Deck 19: Families, Kinship, and Descent

Question 1

Traditionally,in some areas of the former Yugoslavia,several nuclear families were embedded in an extended family household called a zadruga.Among the Nayar in southern India,it was typical for people to live in matrilineal extended family compounds called tarawads.Descriptions of these two culturally specific cases highlight how

A) children who grow up in stable kin groups are better off than those who don't.
B) the nuclear family is the only stable kin group arrangement.
C) nuclear families are extremely rare in terms of living arrangements.
D) extended family households are an adaptive strategy to extreme poverty.
E) there are many alternatives to the nuclear family.

Answer 1

there are many alternatives to the nuclear family.

Question 2

Although the nuclear family remains a cultural ideal for many Americans,nuclear families accounted for just 20 percent of American households in 2012.In fact,other domestic arrangements outnumber the traditional U.S.household five to one.All of the following are among the reasons for this trend EXCEPT that

A) women are increasingly joining men in the workforce.
B) job demands compete with romantic attachments.
C) divorce rates have risen.
D) it is increasingly economically feasible for women to delay marriage and yet live away from their family of orientation.
E) contrary to expectations, the importance of kinship is growing in contemporary nations.

Answer 2

contrary to expectations, the importance of kinship is growing in contemporary nations.

Question 3

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 one-in 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.

Answer 3

Kin terms are the words used for different relatives in a particular language, but genealogical kin types refers to the actual genealogical relationship.

Question 4

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.

Question 5

Contemporary North American adults usually define their families as consisting of their husbands or wives and their children.In contrast,when middle-class Brazilians talk about their families,they mean their parents,siblings,aunts,uncles,grandparents,and on,down to their children.They rarely mention the spouse.Which of the following is among the reasons for this stark cultural contrast?

A) Brazilians readily incorporate strangers into their social worlds.
B) North Americans value independence over their family.
C) North Americans have more choices about where they can live, and they have chosen to live away from their relatives.
D) Brazilians live in a less mobile society and so stay in closer contact with their relatives, including members of their extended family, than do North Americans.
E) Brazilians have purely economic relationships with their spouses.

Question 6

What postmarital residence rule is most often found in societies with lineal kinship terminologies?

A) ambilocal
B) neolocal
C) patrilocal
D) matrilocal
E) bilocal

Question 7

In North America,the relatively high incidence of expanded family households in the lower class is

A) the reason why the families of lower-class urbanites are dysfunctional.
B) an important strategy the urban poor use to adapt to poverty.
C) maladaptive, since poor families should be smaller in order to cut down on expenses.
D) caused by bifurcate merging, a practice brought to the United States by Irish immigrants during the early part of the 20^th century.
E) the result of enduring cultural ties to Europe.

Question 8

A unilineal descent group whose members demonstrate their common descent from an apical ancestor is a(n)

A) clan.
B) lineage.
C) extended family.
D) family of procreation.
E) family of orientation.

Question 9

Which term refers to the family in which a child is raised?

A) family of procreation
B) family of orientation
C) family of nucleation
D) genealogical family
E) family of kin

Question 10

Understanding kinship systems is an important part of anthropology because

A) it provides an objective, universal perspective on how people are related to one another.
B) kinship ties are important to the people anthropologists study; they are a key component of people's everyday social relations.
C) their study is part of the anthropological tradition established by the field's pioneers.
D) kinship ties are what triggered the split between the hominin line and the rest of the primates and is thus the defining aspect of our humanity.
E) it is the only aspect of anthropological study that the general public cares about.

Question 11

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

Question 12

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

Question 13

What is the most common system of kinship classification used in the United States?

A) bifurcate merging
B) lineal
C) bifurcate collateral
D) generational
E) patrilineal

Question 14

The Barí 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.

Question 15

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.

Question 16

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

Question 17

What are the two basic social units of foraging societies?

A) the band and the clan
B) the lineage and the nuclear family
C) the extended family and the clan
D) the nuclear family and the band
E) the band and the extended family

Question 18

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

Question 19

In Arembepe,Brazil,a degree of community solidarity was promoted by the myth that everyone was kin.However,social solidarity was actually much less developed in Arembepe than in societies with clans and lineages.Why?

A) Intense social solidarity requires not a myth but a biologically grounded genealogy that shows people's actual relatedness.
B) Arembepeiros who became successful were bound by social obligation to share their wealth. This powerful leveling mechanism worked against social solidarity.
C) In societies with clans and lineages, social solidarity is much more developed, because they have more elaborate kinship rituals than Arembepeiros do.
D) Intense social solidarity is possible only in societies having homogeneous ancestry. In Arembepe, high ethnic diversity weakens kinship ties.
E) Intense social solidarity demands that some people be excluded. By asserting they were all related-that is, by excluding no one-Arembepeiros were actually weakening kinship's potential strength in creating and maintaining group solidarity.

Question 20

What is the name of the postmarital residence pattern in which the married couple is expected to establish their own home?

A) neolocality
B) patrilocality
C) matrilocality
D) ambilocality
E) uxorilocality

Question 21

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.

Question 22

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

Question 23

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

Question 24

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

Question 25

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.

Question 26

Which of the following kin types is NOT ego's lineal relative?

A) M
B) B
C) MM
D) F
E) FF

Question 27

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

Question 28

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

Question 29

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

Question 30

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.

Question 31

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

Question 32

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

Question 33

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

Question 34

Which of the following does NOT belong to ego's matrilineage?

A) FM
B) B
C) ZS
D) MB
E) M

Question 35

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

Question 36

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

Question 37

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

Question 38

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

Question 39

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.

Question 40

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

Question 41

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

Question 42

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

Question 43

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

Question 44

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?

Question 45

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

Question 46

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.

Question 47

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

Question 48

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

Question 49

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

Question 50

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

Question 51

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

Question 52

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?

Question 53

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?

Question 54

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.

Question 55

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

Question 56

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?

Question 57

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

Question 58

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

Question 59

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

Question 60

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