ANT 3302 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Ambilineality, Unilineality, Cousin Marriage
Document Summary
Publically recognized membership in a group requiring lineal descent from a real or mythical ancestor. Restricted by: locality, choice, making sex jurally relevant- instead of tracing back to a common ancestor people can align themselves with one sex or another. Among native americans in the us: weak ties exist between husband and wife, mother"s brother dominant in family unit. Brother plays larger role in the children"s life than father does. Sources of tension in patrilineal descent groups: requirement for younger men to defer to older men. Younger men don"t want to listen to older men: requirement for women to defer to men, as well as to the women of a household they marry into. She has to work her way up to totem pole. Sources of tension in matrilineal descent groups: husband"s authority lies not in his own household but in that of his sister, unsatisfactory marriages may be ended easily, resulting in higher divorce rates than patrilineal societies.
