Week 10 · Chapter

Chapter 10 — Marriage, Family, and Households

Cultural Anthropology Free sample edition

The module's primary reading · ~30–40 minutes · Objective 6 (analyze kinship, descent, marriage, and households: read and draw kinship diagrams in kin-type notation, distinguish patrilineal, matrilineal, and bilateral descent and descent from residence, apply kinship terminology systems, and explain marriage exchanges and household forms), Objective 4 (compare how societies make a living and exchange goods: the subsistence strategies as a model, generalized, balanced, and negative reciprocity, redistribution, and market exchange, the obligations a gift creates, and documented cases such as the kula and the potlatch) · Read it first this week; the lecture, the slides, the tutorial, and the quiz all build on it.

In plain language

A wedding looks like a promise between two people, but it almost always ties two families together as well. Anthropologists study marriage (a union that a community recognizes and that creates duties between the partners and their families) in every society. This week you will learn who a person may marry, what gifts or work pass between the families, how many spouses a marriage can join, and where a new couple lives afterward. You will also look at the household (the people who share a home and daily life) and see how its shape changes over a lifetime.

Why you already care about this

Picture a couple three weeks after their wedding (an illustrative scene). They are still sleeping on an air mattress in a friend's living room, because they have not decided where to live. One partner's parents have 1 spare bedroom and a long kitchen table. The other partner's family lives 2 towns away and keeps saying there is room for them there. An apartment of their own would cost 1,400 dollars a month, more than either of them wants to pay.

Now ask what is really being decided. It is not only a question of rent. Living with one side means helping with that side's chores, holidays, and worries, and seeing the other side less. The couple's choice will shape who they eat with, who helps them when a baby comes, and who they look after when a parent grows old. Every society has expectations about this choice, and they differ from one place and time to another.

By the end of this chapter you will be able to:

define marriage cross-culturally and say what rights and obligations it creates;
tell exogamy from endogamy, and show how one marriage joins two descent groups;
tell bridewealth, bride service, and dowry apart by who gives what to whom;
tell monogamy from polygamy, and polygyny from polyandry;
apply five residence rules to a couple, and keep descent and residence apart;
name five household forms and explain how a household changes over time.

Carry this sentence with you: where you live is not who you belong to.

Where we are

Already covered: Week 3 taught field notes and the genealogical method, and Week 6 showed that a gift carries obligations. Week 9 taught kinship diagrams, kin-type notation, and patrilineal and matrilineal descent.
This week: marriage defined cross-culturally; exogamy and endogamy; bridewealth, bride service, and dowry; monogamy and polygamy; postmarital residence rules; and household forms.
How they connect: Week 9 placed each person in a descent group; this week shows how a marriage joins two of those groups and where the new couple lives.
Where we're going next: Week 11, Sex, Gender, and Sexuality, asks how cultures organize gender, including who moves at marriage and who does which work.

Week 9 gave you the illustrative kinship set (Dataset B, constructed for this course): 21 positions across three generations, centred on ego. Kin-type strings read outward from ego, so FF is father's father and MBW is mother's brother's wife. Week 6 taught the three obligations of the gift: to give, to receive, and to give back. Week 5 met the running fieldwork site's family-run stall, and Week 9 drew it as a diagram with roles, not names. The running fieldwork site is still the same illustrative, unnamed weekly neighborhood farmers' market of 24 stalls, and this week you read its households.

1. Define marriage: a union that joins families

Think about the last wedding you attended or saw online. There were guests, a ceremony, and probably a party. The guests were not only there to watch; they were there to see the marriage happen and to recognize it.

Anthropologists need a definition that works across many societies, not only the one they grew up in. Here is the course's definition.

Marriage is a socially recognized union that creates rights and obligations between the partners and between their families; how a society defines it differs across societies and over time.

Three parts of that definition matter. "Socially recognized" means other people accept the union. "Rights and obligations" means the partners and their families now owe each other things. "Differs across societies and over time" means no single society's version is the template for all the others.

Worked example — the wedding in the rites-of-passage set (illustrative). The course's rites-of-passage set (Dataset E, illustrative, constructed for this course) includes a wedding. Read it this week as a marriage, asking the three questions in the definition.

Who recognizes it? The ceremony and vows happen before witnesses, and the couple is presented as a married couple at the reception. Family and guests see it happen.
What does it create between the partners? New rights and obligations: they now owe each other support as spouses.
What does it create between the families? Each family gains in-laws, affinal kin connected by marriage, and the two families now owe each other things too.

In words: the wedding makes a marriage because the community recognizes it and because it creates rights and obligations for the partners and for both families. Week 13 reads the same wedding again as a ritual with phases.

Pause and think. Choose one option and answer it in two or three sentences:

(a) Think of a wedding you have attended or heard about. Who was there to recognize the marriage, and what did the families seem to expect of each other afterward?
(b) Why might a definition of marriage that names two families, and not only two partners, help an anthropologist compare many societies?

Misconception check. Students often think a marriage concerns only the two partners, a private matter between two people. That is tempting, because many weddings celebrate the couple's love story. But the definition says marriage creates rights and obligations between the families too. The cure: when you read a marriage, list what changes for each family, not only for the couple.

2. Draw the boundary: exogamy and endogamy

Picture an illustrative club whose members are told they may not date each other, because a breakup would split the club. Now picture a small town where most people marry someone from the same town. One group sends its members outward; the other keeps them close.

Anthropologists name both patterns.

Exogamy is a rule to marry outside one's own group, such as one's lineage or clan.
Endogamy is a rule or preference to marry within one's own group, such as one's community or faith.

Both words refer to a group. Before you can say whether a marriage is exogamous or endogamous, you have to say which group you mean.

Worked example — one marriage, two descent groups. Use the kinship set (Dataset B, illustrative). Suppose the society were patrilineal, as you supposed in Week 9.

Where does ego's father stand? F would belong to ego's patrilineage of 8 people: FF, F, FB, FZ, ego, B, Z, and FBS.
Where does ego's mother stand? M would belong to her own father's (MF's) patrilineage. She is not in ego's patrilineage list.
What does their marriage join? The marriage of F and M joins two patrilineages, as a rule of lineage exogamy would require.
What could endogamy look like here? If the same community also preferred marriage within one town or one faith, F and M could marry outside their lineages and inside that larger group at once.

In words: one marriage in the kinship set links two descent groups, and the rule you use to describe it depends on which group you name.

Pause and think. Choose one option and answer it in two or three sentences:

(a) Think of a group you belong to, such as a team, a congregation, or a hometown. Do people in it tend to marry inside the group or outside it? What makes you think so?
(b) Why might a society require people to marry outside their own lineage? Offer one possible reason and say what you would need to observe to check it.

Misconception check. Students often read exogamy as marrying a stranger from far away. That is tempting, because "exo" sounds like "outside the familiar". But exogamy means outside a named group, and the person could live next door. The cure: always ask "outside which group?" or "within which group?" before you use either word.

3. Follow the goods: bridewealth, bride service, and dowry

Think about who pays for a wedding in a family you know. In some families the bride's parents pay for the party. In others both sides split it, or the couple pays. Who gives what, and to whom, says something about how the two families see the marriage.

Anthropologists call these transfers marriage exchanges, the goods or work that pass between two families when a marriage is made. The course teaches three.

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; it is not the purchase of a wife.
Bride service is work the groom does for the bride's family for a time as part of making a marriage.
Dowry is goods passed from the bride's family when she marries, often to the couple or to the groom's family.

Worked example — the exchanges for ego's parents. Use the kinship set (Dataset B, illustrative). F is the groom and M is the bride. Follow each exchange.

Bridewealth. Goods would pass from F's kin to M's kin, that is, from FF and FM's side to MF and MM's side.
Bride service. F would work for M's family for a time.
Dowry. Goods would pass from M's family, often to the couple or to F's family.

In words: bridewealth flows toward the bride's kin, dowry flows from the bride's family, and bride service pays in work instead of goods.

The three marriage exchanges, read for ego's parents in the kinship set (Dataset B, illustrative)
Exchange	What passes	From	To
Bridewealth	goods	the groom's kin (F's side)	the bride's kin (M's side)
Bride service	work	the groom (F)	the bride's family (M's side)
Dowry	goods	the bride's family (M's side)	often the couple, or the groom's family (F's side)

Now set this beside Week 6. The three obligations of the gift are to give, to receive, and to give back. A marriage exchange works the same way: once one family gives and the other receives, the two families are bound to each other, and the relationship carries on long after the wedding day.

The exchange set from Week 6 (Dataset C, illustrative) includes a wedding gift registry as one of its three borderline cases, discussed and never keyed. Read it both ways. On one reading, the guests give gifts, and the couple owes thanks and goodwill in return. On the other reading, the registry is a shopping list, and the guests are buying items off it. Each reading has a strong case, which is why the course keeps it as a discussion and not a quiz answer.

Pause and think. Choose one option and answer it in two or three sentences:

(a) Think of a gift that passed between two families at a wedding, engagement, or holiday you know about. What did the gift seem to oblige the families to do afterward?
(b) A classmate says the wedding registry is "only shopping". Make the strongest case for reading it as a gift instead.

Misconception check. Students often read bridewealth as buying a wife, and they often think bridewealth and dowry are the same payment. Both are tempting, because goods change hands at a wedding and the words sound alike. But bridewealth recognizes a transfer of rights and binds two families, and it flows toward the bride's kin, while dowry flows from the bride's family. The cure: name who gives, who receives, and what the transfer recognizes before you name the exchange.

4. Count the spouses: monogamy and polygamy

Many students grow up with one picture of marriage: two spouses, one household. That picture is common, but it is not the only form marriage has taken across societies.

The course uses four terms.

Monogamy is marriage to one spouse at a time.
Polygamy is marriage to more than one spouse at a time, covering both polygyny and polyandry.
Polygyny is a form of polygamy in which one husband has several wives at the same time.
Polyandry is a form of polygamy in which one wife has several husbands at the same time.

Worked example — naming three illustrative marriages. Each line below describes an illustrative marriage, constructed for this chapter. Count the spouses, then name the form.

One wife and one husband. 1 spouse each, so this is monogamy.
One husband and 2 wives. The husband has 2 spouses at the same time, so this is polygamy, and the form is polygyny.
One wife and 2 husbands. The wife has 2 spouses at the same time, so this is polygamy, and the form is polyandry.

In words: 2 of the 3 illustrative marriages are polygamy, and they are different forms of it, so "polygamy" names the whole family of forms, not one of them.

The course describes these forms and compares them; it never ranks them. An anthropologist first reads each form in the terms of the people who practice it, and only then sets it beside other forms.

Pause and think. Choose one option and answer it in two or three sentences:

(a) Where have you seen the word "polygamy" used, such as in the news or a show? Did the speaker mean polygyny, polyandry, or both?
(b) Why might an anthropologist describe a marriage form in the terms of the people who practice it before comparing it with others? Connect your answer to cultural relativism as a method.

Misconception check. Students often think polygamy means only polygyny, one husband with several wives. That is tempting, because polygyny is the form people hear about most. But polygamy covers both polygyny and polyandry. The cure: when you see "polygamy", ask "one husband with several wives, or one wife with several husbands?"

5. Choose where to live: residence rules, and descent versus residence

Go back to the couple on the air mattress. Their choice has a name in anthropology, and the options they weighed match a short list of rules that societies have used.

A postmarital residence rule is a rule or expectation about where a newly married couple lives, such as near one partner's kin or in a new home of their own.

The course teaches five.

Patrilocal residence is a residence rule under which a married couple lives near the husband's father's kin.
Matrilocal residence is a residence rule under which a married couple lives near the wife's mother's kin.
Avunculocal residence is a residence rule under which a married couple lives near the husband's mother's brother.
Neolocal residence is a residence rule under which a married couple sets up a new home apart from both partners' kin.
Bilocal residence is a residence rule under which a married couple may live near either partner's kin.

Worked example — ego's parents under the 5 rules. Use the kinship set (Dataset B, illustrative). F is the husband and M is the wife. Apply each rule in turn.

Patrilocal. Near the husband's father's kin: ego's parents live near FF and FM.
Matrilocal. Near the wife's mother's kin: they live near MM's kin, which in the set means MM and MF.
Avunculocal. Near the husband's mother's brother: they live near FMB (father's mother's brother). FMB is not one of the 21 positions in the set, so you would have to add him to the diagram.
Neolocal. A new home apart from both sets of grandparents.
Bilocal. With either side, near FF and FM or near MM and MF.

In words: one couple in the kinship set lands in a different place under each of the 5 rules, and one rule even leads to a relative the diagram does not show.

Now keep two questions apart. Descent is who you are related to; residence is where you live. Under patrilocal residence, M would live near FF and FM. Under patrilineal descent she would still belong to her father's (MF's) patrilineage, while ego, B, and Z belong to F's. She lives among her husband's kin without becoming a member of their descent group.

Here is a caveat: the five rules are a classroom model, and real communities mix them. Section 7 shows two different rules inside one family.

Pause and think. Choose one option and answer it in two or three sentences:

(a) Which of the five rules best matches where your parents, grandparents, or an older couple you know lived after they married? What shaped that choice?
(b) In the worked example, M lives near FF and FM but belongs to MF's patrilineage. Explain in your own words how both can be true.

Misconception check. Students often use descent and residence as synonyms, as if living with a family made you a member of its descent group. That is tempting, because the people you live with feel like your group. But descent places you in a group through a parent, and residence only says where you live. The cure: ask "related through whom?" and "living where?" as two separate questions.

6. Compare households: forms that change

Think about the people you have lived with. Maybe you grew up with two parents and a sibling, then a grandparent moved in, and now you share an apartment with friends. Each of those is a household, and the shape changed as your life did.

A household is the people who live together and share daily life, such as meals, space, and costs, whether or not they are kin.

Household forms include nuclear, extended, single-parent, multigenerational, and blended households, and they change with the economy, migration, and the life course.

The nuclear family is a couple and their children treated as one family unit; it is one household form among several, not a universal or original form.
An extended household is a household that adds relatives beyond a couple and their children, such as a married child's spouse or a parent's sibling.
A single-parent household is a household made up of one parent living with their children.
A multigenerational household is a household in which three or more generations of a family live under one roof.
A blended household is a household that joins a couple with children from either partner's earlier relationships.

Worked example — two illustrative households. Each household below is constructed for this chapter. Name the form, and say whether its members are kin.

A multigenerational household caring for a grandparent. A grandmother who needs daily care, her son and his wife, and their 2 teenagers live in one house. That is 1 + 2 + 2 = 5 people across 3 generations, so it is a multigenerational household, and it is also an extended household. The grandmother's care is shared: the son drives her to appointments, his wife manages her medicines, and the teenagers sit with her after school.
Four roommates who share rent and groceries. They split the rent four ways and take turns buying groceries. They share meals, space, and costs, so they are a household. None of them is related by birth or marriage, so they are a household but not a family.

In words: the first household is family and household at once, and the second is a household without being a family, so "household" and "family" answer different questions.

Households also change with the economy, migration, and the life course. A household that is nuclear when the children are small may become multigenerational when a grandparent moves in, and smaller again when the children leave. A family member who moves to another city for work may leave one household and join or start another.

Pause and think. Choose one option and answer it in two or three sentences:

(a) Describe one household you have lived in. Which form was it, and did its form change while you lived there?
(b) Why might a household with a grandparent who needs care become more common when paid care is expensive? Offer one possible reason and say what you would need to observe to check it.

Misconception check. Students often think the nuclear family is the universal or original form, the "normal" household that others depart from. That is tempting, because many advertisements and shows picture two parents and their children. But household forms vary across societies and change over a lifetime, and no form is the original. The cure: before you call a household unusual, ask what form it takes and what in the economy or the life course shaped it.

7. Read the family stall's households

Walk back into the running fieldwork site (Dataset A, illustrative, constructed for this course, not a real place). Field-note entry 10, 9:25 a.m., family-run stall, records the older woman saying the farm "came from my husband's side" and that her son's family lives on it now. Week 9 drew the stall as a diagram with roles, not names. This week you ask where each couple lives.

Worked example — the family-run stall's couples and residence. Read the couples, then the residence of the second generation, then count.

The couples. The founding grower and her late husband are 1 couple in the first generation. The son and his wife, and the daughter and her husband, are 2 couples in the second generation. That is 1 + 2 = 3 married couples across the first two generations.
The son's household. The son and his wife moved onto the family farm after they married, which is patrilocal in the model's terms.
The daughter's household. The daughter and her husband live in town, which is neolocal.
The count. 1 + 1 = 2 couples in the second generation, and the patrilocal share is 1 ÷ 2 × 100 = 50 percent.
Descent versus residence. The son's wife lives on her husband's family's farm, yet she is affinal kin to the founding grower, connected by marriage, not by birth.

Here is the reading in plain words: in the kinship set, one marriage joins two descent groups and can follow any of five residence rules, and at the family-run stall, two siblings born into the same family followed two different rules after they married, so where a couple lives is a separate question from who they are related to.

A limitation of this reading: "patrilocal" and "neolocal" are the model's terms, not the family's own words. Like the couple on the air mattress weighing a spare room, each couple made a choice, and the notes record only where they ended up, not why. The family may say only that the son "took over the farm" and the daughter "has her own place". A fieldworker would need the family's own account, gathered with consent, before saying why each couple chose as it did.

Pause and think. Choose one option and answer it in two or three sentences:

(a) The son and the daughter grew up in the same family but live under different rules. Name one thing besides kinship that might shape where a couple lives, and say what you would observe to check it.
(b) Why does the course call the son's move "patrilocal in the model's terms" and not "the family's patrilocal rule"? What would you need to know before saying the family follows a rule?

Misconception check. Students often treat one couple's move as proof of a whole society's rule, so "the son moved onto the farm" becomes "this family is patrilocal". That is tempting, because the move fits the patrilocal pattern exactly. But one couple's choice is one case, and the daughter's household shows a different pattern in the same family. The cure: write each couple's move in the observed column, and keep the rule as a possible interpretation until more cases arrive.

Key terms

Marriage — A socially recognized union that creates rights and obligations between the partners and between their families; how a society defines it differs across societies and over time. (first used: 1. Define marriage: a union that joins families)
Exogamy — A rule to marry outside one's own group, such as one's lineage or clan. (first used: 2. Draw the boundary: exogamy and endogamy)
Endogamy — A rule or preference to marry within one's own group, such as one's community or faith. (first used: 2. Draw the boundary: exogamy and endogamy)
Marriage exchanges — The goods or work that pass between two families when a marriage is made, such as bridewealth, bride service, and dowry; they bind the two families with obligations. (first used: 3. Follow the goods: bridewealth, bride service, and dowry)
Bridewealth — 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; it is not the purchase of a wife. (first used: 3. Follow the goods: bridewealth, bride service, and dowry)
Bride service — Work the groom does for the bride's family for a time as part of making a marriage. (first used: 3. Follow the goods: bridewealth, bride service, and dowry)
Dowry — Goods passed from the bride's family when she marries, often to the couple or to the groom's family. (first used: 3. Follow the goods: bridewealth, bride service, and dowry)
Monogamy — Marriage to one spouse at a time. (first used: 4. Count the spouses: monogamy and polygamy)
Polygamy — Marriage to more than one spouse at a time, covering both polygyny and polyandry. (first used: 4. Count the spouses: monogamy and polygamy)
Polygyny — A form of polygamy in which one husband has several wives at the same time. (first used: 4. Count the spouses: monogamy and polygamy)
Polyandry — A form of polygamy in which one wife has several husbands at the same time. (first used: 4. Count the spouses: monogamy and polygamy)
Postmarital residence rule — A rule or expectation about where a newly married couple lives, such as near one partner's kin or in a new home of their own. (first used: 5. Choose where to live: residence rules, and descent versus residence)
Patrilocal residence — A residence rule under which a married couple lives near the husband's father's kin. (first used: 5. Choose where to live: residence rules, and descent versus residence)
Matrilocal residence — A residence rule under which a married couple lives near the wife's mother's kin. (first used: 5. Choose where to live: residence rules, and descent versus residence)
Avunculocal residence — A residence rule under which a married couple lives near the husband's mother's brother. (first used: 5. Choose where to live: residence rules, and descent versus residence)
Neolocal residence — A residence rule under which a married couple sets up a new home apart from both partners' kin. (first used: 5. Choose where to live: residence rules, and descent versus residence)
Bilocal residence — A residence rule under which a married couple may live near either partner's kin. (first used: 5. Choose where to live: residence rules, and descent versus residence)
Household — The people who live together and share daily life, such as meals, space, and costs, whether or not they are kin. (first used: 6. Compare households: forms that change)
Nuclear family — A couple and their children treated as one family unit; it is one household form among several, not a universal or original form. (first used: 6. Compare households: forms that change)
Extended household — A household that adds relatives beyond a couple and their children, such as a married child's spouse or a parent's sibling. (first used: 6. Compare households: forms that change)
Single-parent household — A household made up of one parent living with their children. (first used: 6. Compare households: forms that change)
Multigenerational household — A household in which three or more generations of a family live under one roof. (first used: 6. Compare households: forms that change)
Blended household — A household that joins a couple with children from either partner's earlier relationships. (first used: 6. Compare households: forms that change)

Summary

Marriage is a recognized union that binds two families, not only two partners.
Exogamy and endogamy always name a group: you marry outside it, or within it.
Bridewealth flows to the bride's kin; dowry flows from the bride's family.
Bridewealth is not buying a wife; it recognizes rights and binds families.
When you see polygamy, remember it covers both polygyny and polyandry.
Five residence rules say where a couple lives; descent says who they belong with.
Households take many forms and change with the economy, migration, and age.

Check your understanding

Work these before looking at the answers — they are ungraded, and the answers (with reasoning) are at the bottom of the page.

In an illustrative community, when a couple marries, the groom's relatives give the bride's relatives a set of cooking pots, two bicycles, and cash. Name the marriage exchange, and say what it recognizes.
An illustrative couple moves, after their wedding, into a house next door to the wife's mother and her sisters. Name the residence rule. If the society were patrilineal, to whose descent group would the wife belong?
A classmate reads about an illustrative household with one wife and 3 husbands and calls it "polygyny". Correct the term, and say what share of the household's 4 spouses are husbands.
An illustrative household holds a grandfather, his daughter, her husband, and their 3 children. How many people and how many generations does it hold, and which two household forms describe it?

Answers (worked reasoning — read after attempting)

Goods pass from the groom's kin to the bride's kin, so the exchange is bridewealth. It recognizes the transfer of rights to the bride's labor and to her children's membership, and it binds the two families. It is not a purchase: the bride's family gains obligations as well as goods.
Living near the wife's mother's kin is matrilocal residence. Residence does not change descent, so under patrilineal descent the wife still belongs to her own father's patrilineage, even though she lives beside her mother's kin.
One wife with several husbands is polyandry, not polygyny; both are forms of polygamy. The household has 1 wife + 3 husbands = 4 spouses, and 3 ÷ 4 × 100 = 75 percent of them are husbands.
The household holds 1 + 2 + 3 = 6 people across 3 generations: the grandfather, the couple, and the children. Three generations under one roof make it a multigenerational household, and because it adds a relative beyond the couple and their children, it is also an extended household.

Next up in this module: the Readings & Resources page, the lecture tutorial, the practice set, and the quiz — and next week, Sex, Gender, and Sexuality asks which rule decides who moves at marriage and who does which work.

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