Marriage and the Family

What We Will Learn

• Is the family found in all cultures?
• What functions do family and marriage
systems perform?
• Why do all societies have incest
taboos?
• What economic considerations are
associated with marriage in the world’s
contemporary societies?
Definition of Family
• Social unit characterized by:
• economic cooperation

• management of reproduction

• child rearing

• common residence.

• a male and female adult who maintain

a socially approved sexual relationship
Marriage Defined
• Customs formalizing the relationship
between male and female adults within
the family.
• Regulates the sexual and economic rights
and obligations between a married couple.
• Usually involves an explicit contract or
understanding and is entered into with the
assumption that it will be permanent.
Same Sex Marriage
• The legality of same
sex marriage remains
a contentious issue in
the United States.
Social Functions of Marriage
• Creates relationships between men and
women that regulate mating and
reproduction.
• Provides a mechanism for regulating the
sexual division of labor.
• Creates a set of family relationships that
provides for the material, educational, and
emotional needs of children.
The Family

• The family, such as this one in Japan, provides

a structured environment that supports and
meets the needs of children.
Incest Taboos: Theories
• Natural Aversion - there is a natural
aversion to sexual intercourse among
those who have grown up together.
• Inbreeding - mating between close kin
produces a higher incidence of genetic
defects.
Incest Taboos: Theories
• Family Disruption– mating between
family members would create intense
jealousies.
• Expanding Social Alliances - marrying
outside the family creates a wider network
of interfamily alliances.
Restrictions on Marriage
Partners
Cultures restrict choice of marriage partners
through:
• Exogamy
• Endogamy
• Arranged marriages
• Preferential cousin marriage
• Levirate and sororate
Restrictions on Marriage
Partners
• Exogamy
• A rule requiring marriage outside of
one’s own social or kinship group.
• Endogamy
• A rule requiring marriage within a
specified social or kinship group.
Marrying Cousins
• Charles Darwin
(1809–1882), the
author of Origin of
Species, had ten
children with his wife,
who was also his first
cousin.
Interracial Marriage
• At one time in the United
States, interracial
marriage was against the
law.
• Although these laws no
longer exist, the majority
of Blacks and Whites in
the United States
continue to practice racial
endogamy.
Arranged Marriage
• Any marriage in which the selection of the
spouse is outside the control of the bride
and groom.
Preferential Cousin Marriage
• A preferred form of marriage between
either parallel or cross cousins.
• Cross cousins
• Children of one’s mother’s brother or
father’s sister.
• Parallel cousins
• Children of one’s mother’s sister or
father’s brother.
Levirate and Sororate
• Levirate
• The practice of a man marrying the
widow of a deceased brother.
• Sororate
• The practice of a woman marrying the
husband of her deceased sister.
Number of Spouses
Marriage of one man to one
Monogamy
woman.

Marriage of a man to two or

Polygyny
more women.

Marriage of a woman to two or

Polyandry
more men.
Polygyny
• A man from the
Rashaida Tribe in
Eritrea travels by
camel while his three
wives walk.
 Polygyny

• Tom Green, a 21st century polygynist from

Utah, posing with his five wives and some of his
twenty-nine children.
Marriage: Transfer of Rights
• Marriage often includes the transfer of
certain rights between the marrying
parties:
• Rights of sexual access.

• Legal rights to children.

• Rights of spouses to each other’s

economic goods and services.
Economic Transactions of
Marriage
• Bridewealth
• Bride service
• Dowry
• Reciprocal exchange
Bridewealth
• Compensation given upon marriage by the
family of the groom to the family of the bride.
• Approximately 46% of all societies give
substantial bridewealth payment as part of the
marriage process.
• Bridewealth is most widely found in Africa,
where it is estimated that 82% of societies
require the payment of bridewealth.
Marriage Transactions

• Among the Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania,

cows are used as the medium of exchange in
marriage transactions.
Bride Service
• Men give labor to the bride’s family in
exchange for a wife.
• He often moves in with his bride’s family,
works or hunts for them, and serves a
probationary period of several weeks to
several years.
• Found in approximately 14% of societies.
Dowry
• Transfer of goods or money from bride’s
family to the groom or the groom’s family.
• Practiced in less than 3% of societies.
• If the marriage ended in divorce, the
woman was entitled to take the dowry
with her.
Dowry
• Family members of a
Kazakh bride-to-be
carry her dowry on
camels in Xinjiang,
China.
Reciprocal Exchange
• Involves the roughly equal exchange of
gifts between the families of both the
bride and the groom.
• Found in approximately 6% of the
societies listed in Murdock’s Ethnographic
Atlas, most prominently in the Pacific
region and among traditional Native
Americans.
Divorce
• Like approximately
half of all marriages
in the United States,
the marriage of Brad
Pitt and Jennifer
Aniston ended in
divorce.
Divorce Across Cultures
• Divorce arrangements found in the many
cultures of the world vary widely.
• Organizations such as the Roman
Catholic Church prohibit divorce
outright.
• A Hopi woman from Arizona could
divorce her husband easily by simply
putting his belongings outside the door.
Divorce Rates in the United
States, 1950 to 2000
Divorce Rate/1000
Year
Population
1950 2.6
1960 2.2
1970 3.5
1980 5.2
1990 4.7
2000 4.2
Factors in the Rising U.S.
Divorce Rate
• Industrialization and urbanization have
undermined traditional functions of the family.
• Less time spent with family members and less
willingness to make sacrifices for the good of
the family.
• Western culture emphasizes romantic love as
the basis for marriage.
• Less stigma attached to divorce than in the
past.
Marriage Residence Patterns
• Patrilocal (69%)
• Couple lives with or near relatives of
the husband’s father.
• Matrilocal (13%)
• Couple lives with or near the relatives
of the wife.
Marriage Residence Patterns
• Avunculocal (4%)
• Couple lives with or near the husband’s
mother’s brother.
• Ambilocal (9%)
• Couple has a choice of living with relatives of
the wife or the husband.
• Neolocal (5%)
• Couple forms independent residence away
from relatives.
Family Structures
• Nuclear family – Comprises wife,
husband, and children
• Extended family – A larger social unit,
comprising relatives from three or more
generations.
Nuclear Family
• What type of
residence pattern is
followed by this North
American nuclear
family?
Extended Family

• An extended family gathering in Henan

Province, China.
Marital Status of U.S.
Population: 1980 –1999
1980 1990 1995 1999
Never
20.3 22.2 22.9 23.9
Married
59.5
Married 65.5 61.9 60.9

6.7
Widowed 8.0 7.6 7.0

9.9
Divorced 6.2 8.3 9.2