single partner (homosexual and heterosexual)
marriage, polyandry, polygyny
• Partnered with one person for a lifetime –
monogamous. Multiple partners over time –
polygamous. Multiple partners at one time –
polyamorous
• Dowry and bridewealth
• Levirate and Sororate marriages
Reflect on Ch 8:
• All societies:
• Have rules relating to incest and exogamy
• Have descent-related considerations
• Abide by social systems where mother and child live together during the
first years of the child’s development
• Develop functioning reproductive institutions with rules of inheritance
• Adhere to local organization to safeguard kinship relations
• Have some form of ancestor worship
• Watch : Initiation rites (video through UofC library) – TW: forms of physical
violence portrayed. Viewers are advised to exercise discretion.
• Is kinship relation less-important in modern societies?
The Hadzabe in Tanzania
Gender and Age
• Sex and Gender
• “androcentric” perspectives in
anthropology
• Division of labour in the society
• Men as hunters and women as
gatherers?
• Public/private interests. Some
discrepancy between rules and
practices
• Women perceived as undomesticated,
wild, and difficult to control.
• Women try to enhance their
‘respectability’, while men strive to
improve their ‘reputation’
• Rite of passage as a gendered
construct (recall snippets from the
video on initiation)
• Pictured alongside: men and women
of the Yanomami tribe (Brazil)
Reflect on Ch 9:
• Reflect: Age as a social construct
• Gerantocracies – age-based societies where elders act as decision-makers
• Rites of passage move through: separation – liminality – reintegration
• What is ‘betwixt’ and ‘between’?
• How does age operate as vertical and horizontal principle of differentiation?
• Watch select sections from : Gender roles in childhood (login through UofC library account)
- Values: Gender differences
- Children; Death of a loved one
- Flexible Gender roles