Onka's Big Maka Research Paper

Preference, superiority, selection and devotion keep monogamous marriage a social institution. Clearly, marriage degenerates when these characteristic traits are not present. In order to have a true monogamous marriage, a man would have to mark the woman he married as superior. However, this cannot be implicitly true. It is evident that some people should not be parents, and should not raise children so there are clearly some flaws in this relationship among society in these social institutions.

Marriage plays an essential part in lives of !Kung women. Marjorie Shostack in depth describes each step of Nisa’s life in her book “The Life and Words of a ! Kung Woman”. Nisa, a fifty year old !Kung San woman, tells about her numerous marriages, husbands and lovers. Nisa vividly described the relationships between men and women. Furthermore, she states that children become aware of sex at a young age because the children share a single hut with their parents. In the !Kung society, first marriages are arranged by the parents. Girls at this point are rather young, whereas males are twenty to thirty. In order for a boy to get marred it’s necessary for him to gain a hunting skill. These marriages are called “trial marriages.” The outcome of the first marriages is usually a divorce, initiated by the girls due to pressure from their husbands to have a sexual intercourse.

The practice of matrilineal kinship is considered a myth by some cultures, but it is indeed very real for the Musuo of China. Matrilineality is the practice of linear descent through the ancestry of females. Many Western civilizations have a misconception of what is considered normal on a global scale, but many practices do, in fact, differ widely between different cultures. To illustrate this, the Musuo’s traditions and values in regards to marriage and family are based solely on matrilineal kinship, while America’s “melting pot” ideation encourages unilineal descent, in which the ancestry line can be traced to the wife and/or the husband. In the paper I will discuss the cultural nature of the Musuo, and the way that marriage and family norms in Musuo differ from the typical American ideation of family.

but, It is not the most preferred: Monogamy is the ideal and preferred form of marriage in only 81 cultures out of a sample 400cultures.

What is a family? The meaning of family has changed throughout history. It means something different to many people. According to the U.S. Census Bureau: “A family includes a householder and one or more people living in the same household who are related to the householder by birth, marriage, or adoption. All people in a household who are related to the householder are regarded as members of his or her family. A family household may contain people not related to the householder, but those people are not included as part of the householder’s family. Thus, the number of family households is equal to the number of families, but family households may include more members than do families. Not all households

Marriages are faced with symbolic interactionism. Interactions between spouses involves shared understandings of their arrangement( New edu). Often times husbands and wives have different ways of communicating and social class affects expectations that spouses have of their marriages (New edu). Often times, love is the basis for American marriages but it is not like that is many countries around the world. Polygyny, polyandry, monogamy, and group marriages are types of marriages that are practiced in different parts of the globe.

There are many forms of families around the world. The structure of these families are influenced by the culture around them. Family is defined as "two or more people related by blood, marriage or adoption. The family may take many forms, ranging from a single parent with one or more children, to a married couple or polygamist spouses with or without offspring, to several generations of parents and their children” (226). There are many functions of the family unit around the world.

A family consists of a group of interacting individuals related by blood, marriage, cohabitation, or adoption who interdependently perform relevant functions by fulfilling expected roles. (Edelman, Kudzma, & Mandle, 2014, p. 150)

The anthropological definition that our book gives for marriage is a culturally sanctioned union between two or more people that establishes certain rights and obligations between the people, between them and their children, and between them and their-n-laws. Yet we see in many cultures the women are not always equal in marital decision. Polygamy which is a person having more than one spouse has brought a lot of abuse towards women who marry due to obligation or culture, as we see in the movie Raise the Red Lantern. We will review through the movie Raise the Red Lantern how some cultures disregards women, insecurity, and responsibility to family duties has both impacted young women all over the world for centuries both positively and negatively.

According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, "A family consists of a domestic group of people (or a number of domestic groups), typically affiliated by birth or marriage, or by comparable legal relationships-including domestic partnership, adoption, surname and (in some cases) ownership.

It is the idea of who people are and where they came from. Family can influence how a person is brought up in the society of today. When people think of family, usually it is very typical to see one man and one woman with a couple of children. However, this is not the ‘typical family’ as there are families with two dads, two moms, only one parent, families with relatives staying with them, and extended ones with step parents and siblings.

In the modern world people rely on organizations and systems for prosperity, insurance, etc. In most of African societies like the Hofriyat, kinship still plays a major role in being social security, health care and so on relying on the relationship with relatives and friends. Marriage became perceived as an important factor since it forms the basic source of personal identity and economic advantages (Boddy 2007, p.61). Collective interest between individuals is pursued through marriages arranged by the parents while subordinating the sexuality of young women and men to comply with the interest of the social group according to the elders (Boddy 2007, 62). In Hofriyat society, sexual absence is a matter of family honors. Failure to comply with this norm can lead to the family losing honor and the risk of jeopardizing the chances of getting married, which will affect its economic statues, political leverage and continuity of family line (Boddy 2007, 62). Looking at this aspect it is not surprising that honor is mostly assigned in relations to young women. Men are also restricted to some behaviors, however women lives are more cautiously patrolled (Boddy 2007, 62). This does not mean that women are powerless, as an act of force is too considerate shameful, subordinates must desire to act properly. Women misbehavior is an

Herd size (cattle) is an important factor here, as it indicates economic status and social prestige and cattle are used as a payment for brides. Marriages are arranged and wives must move to the male’s village and become completely dependent on him, her new husband. Divorce is rare but men are allowed to marry polygynously. Only a few men however, were able to attain more than one wife because bride wealth was costly. In order for men to marry again, he would devote many years to saving bride wealth payment. Resources are shared equally among wives, with each wife having her own separate hut. As with most societies, the birth of a male is preferred and is associated with great respect; the wife that bears the first male will receive favourable treatment over the co-wives. It is important to note that first wives are acquired at an earlier age (high brideprice) and spend most of her reproductive years in a monogamous union. This is important because she will receive greater amount of offsprings and greater care. The article explains the most asked question of “why marry a married man”? The population of this region is unfortunately female biased, which contributes to the lack of options that a female has for marriage. The parents of these female prefer to marry their daughters to an already married man who has some status given that

Monogamy is also defined in the textbook as a marriage in which both partners have just one spouse. Monogamy is a legal form of marriage in the United States and is common worldwide. Polygamy differs from monogamy because in monogamy marriage a man and woman marries one another with no one in-between besides their children. From the article, “ When Brothers Share a Wife”, three brothers Dorje, Pema, and Sonam are in a joint marriage from a woman from the next village, this form of marriage is called fraternal polyandry. In the Tibetan society fraternal polyandry is the ideal form of marriage and family. In Dorje’s family he is the youngest, 15, his other brother is 22, and the eldest is 25. His wife who is 23 which is an eight year difference, sharing a spouse isn’t so unusual to a female or male and the wife should treat all brothers the same. Age plays a role in which responsibilities each brother receives in the marriage. The youngest doesn’t participate till midteen and the eldest is the dominate in terms of authority. When having children, each offspring refers to each brother as their father, although it’s not their biological one. When one brother decides to leave, children will remain with the remaining brothers in the household. Women in fraternal polyandry marriage have a good economic benefit because she only has to overbear the children

A family can be defined in many ways, but the common denominator in all is the love and fulfillment one gets by being surrounded by family members. Families can sometimes be at odds with each other, but the strain of this type of relationship usually creates an upsetting feeling to the people involved. People want others to rely on, talk to, do things with, share, love, embrace, and be part of. No matter what the family dynamic is the qualities the word family has will remain the same, as time goes by, and life evolves once again for every person living their