UNIT III: INSTITUTIONS AND

STRATIFICATION

CHAPTER 6
C U LT U R A L , S O C I A L , A N D P O L I T I C A L I N S T I T U T I O N S
KINSHIP MARRIAGE AND THE
HOUSELAND
• KINSHIP BY BLOOD

What is the family?

• The family is the basic social institution
and the primary group in the society.
• Descent and Marriage

• Kinship refers to the web of social relationships that

form an essential part of the lives of most humans in
most societies.
• Descent refers to the origin or background of a person
in terms of family or nationality.
• Unilineal Society is one in which the descent of an
individual is reckoned either from the mother’s or the
father’s line of descent.
– Matrilineal
– Patrilineal
– Bilateral
•Marriage an important institutional
element of the family is marriage it
is the cultural mechanism that
ensures its continuity. Marriage is
an institution consisting of a cluster
of mores and folkways, of attitudes,
ideas, and ideals of social
definitions and legal restrictions.
• According to Bowman (1970:72) people
marry for combined reasons: love, economic,
and emotional security, the parent’s desires,
escapes from solitude or forlorn home
situation, money, companionship, protection,
adventure, or common interests. Sex or sexual
attraction is the least consideration, but
marriage makes sexual intercourse legitimate.
It sanctions parenthood and provides a stable
background for rearing children.
• The FAMILY CODE speaks of two
aspects of marriage; as a contract and
as a status. As a contract it applies to
a man and woman only. It is
permanent compared to any other
contracts. The law also prescribes
penal and civil sanctions, like criminal
action, for adultery or concubinage,
legal separation or action for support.
• Requirements:
Must be a male and a female
Minimum age for marriage 18 but
parental consent is necessary for
those below 21 years.
• KINSHIP BY MARRIAGE

• Forms of Marriage:
MONOGAMY - allows or permits a man to
take only one spouse at a time.
POLYGAMY - is a form of plural marriage
and can assume three forms.
Polygyny (man to women)
Polyandry (woman to men)
Group Marriage
SELECTION OF MARRIAGE PARTNERS
• Endogamy – refers to the norm which dictates that one
should marry within one’s clan or ethnic group. (social
class, religion, locality grouping, nationality grouping)
• Exomagy – prescribes that one can marry outside one’s
clan or ethnic group.

• Levirate Norm – prescribes that a widow marry the

brother or the nearest kin of the deceased husband.
"husband's brother“
• Surrogate Norm – prescribes that men should marry the
sister or nearest kin of the deceased wife.
 BASED ON INTERNAL ORGANIZATION OR
MEMBERSHIP: FAMILY STRUCTURES
•Nuclear Family – is the smallest
unit responsible for the preservation
of the value system of society.
•Extended Family – is composed of
two or more nuclear families,
economically and socially related to
each other.
 BASED ON DESCENT
Matrilineal Descent
Patrilineal Descent
Bilateral Descent
 BASED ON RESIDENCE
•Patrilocal residence
•Matrilocal residence
•Bilocal residence
•Neolocal residence
•Avunculocal residence
 BASED ON AUTHORITY

•Patriarchal Family
•Matriarchal Family
•Egalitarian Family
•Matricentric Family
 FUNCTIONS OF FAMILY
• The family regulates sexual behavior and is the unit
for reproduction.
• The family performs the function of biological
maintenance.
• The family is the chief agency in socializing the child.
• The family gives its members status.
• The family is an important mechanism for social
control.
• The family performs economic functions, especially
in the simple societies.
 ACTIVITY #3:

Descent/Anc Forms of Selection of Based on Based on Based on

estry Marriage Marriage internal Residence Authority
Pattern Organizatio
n or
Membership