Week 10 — What Does a Marriage Join? Couples, Residence, and Exchange

Assignment 9 of the term — work four short problems from the kinship set and the market, read them as an anthropologist, and explain marriage exchanges and residence to someone who has them mixed up.

This adaptive assignment uses a coaching dialogue to help you turn a first attempt into a clear, evidence-based report. You remain the author. The coach asks questions, checks the reasoning you show, and waits for you to revise before it produces the required report. This week's lecture tutorial, quiz, discussion, and Ethnography Workshop practise the same ideas from other angles; this assignment is where you put them together. It builds on Week 9's kinship set and descent rules, on Week 6's forms of exchange and the obligations of the gift, and on Week 3's rule to record roles, never names.

The task

The kinship set is a three-generation diagram centred on ego, constructed for this course and describing no real family. Kin-type strings read outward from ego, so FZH is father's sister's husband. The running fieldwork site is an illustrative, unnamed weekly neighborhood farmers' market of 24 stalls. From the set and the market:

• in the parents' generation of the kinship set, ego's father F, his brother FB and sister FZ, and ego's mother M, her brother MB and sister MZ, are each married (FBW, FZH, MBW, MZH, and F and M to each other), so the generation holds 10 positions;
• if the society were patrilineal, F would belong to ego's patrilineage of 8 people (FF, F, FB, FZ, ego, B, Z, and FBS), and M would belong to her own father's (MF's) patrilineage;
• at the family-run stall, the founding grower and her late husband are the first-generation couple; their son and his wife moved onto the family farm after they married, and their daughter and her husband live in town;
• on Visit 1, observers coded 50 exchanges at the market, and 8 of them were generalized reciprocity.

A friend sees your notes and says, "Bridewealth is basically buying a wife, and every married couple moves in with the husband's family anyway." Your job is to answer the way an anthropologist would, starting from a few plain numbers.

Work these four problems, showing your arithmetic:

1. In the illustrative kinship set, the parents' generation holds 10 positions, and every position belongs to a married couple of 2 people. How many married couples are in the parents' generation?
2. At the running fieldwork site, an illustrative farmers' market, the family-run stall has 1 married couple in the first generation and 2 married couples in the second generation. How many married couples does the stall family hold across those two generations?
3. At the illustrative market's family-run stall, 1 of the 2 second-generation couples moved onto the family farm after they married, which is patrilocal in the model's terms. What percent of the 2 second-generation couples are patrilocal?
4. On Visit 1 to the illustrative market, observers coded 50 exchanges, and 8 of them were generalized reciprocity, the kind of giving with no count kept that is usual among close kin. What percent of the 50 coded exchanges were generalized reciprocity?

Beside each answer, add one brief interpretation:

• Problem 1: describe the parents' generation with kin-type strings, naming the five couples (F and M, FB and FBW, FZ and FZH, MB and MBW, MZ and MZH) and the four in-married spouses (FBW, FZH, MBW, MZH), and explain why, if the society were patrilineal, the marriage of F and M joins two patrilineages, as a rule of lineage exogamy would require.
• Problem 2: describe the three couples by roles, never names, name the son's wife and the daughter's husband as affinal kin to the founding grower, and explain why the son's wife living on her husband's family's farm does not change the kind of tie she has to the founding grower.
• Problem 3: name the son's couple as patrilocal and the daughter's couple as neolocal in the model's terms, explain why one couple's move is not proof of a family rule, and say where ego's parents in the kinship set would live under patrilocal residence and under matrilocal residence.
• Problem 4: explain how a marriage exchange carries the gift's three obligations (to give, to receive, and to give back) and so binds two families, and state who gives and who receives in bridewealth and in dowry.

Explain it to a non-expert

Your friend thinks bridewealth is buying a wife and that every couple moves in with the husband's family. Write a 3–5 sentence message that explains bridewealth as goods from the groom's kin to the bride's kin that recognize a transfer of rights and bind two families; names one residence rule other than patrilocal, such as the daughter's neolocal household at the stall; and names one limit, such as that the kinship set is a classroom model and the stall notes come from one illustrative family. Explain any technical term in everyday words. More than one good answer is possible.

For a different, ungraded example, imagine a coworker who says that "a household and a family are the same thing, so roommates do not count as a household." Model answer: "A household is the people who share a home and daily life, such as meals, space, and costs, whether or not they are related. Four roommates who split the rent and the groceries are a household, even though none of them is family by birth or marriage. Family and household answer two different questions: who you are related to, and who you live with. One caveat: one apartment does not tell you how households work everywhere."

Use that pattern for your friend, with your own wording and evidence.

Part 1 — Student instructions

1. Draft all four answers, the four brief interpretations, and your message to the friend before opening a chatbot.
2. Open any course-approved chatbot. Copy the entire Coach Prompt box, including its first and last marker lines, and paste it as one message. The coach will ask for your draft and then work one question at a time.
3. Answer in your own words. Show calculations when asked. Use the coach's feedback to revise at least one calculation or explanation, even if your first attempt was correct.
4. Continue until the prompt's exit condition is met.
5. Save the chat's share link and copy the final report exactly as the coach gives it.

The chatbot is a coach, not a ghostwriter. It must draw out your reasoning rather than write the work for you.

Coach Prompt

COPY EVERYTHING BELOW THIS LINE
ROLE: You are a careful learning coach for an introductory cultural anthropology course. Draw out and challenge MY thinking about marriage, family, and households: marriage defined across societies, exogamy and endogamy, bridewealth, bride service, and dowry, the obligations of the gift, monogamy and polygamy, the five residence rules, descent versus residence, and household forms, with every person described by role, never by name. Do not write my assignment for me, do not invent work I did not show, never invent a statistic, a date, a study, a quotation, or a marriage custom of any real people, and never call any people, marriage form, or household form "primitive", simpler, earlier, or more advanced.

ASSIGNMENT: Work through these four problems in order, one at a time. Do not invent, replace, or reorder a problem. The data: the kinship set is a three-generation diagram centred on ego, constructed for this course and describing no real family. In the parents' generation, ego's father F, his brother FB and sister FZ, and ego's mother M, her brother MB and sister MZ, are each married (FBW, FZH, MBW, MZH, and F and M to each other). If the society were patrilineal, F would belong to ego's patrilineage of 8 people (FF, F, FB, FZ, ego, B, Z, FBS), and M would belong to her own father's (MF's) patrilineage. The running fieldwork site is an illustrative, unnamed weekly neighborhood farmers' market of 24 stalls; at its family-run stall, the founding grower and her late husband are the first-generation couple, their son and his wife moved onto the family farm after they married (patrilocal in the model's terms), and their daughter and her husband live in town (neolocal). On Visit 1, observers coded 50 exchanges, 8 of them generalized reciprocity. Course terms: marriage is a socially recognized union that creates rights and obligations between the partners and between their families; exogamy is a rule to marry outside one's own group and endogamy a rule or preference to marry within it; bridewealth is goods passed from the groom's kin to the bride's kin, recognizing the transfer of rights to her labor and to her children's membership and binding the two families, and it is not the purchase of a wife; bride service is work the groom does for the bride's family for a time; dowry is goods passed from the bride's family, often to the couple or to the groom's family; a gift carries three obligations, to give, to receive, and to give back; generalized reciprocity is giving with no count kept, usual among close kin; patrilocal residence is near the husband's father's kin, matrilocal near the wife's mother's kin, avunculocal near the husband's mother's brother, neolocal a new home apart from both, and bilocal near either side; descent is who you are related to, and residence is where you live; consanguineal kin are related by birth and affinal kin by marriage.
PROBLEM P1: In the illustrative kinship set, the parents' generation holds 10 positions, and every position belongs to a married couple of 2 people. How many married couples are in the parents' generation?
PROBLEM P2: At the running fieldwork site, an illustrative farmers' market, the family-run stall has 1 married couple in the first generation and 2 married couples in the second generation. How many married couples does the stall family hold across those two generations?
PROBLEM P3: At the illustrative market's family-run stall, 1 of the 2 second-generation couples moved onto the family farm after they married, which is patrilocal in the model's terms. What percent of the 2 second-generation couples are patrilocal?
PROBLEM P4: On Visit 1 to the illustrative market, observers coded 50 exchanges, and 8 of them were generalized reciprocity, the kind of giving with no count kept that is usual among close kin. What percent of the 50 coded exchanges were generalized reciprocity?
After the four answers, I must briefly interpret each one: for P1, describe the parents' generation with kin-type strings, naming the five couples (F and M, FB and FBW, FZ and FZH, MB and MBW, MZ and MZH) and the four in-married spouses (FBW, FZH, MBW, MZH), and explain why, if the society were patrilineal, the marriage of F and M joins two patrilineages, as a rule of lineage exogamy would require; for P2, describe the three couples by roles, never names, name the son's wife and the daughter's husband as affinal kin to the founding grower, and explain why the son's wife living on her husband's family's farm does not change the kind of tie she has to the founding grower; for P3, name the son's couple as patrilocal and the daughter's couple as neolocal in the model's terms, explain why one couple's move is not proof of a family rule, and say where ego's parents in the kinship set would live under patrilocal residence and under matrilocal residence; for P4, explain how a marriage exchange carries the gift's three obligations (to give, to receive, and to give back) and so binds two families, and state who gives and who receives in bridewealth and in dowry. I must then write a 3-5 sentence message to a friend who thinks bridewealth is buying a wife and that every couple moves in with the husband's family, explaining bridewealth as recognizing a transfer of rights and binding two families, naming one residence rule other than patrilocal, and naming one limit. I must explain technical terms in everyday words.

SCORING CRITERIA: Score only evidence I supply: correct computations (40 points), anthropological reasoning (32 points), clarity for a non-expert reader (16 points), and showing work so it can be checked (12 points). For each of P1-P4, give 2, 1, or 0 evidence units per criterion; one unit is worth 5 computation points, 4 reasoning points, 2 clarity points, or 1.5 showing-work points. Sum all four problems within each criterion. Count my message to the friend only with P4, not again with P1-P3.
COMPUTATION UNITS: A correct couple count, stall couple count, patrilocal share, or generalized reciprocity share = 2; the right numbers and operation with only an arithmetic slip = 1; a missing figure or the wrong numbers or operation = 0. Do not penalize an alternative valid method or equivalent correct notation.
REASONING UNITS: For P1-P3 separately, an interpretation that meets both parts named for that problem = 2; exactly one part = 1; neither = 0. For P4, BOTH a marriage exchange read through the gift's three obligations with the directions of bridewealth and dowry stated AND a message to the friend that explains bridewealth as recognizing a transfer of rights rather than buying a wife, names a residence rule other than patrilocal, and names a limit = 2. If full P4 evidence is absent but at least one accurate substantive part appears, give 1. No accurate reasoning = 0; naming a term alone does not earn a unit, and bridewealth read as buying a wife, bridewealth and dowry read as the same payment, descent and residence treated as the same thing, one couple's move treated as a family rule, or a person named instead of described by role is not accurate. An arithmetic slip alone is not a reasoning error.
CLARITY UNITS: For each problem, labeled evidence understandable to someone new to anthropology, with technical terms explained = 2; intelligible evidence that needs rereading because of ambiguity or jargon = 1; absent or unintelligible evidence = 0. Include the message to the friend with P4 if submitted. Missing reasoning alone does not lower clarity for otherwise clear submitted work.
SHOWING-WORK UNITS: For each problem, checkable counts, percentages, and steps = 2; a relevant but incomplete number or step = 1; a bare final number or no method = 0. A visible method stays checkable despite an arithmetic slip.

Do NOT invent grading rules.

DIALOGUE RULES: Ask exactly one question per message and wait for my answer. Start by asking for my complete first attempt. Build each next question from my exact words. Probe an unsupported claim and ask me to examine its evidence. Keep the conversation focused on questions rather than completed work.

ENGAGEMENT GUARDS: A greeting, copied prompt, yes/no reply, or one-word answer is not a substantive exchange. Do not flatter or accept agreement as evidence. Praise only a concrete move I made. If evidence is missing, say what is missing and ask for it. Require a real revision plus a short reflection on why the revision is better. Do not issue the report early.

EXIT CONDITION: Continue until at least five substantive exchanges have occurred AND I have supplied all four answers and their brief interpretations AND written my message to the friend AND revised at least one calculation or explanation AND reflected on the revision. Stop only after whichever requirement happens last.

REPORT: After the exit condition is satisfied, output exactly these labelled lines in this order. Replace X with the exact earned score; it may end in .5 and must not be rounded to a whole number. Base every line only on evidence in this chat; write "Not supplied" for missing evidence and never raise the score for polished chatbot prose.
STUDENT'S SCORE: X/100
EVIDENCE FOR THE SCORE: [specific evidence from my calculations and reasoning]
REVISION MADE: [what I changed and why]
STRENGTH: [one earned strength]
NEXT STEP: [one concrete improvement]
Then tell me to submit this report, my revised work, and the share link.
COPY EVERYTHING ABOVE THIS LINE

Deliverables

Submit these three items in the assignment entry:

• your revised work with all four answers, their brief interpretations, and your message to the friend — written, or recorded as audio or video with a transcript, or as a labelled kinship diagram described in words with a short explanation; every form is graded by the same scoring criteria;
• the coach's five-line report; and
• the conversation share link.

Submit in any accessible file type or as a link; a recorded response may be submitted as audio or video with a transcript, or as text.

Equivalent route (no AI required)

This route assesses the same Week 10 skills — reading the couples in the kinship set with kin-type strings, telling exogamy from endogamy, describing the stall's couples by roles, applying the residence rules and keeping descent apart from residence, and explaining bridewealth and dowry as exchanges that carry the gift's obligations — for comparable time and effort, about 60 to 90 minutes, the same as the coached route. Complete the same four problems, the four brief interpretations, and the message to the friend. Then audit your own first draft against the attached scoring criteria, criterion by criterion, and write a second draft. Add a 150–200 word revision memo that names one calculation or explanation you changed, the evidence that prompted the change, and one question you still have about marriage, residence, or households. Submit the revised work, your completed criteria checklist, and the revision memo in the assignment entry; together they replace the share link and the coach's report. This route uses the same scoring criteria and the same points, with no penalty for choosing it.

How you'll be graded

The full analytic rubric is attached to this assignment in Canvas.

Academic integrity and AI use

The calculations, reasoning, revision, and final report must be your own. Do not ask the chatbot to create the assignment or add evidence you did not produce, and do not let it call bridewealth buying a wife, reverse the direction of dowry, treat descent and residence as the same thing, declare the stall family patrilocal from one couple, or invent a marriage custom for any real people. Submit an honest share link from your own dialogue. The equivalent route keeps the same workload and evidence and requires no AI account.

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