Marriage and Post-Marital Residency Terms

In American culture, marriage forms the basis of the kin group called the nuclear family, which
in our culture is the primary group designated for the care and socialization of children.
Hopefully by this time you are familiar (from Lenkeit Chapt. 7) with the basic kin symbols used
by anthropologists, where a triangle indicates a male, a circle a female, and two parallel lines
indicate marriage. (In some texts, a straight line connecting the male and female at the bottom
of each symbol also means marriage, as in diagram on the right, below.)

Marriage

OR 

The nuclear family refers to the husband(s), wife (or wives), and children, own, adopted or
even step, as depicted below:

The nuclear family exists regardless of the marriage form, and regardless of the descent
system (more on this last later). It may or may not be the primary group responsible for care
and socialization of children.

With regard to marriage form or type, there are three terms you need to remember.

1. Monogamy (literally one spouse) refers to the marriage of one woman to one man.
Monogamy is the only marriage form permitted in the United States, although many
other cultures allow other forms. It tends to be the most common form in most cultures,
if for no other reason than that most cultures assume adults will marry and the sex ratio
of males to females is generally equal.
2. Polygyny (literally many women: "gyn" is the same root word as in gynecologist) is a
marriage form where a man has two or more wives. It was probably the preferred
marriage form in the majority of the world's cultures. While Americans often view it
negatively, in part because they believe it connected to the subjugation of women,
women in polygynous cultures often prefer to be in this sort of marriage. Your text
points out the advantages to polygyny from a male perspective: more access to women,
 more children, a larger labor force, and more prestige. For women, the advantages often
were companionship (from co-wives) and constant help doing necessary work,
including child care. (When women are interviewed in polygynous cultures, they often
report encouraging their husbands to obtain a second wife, to reduce the workload.) In
addition, a larger labor force provided security as well as prestige for women. (I can
think of many situations with regard to child care in our own culture where co-wives
would be enormously helpful!) In any event, most horticultural and pastoral societies
preferred polygyny, including the Nuer, the Yanomamo, the Tiv, and the traditional
Hmong. (Be sure to read required article on polygyny.)
3. Polyandry (literally many men) is a marriage where a woman has two or more husbands.
While preferred in only a few cultures (including Tibet/Nepal in the article When
Brothers Share a Wife), polyandry was permitted in many others. While in certain
situations (including Tibet) polyandry allowed families to retain rights to scarce
resources, cultural materialists might view it as a means to restrain population growth
(see article).

Post Marital Residency

In addition to the basic marriage forms, you should be aware of cultural expectations as to
residency (for the married couple) after marriage. Know the following terms.

1. Neolocal means literally "new place", and is a form of residency where the new husband and
wife are expected to live in a new place of residence, apart from either the husband's family or
the wife's family. The United States prefers neolocal residency, although for various reasons
(including economics and preference) the couple may end up residing with the bride's or the
groom's parents.
2. Patrilocal residency is where the newly married couple go to live with or near the groom's
family. "Family" in this case may include the entire lineage or clan, since patrilocal residency is
often found in patrilineal cultures. Of the cultures introduced in this class, patrilocal residency
is found among the patrilineal Tiv, traditional Hmong, Nuer, and Yanomamo, as well as the
bilateral San.
3. Matrilocal residency is where the newly married couple go to live with or near the bride's family.
Again, this may include the entire lineage or clan, since this form of residency is strongly
associated with matrilineal descent. It is also strongly associated (as is matrilineal descent)
with horticultural societies. We will not be looking at any matrilineal cultures in this course, but
they were common in horitcultural societies in the Americas, Africa, and the Pacific.
4. Avunculocal residency is a where the newly married couple go to live with or near the groom's
mother's brother. It was also found primarily in matrilineal, horticultural societies.