Kinship, Marriage, and Social Organization
What this domain tests
Kinship is a classic exam area: descent, marriage, residence, terminology, and the difference between biological reproduction and social relatedness. Expect kin-term lists in text form and questions that ask you to infer rules.
Core rules and concepts
- Consanguineal kin are related by descent; affinal kin by marriage.
- Unilineal descent: patrilineal (through fathers) or matrilineal (through mothers). Bilateral reckons both sides; ambilineal allows choice.
- Marriage forms: monogamy, polygyny (one man, several wives), polyandry (one woman, several husbands), group marriage.
- Bridewealth transfers goods from groom's kin to bride's; dowry transfers from bride's kin to the couple or groom's kin.
- Residence: patrilocal, matrilocal, avunculocal, neolocal, ambilocal.
- Terminology systems: Eskimo (bilateral, cousin terms merged), Hawaiian (generational), Iroquois (bifurcate merging), Omaha and Crow (lineal merged with one cross-cousin), Sudanese (descriptive).
- Exogamy requires marriage outside a group; endogamy inside. Cross-cousin marriage differs from parallel-cousin marriage.
Worked example
In a matrilineal society, a man's closest heirs are his sister's sons, and residence is matrilocal. Reasoning: descent passes through women, so a man's own children belong to his wife's lineage, not his. Matrilocality keeps women near their natal lineage and often gives brothers authority over sisters' children. Matrilineal does not mean matriarchal, and residence must be inferred separately from descent.
Traps that cost marks
Equating matrilineal with matriarchal or matrilocal; reversing bridewealth and dowry; assuming polyandry is common (it is rare); labeling Hawaiian terminology bilateral without noting the generational merge; assuming co-residence proves descent.