Intro to Anthropology 2/26/10

Article about the Mosuo – example of matrilineal society. Matrilineal descent; Female-headed households (lineage traced through women in family); No formal marital unions (sisi = “walking back and forth”) – men go and visit girlfriends in their house, go back to mother’s house at the end of the day, all the work they have to do is centered around mother’s house; Informal unions based on love, no dowry; Children raised by mother and her brothers; No social or economic obligations between father and childrenMosuo Matrilineal FamiliesMen come and visit girlfriends, children produced from that stay in mother’s house, children produced stay in their mother/grandmother’s house

All siblings (brothers and sisters) contribute to the welfare of the household. No potential conflicts between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law – problematic relationship, danger in this relationship in US and other places like that. Women don’t stay with husbands

Cultural Revolution: “walking marriage” banned (“living fossils” must be modernized, need to change cultural ways). Today: exotic culture as tourist attraction – capitalize on custom a little bit.

Native American Berdaches (men who take on female social roles). Nandi of Kenya (women marry women to perpetuate matrilineal descent group) – a lot like case in textbook, women can be socially men. Azande of pre-colonial Africa (men who can’t afford wives marry other men). Point - Evidence that same sex marriages do occur in human societies . . . but statistically rare. Examples are not exactly the same as in US, somewhat problematic to look at these as same sex marriage

Debate (anthropological perspectives) on whether USA should permit forms of marriage other than “one man and one woman”. Wood – arguing against same sex marriage, Lewin - arguing for same sex marriage

Institutionalized homosexuality always has negative consequences. Males secretive and exclusive; women devalued and marginalized (Etoro tribe as evidence though weak argument because the Etoro tribe is so small that its customs cannot be compared to a large nation). Societies where homosexuality is the norm have low birth rates. (i.e. Japan, Italy, Russia have very low birth rates, does that mean that homosexuality is very prevalent in these societies?) Sanctioning homosexuality leads to pedophilia - societies where homosexuality is institutionalized generally take form of adolescent boys with older men – slippage in argument between pedophilia and homosexual marriage Point – boys beware (anti-homosexual video on YouTube), culturally specific fear of pedophilia, strange old men Demystifying procreation - making it just another event that may or may not require heterosexual married partners leads to low procreation and bad partner relationships? Point - sex within marriage is demystified – don’t just use sex for procreation

Permitting gay couples to marry is not just about attaining rights associated with marriage (e.g., pension rights, survivor benefits). Marriage provides social legitimization for long-term and committed relationship. Social legitimization = less stigma = less psychological burden of engaging in alternative lifestyle (better for reduction of hate crimes)

No, not necessarily, even though the cultural ideal of a family and household is not the statistical norm, it is because people cycle through various household types during their lifetime (probably go through many more transitions along the way than those in the 1970s did) 1990s-today Changing Household arrangements More people cohabit More people form same sex unions (other non-family households) More adult children still live with parents More people live alone (delayed marriage, aging, spousal deaths) More people live as single parents (due to divorce and out-of-wedlock childbearing)

Middle-class refrigerator as “ritual space” – typical middle class American family refrigerator Place where objects acquire special qualities and convey special meanings. General observations of refrigerators Household with kids, rather chaotic, family history and familial affection - often a place where relationships are on display, key events in family history end up on refrigerator, what you put on refrigerator is intentional (high traffic area in home) Creating Domesticity Displaying values of what the home should be (refrigerator magnets display the values of the home – religious, political association) Refrigerator as family command and control center (organizing the domestic routine) (i.e. coupons, calendar, shopping list, tickets, emergency numbers) Site where the following occur: Recycling of family history, outlining degrees of familial affection, diagramming familial intimacy or distanceSetting emotional and moral tone of the household.

The refrigerator in a middle-class American home functions as: A place where family history and familial affection are on display (don’t put any old photo on refrigerator, put ones with meaning, put pictures of important people on display). A place where the family’s domestic and moral values are displayed and reinforced (i.e. refrigerator magnets show political, religious affliation, places you have traveled. A command and control center for organizing the family’s domestic routine (calendar). Anthropological look at a typical asset in a family’s home – has more to do than just store food