Deck 11: Where Do Our Relatives Come From and Why Do They Matter

Question 1

The socially recognized ties that connect people in a variety of different ways are called

A) Affinity.
B) Friendship.
C) Kinship.
D) Relatedness.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

According to Benedict Anderson, "imagined communities" are

A) Groups whose members' knowledge of one another does not come from regular face-to-face interactions but is based on shared experiences with national institutions such as schools and government bureaucracies.
B) All communities larger than primordial villages of face-to-face contact (and perhaps even these).
C) Social groups that have existed since the beginning of time.
D) Both a and b

Answer 2

D

Question 3

The line between kinship and friendship is often blurry because

A) Kin sometimes like one another and do things together that friends also do.
B) Sometimes friends come to be seen after a long time as being related.
C) Ties to relatives can be activated because relatives like each other, not just because there are tasks to accomplish.
D) All of the above.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Which of the following observations about kinship is stressed by the authors of the text?

A) Different societies have chosen to highlight some features of the universal human experiences of mating, birth, and nurturance while downplaying or ignoring others.
B) Kinship is reducible to biology.
C) Patrilineal descent makes more sense than matrilineal descent, given what is known about mating and birth.
D) Kinship is a difficult and complex set of rules that societies follow.

Question 5

In addition to establishing links between generations through descent, kinship serves to establish

A) Legitimacy of children.
B) Residence rules.
C) Inheritance patterns.
D) All of the above.

Question 6

The study of kinship became important in anthropology because

A) Kinship could be reduced to biology and thus could make cross-cultural comparison objective.
B) It showed how people could maintain social order without the institution of the state.
C) It enabled anthropologists to explain why some societies had remained primitive and others had advanced.
D) Kinship no longer existed in Western societies.

Question 7

The central person around which any kinship diagram is organized is known as

A) Ego.
B) Cross-cousin.
C) Parallel cousin.
D) Mother's brother's daughter.

Question 8

Kinship relationships derived from mating are called

A) Descent.
B) Marriage.
C) Adoption.
D) Matriliny.

Question 9

Kinship relationships based on birth are called

A) Descent.
B) Marriage.
C) Adoption.
D) Matriliny.

Question 10

Kinship relations based on nurturance are called

A) Descent.
B) Marriage.
C) Adoption.
D) Matriliny.

Question 11

The North American kinship term aunt refers to

A) A woman who occupies a unique biological position.
B) A woman who may be related to us in one of two different ways.
C) A woman who may be related to us in one of four different ways.
D) A kin category that is recognized in all human kinship systems.

Question 12

The Chilean kinship term tía refers to

A) A person's mother's sister or father's sister.
B) Female friends of a child's parents.
C) Any older woman.
D) Both a and b

Question 13

The cultural principle that defines social categories though culturally recognized parent-child connections is known as

A) Affinity.
B) Bilaterality.
C) Consanguinity.
D) Descent.

Question 14

Western explorers discovered that some non-Western people use the same kin term to refer to father and father's brother. The explorers concluded that these people

A) Did not know who their real fathers were.
B) Believed that father and father's brother had the same social significance.
C) Practiced group marriage.
D) Both a and c

Question 15

Which of the following distinguishes a bilateral kindred from a lineage?

A) Kindreds have overlapping memberships, whereas lineages do not.
B) Lineages are descent groups, whereas kindreds are not.
C) Membership in a kindred is traced through only one parent, whereas membership in a lineage is traced through both parents.
D) Membership in a kindred is traced through females, whereas membership in a lineage is traced through males.

Question 16

A kindred is composed of

A) Those people linked to Ego through men only.
B) Those people linked to Ego through Ego's mother and Ego's father.
C) Those people linked to Ego on the father's side only.
D) Everyone related to Ego by consanguinity and affinity.

Question 17

A unilineage can be

A) Matrilineal.
B) Patrilineal.
C) Bilateral.
D) Either a or b

Question 18

A descent group formed by people who can specify their connections to one another through parent-child links to a common ancestor is a

A) Lineage.
B) Clan.
C) Tribe.
D) Moiety.

Question 19

A descent group formed by members who believe they have a common (sometimes mythical) ancestor is a

A) Lineage.
B) Clan.
C) Tribe.
D) Moiety.

Question 20

Which of the following would NOT belong to a man's patrilineage?

A) His sister's son.
B) His father's brother's daughter.
C) His father's sister.
D) His sister.

Question 21

Which of the following sets of people belong to the same patrilineage?

A) A father-his son-his son's daughter.
B) A woman-her brother-her mother.
C) A man-his father's sister-his father's sister's son.
D) A woman-her father-her son.

Question 22

Which of the following would NOT belong to a man's matrilineage?

A) His daughter.
B) His mother.
C) His sister.
D) His sister's son.

Question 23

Which of the following people belong to the same matrilineage?

A) A man-his mother's brother-his mother's brother's daughter.
B) A woman-her mother-her son.
C) A woman-her brother-her brother's daughter.
D) A man-his sister-his father.

Question 24

Matrilineages have long been misunderstood by Westerners because we assume

A) The existence of male dominance.
B) The existence of hierarchy.
C) That women never have social power.
D) All of the above.

Question 25

The prototypical kernel of a matrilineage is the

A) Father-son pair.
B) Mother-daughter pair.
C) Sister-brother pair.
D) Brother-mother's brother pair.

Question 26

The prototypical kernel of a patrilineage is the

A) Father-son pair.
B) Mother-daughter pair.
C) Sister-brother pair.
D) Brother-mother's brother pair.

Question 27

Among the Nuer, if a quarrel erupted between members of different minor lineages, it would ordinarily be resolved when the quarreling minor lineages recognized that they were all part of the same major lineage. This process is called

A) Lineality.
B) Segmentary opposition.
C) The patrilineal puzzle.
D) Clanship.

Question 28

The expression "patrilineal puzzle" refers to which of the following situations?

A) Men live with their mother's brothers, but inherit from their fathers.
B) Women who are not lineage members produce the children who perpetuate the lineage.
C) Men who are not lineage members produce the children who perpetuate the lineage.
D) Men inherit from their mother's brothers, but live with their fathers.

Question 29

The expression "matrilineal puzzle" refers to which of the following situations?

A) Men live with their mother's brothers, but inherit from their fathers.
B) Women who are not lineage members are relied on to produce the children who perpetuate the lineage.
C) Men who are not lineage members are relied on to produce the children who perpetuate the lineage.
D) Men inherit from their mother's brothers, but live with their fathers.

Question 30

Kinship terminologies suggest

A) The boundaries of the significant groups in the society.
B) Where cleavages within groups are likely to occur.
C) The structure of rights and obligations assigned to different members of the society.
D) All of the above.

Question 31

The kinship tie created by marriage is called

A) Collaterality.
B) Bifurcation.
C) Affinity.
D) Consanguinity.

Question 32

The kinship tie created by birth is called

A) Collaterality.
B) Bifurcation.
C) Affinity.
D) Consanguinity.

Question 33

The distinction made between kin who are believed to be in a direct line and those who are off to one side is called

A) Collaterality.
B) Bifurcation.
C) Affinity.
D) Consanguinity.

Question 34

The distinction made between the mother's side of the family and the father's side of the family is called

A) Collaterality.
B) Bifurcation.
C) Affinity.
D) Consanguinity.

Question 35

In the vocabulary of kinship studies, father's brother's children or mother's sister's children are called

A) Parallel cousins.
B) Cross-cousins.
C) First cousins.
D) Second cousins.

Question 36

In the vocabulary of kinship studies, father's sister's children and mother's brother's children are called

A) Parallel cousins.
B) Cross-cousins.
C) First cousins.
D) Second cousins.

Question 37

What happens if a male Ego lives in a society practicing asymmetrical exchange marriage and his mother's brother does not have a daughter?

A) He remains unmarried.
B) His mother's brother is forced to adopt a daughter of marriageable age.
C) He is forced to emigrate.
D) He must marry an appropriate woman born to a man of his mother's lineage.

Question 38

Social statuses into which people are born are called

A) Achieved statuses.
B) Ascribed statuses.
C) Noble statuses.
D) High statuses.

Question 39

People may enter freely into relationships and are equally free to specify the nature of the rights and obligations between them in societies organized on the basis of

A) Status.
B) Role.
C) Contract.
D) Sodality.

Question 40

Social statuses that people attain by their own efforts are called

A) Achieved statuses.
B) Ascribed statuses.
C) Noble statuses.
D) High statuses.

Question 41

"Daughter" and "son" are examples of

A) Ascribed statuses.
B) Achieved statuses.
C) Contractual statuses.
D) Innate statuses.

Question 42

"Good hunter" or "good gatherer" are examples of

A) Ascribed statuses.
B) Achieved statuses.
C) Noble statuses.
D) Innate statuses.

Question 43

Enduring kin ties in Zumbagua, Ecuador, are

A) Achieved.
B) Ascribed.
C) Unusual.
D) Both a and b

Question 44

In Zumbagua, Ecuador, a family is defined as

A) Mother, father, and unmarried children.
B) Mother and children.
C) Those who share the same father.
D) Those who eat together.

Question 45

In Zumbagua, Ecuador, a woman's biological tie to her offspring is

A) Given greater weight than a man's biological tie to his offspring.
B) Given equal weight to a man's biological tie to his offspring.
C) Given less weight than a man's biological tie to his offspring.
D) Ignored.

Question 46

Among the Ju/'hoansi, every individual in the society can be linked to every other individual by

A) Residence.
B) Lineage membership.
C) Friendship and cooperative work groups.
D) A kinship term.

Question 47

For the Ju/'hoansi, kinship connections are

A) Negotiated.
B) Manipulated through the principle of wi.
C) Continually changing over the course of a lifetime.
D) All of the above.

Question 48

Which of the following is NOT a way to become a "younger brother" among the Iñupiaq?

A) Having an older sibling whose mother is the same as yours.
B) Being adopted by someone with a child older than you are.
C) Having a parent who once had an acknowledged sexual relationship with a parent of someone who is older than you are.
D) Having eaten food prepared at the same fire as someone who is older than you are.

Question 49

Names among the Iñupiat are

A) Important because names contain personal essence that attaches to the baby who gets the name.
B) Given because someone sees something in the baby that indicates a direct connection with someone who is deceased.
C) The way of establishing how the new bearer of the name will be related to the relatives of the person who gives the name.
D) All of the above are true of names among the Iñupiat.

Question 50

To say that kinship among the Iñupiat is based on agency means that

A) People who do the parenting are the parents.
B) Only people in a direct consanguineal line are related to one another.
C) Biological relatedness takes precedence over all other forms of relatedness.
D) No one is really related to anyone else.

Question 51

Recent court decisions in the United States involving the paternal rights of unwed presumed fathers established that

A) Paternity rights are biologically based.
B) Paternity rights depend on his legally adopting the children.
C) Paternity rights depend on his establishing an ongoing relationship with the child's mother.
D) The biological mother has to acknowledge a man as her child's father before he has any rights.

Question 52

In the Calvert case, which involved gestational surrogacy, the court declared that Anna Johnson, who gave birth to the baby, was

A) The legal mother.
B) The adoptive mother.
C) The biological mother.
D) A genetic hereditary stranger.

Question 53

According to Janet Dolgin, all the custody cases she reviewed were alike in that they awarded custody to

A) Those parties whose living arrangements came closest to that of the traditional U.S. middle-class, two-parent family.
B) Both biological parents.
C) The biological mother instead of the biological father.
D) The parent, biological or adoptive, who had actually taken care of the child.

Question 54

According to Marilyn Strathern, the new reproductive technologies make clear that, in European American societies,

A) Kinship relations remain nonnegotiable.
B) Even the world of natural facts is subject to social intervention.
C) Kinship relations are negotiable.
D) Both b and c

Question 55

In the Latin American practice of ritual coparenthood called compadrazgo, the most important relationship is between

A) The baptized child and the child's godparents.
B) The parents of the baptized child and the child's godparents.
C) The baptized child and the children of the child's godparents.
D) The parents of the baptized child and the godparents' children.

Question 56

According to the anthropologist Susan Martha Kahn, Jewish ideas about kinship

A) Are just like European American ideas about kinship.
B) Assign a central role to genetic relatedness.
C) Are remarkably stable and uniform, no matter which Jewish population is studied.
D) Are none of the above.

Question 57

Assisted reproduction has played a very different role in Israel than it has played in the United States because

A) Israelis in general are pronatalist.
B) Israeli national health insurance programs subsidize access to reproductive technologies for all women, married or not.
C) Jews of all backgrounds endorse the idea that Jewishness is passed on to children matrilineally.
D) All of the above.

Question 58

Given Jewish ideas about kinship, which of the following describes a consequence for assisted reproductive practices in Israel?

A) The specific identity and origin of sperm is conceptualized as irrelevant to Jewish reproduction.
B) Legitimate Jewish children can be conceived by unmarried Jewish women as well as by infertile Jewish couples.
C) Anonymous non-Jews who donate sperm can contribute to the reproduction of legitimate Jews.
D) All of the above.

Question 59

According to the anthropologist Lesley Sharp, which of the following statements is correct?

A) Kin of organ donors rarely get along with organ recipients because they refuse to acknowledge that a donor organ can belong to any body except the one in which it originally grew.
B) Donor kin and recipients alike share the understanding that transplanted organs, as donor fragments, carry with them some essence of their former selves that persists in the new recipient body.
C) Donor kin and recipients face questions such as whether donor kin have postmortem "visiting rights" to the transplanted organs of their relatives.
D) All of the above.

Question 60

Which of the following is an important new kinship status that Sharp found developing among donor kin and organ recipients?

A) Donor son.
B) Donor daughter.
C) Donor mother.
D) Donor father.

Question 61

Sharp offers an example of Sally, a widow in her mid-50s, whose son's heart had been transplanted into the body of Larry, a married man in his late 60s. Why, in Sharp's view, did the role of donor mother become so important for Sally and Larry, once they got to know each other?

A) It helped them deal with the "adulterous" overtones in their relationship.
B) It helped them deal with the "incestuous" overtones in their relationship.
C) Larry had never known his own mother.
D) Both a and b are true.

Question 62

Symbolically important goods transferred from the family of the groom to the family of the bride in exchange for the loss of the bride's labor and childbearing capacity are called

A) Bridewealth.
B) Bloodwealth.
C) Dowry.
D) Ransom.

Question 63

A transfer of family wealth, usually from parents to their daughter, at the time of her marriage, is called

A) Bridewealth.
B) Bloodwealth.
C) Dowry.
D) Ransom.

Question 64

When a woman dies among the people of Mount Hagen, New Guinea, she is believed to continue to influence the fortunes of

A) Her own clan, as a ghostly sister.
B) Her husband's clan, as a ghostly mother.
C) Nobody, because Hageners do not believe in ghosts.
D) Both a and b

Question 65

A husband, a wife, and their children form a(n)

A) Conjugal family.
B) Extended family.
C) Natural family.
D) Standard family.

Question 66

A nonconjugal family consists of

A) Siblings who live together, regardless of where their parents live.
B) A woman and her children.
C) A man and a woman who live together but are not legally married.
D) A husband and wife who no longer have sexual relations but still have children living with them.

Question 67

For anthropologists, a nuclear family is made up of

A) A married couple.
B) A married couple and their children.
C) The line of people who are directly related to one another: grandparents, parents, and children.
D) A bilateral kindred.

Question 68

Which of the following statements describes polygynous Mende households?

A) Wives are ranked by order of marriage.
B) Mende men and women agree that wives from high-status families outrank wives from lower-status families.
C) Serious problems arise if a husband shows favoritism toward a wife higher in the marriage ranking and neglects a wife from a high-status family.
D) Both b and c are true.

Question 69

Which of the following statements describes the relationship of Mende women toward their children?

A) A Mende woman's children will inherit from her brother, so she closely monitors how well her brother looks out for her children.
B) A Mende woman's principal claim to her husband's land or cash comes through her children.
C) Mende women have access to their own sources of wealth apart from husband and children.
D) Traditional Mende inheritance rules ordinarily leave widows well enough off to live comfortably on their own, without depending on other kin.

Question 70

Which of the following statements describes the attitude of Mende women toward the education of their children?

A) They favor informal instruction in traditional Mende customs to formal schooling.
B) They care about their children's formal education because better-educated children earn more, and Mende women depend on their children to support them in old age.
C) They are more concerned to educate their daughters than their sons, because educated daughters bring in more bridewealth when they marry.
D) They believe that husbands should pay for their wives' education first, so the women can support themselves and pay for their children's education if the husband dies.

Question 71

Families in which several generations live together in a single household are called

A) Nuclear families.
B) Extended families.
C) Joint families.
D) Traditional families.

Question 72

In Guider, a Muslim woman can escape from marriage by

A) Engaging in secondary marriage.
B) Petitioning local authorities to grant her a divorce.
C) Making her husband's life so unpleasant that he grants her a divorce.
D) None of the above; in Guider, divorce is impossible.

Question 73

In ancient Rome, divorce was impossible because

A) At marriage, a woman lost her membership in the patrilineage into which she was born.
B) At marriage, a woman was incorporated into the lineage of her husband.
C) The Romans always married within the boundaries of a clan, so that husbands and wives could never cut the kinship ties that bound them to each other.
D) Both a and b

Question 74

Which of the following statements describes divorce among the Ju/'hoansi?

A) Divorce was impossible.
B) Divorce was possible only if husbands repaid the bridewealth in full.
C) Divorce was possible only if no children had been born to the married couple.
D) Mutual consent was all that was required for divorce to occur.

Question 75

Which of the following statements describes divorce among the Inuit?

A) Divorce was impossible.
B) Married partners who had been living apart could reactivate their marriage simply by beginning to live together again.
C) When a married couple split up and the partners remarried, the consequence was more, not fewer, affinal connections.
D) All of the above are true.

Question 76

A family type created when previously divorced or widowed people marry, bringing with them children from their previous marriages, is called a

A) Blended family.
B) Expanded family.
C) Joint family.
D) Neonuclear family.

Question 77

Which of the following statements describes the migrant families from the Dominican Republic studied by Eugenia Georges?

A) The most common pattern was for nuclear families with small children to migrate to New York together.
B) Usually, wives went to New York first while their husbands stayed in the Dominican Republic.
C) Usually, husbands went to New York first while their wives stayed in the Dominican Republic.
D) It was rare for any of the migrants to New York to try to bring other relatives to stay with them there.

Question 78

In Eugenia Georges's study, what was the most typical way in which the migration cycle from the Dominican Republic to New York ended?

A) The married couple in New York broke off ties to their families in the Dominican Republic and never returned.
B) Husbands brought wives and children to live with them in New York, where they all settled permanently.
C) Husbands occasionally returned to the Dominican Republic, but wives and children usually refused to return once they were settled in New York.
D) After several years in the United States, the married couple who initiated the migration cycle would take their savings and return home to the Dominican Republic.

Question 79

Which of the following statements describes the way migrants from Los Pinos handled the burden of separation from their families in the Dominican Republic?

A) The burden eventually grew so heavy that husbands stopped writing or telephoning their families, leaving their wives and children in Los Pinos on their own.
B) The burden of separation was lightened by frequent communication, by visiting, and by the continued role of husband as breadwinner and main decision maker.
C) The divorce rate in migrant families was much higher than the divorce rate in families that remained in Los Pinos.
D) Both a and c are true.

Question 80

In the 1980s, some gays and lesbians began to argue that

A) Blood is thicker than water.
B) Family members are people you can count on emotionally and materially.
C) Whatever endures is real.
D) Both b and c