Social and Cultural Anthropology: Family, Marriage, Kinship, Religion, Magic and Social Organisation
This domain tests basic institutions and how anthropologists compare them. Expect definitions, typologies and the ability to distinguish related terms.
Core concepts
Family is a domestic group based on kinship; household is a co-residential unit and may not equal family. Nuclear and extended family forms vary with residence and economy. Marriage is a socially recognised union that creates rights and obligations; forms include monogamy, polygyny and polyandry, with bride price, bride service and dowry as different transactions. Kinship links people by consanguinity (blood) and affinity (marriage); descent may be unilineal, bilateral or double. Kinship terminology is classificatory or descriptive.
Religion involves beliefs and practices relating to sacred or supernatural forces; magic is instrumental action aimed at specific results. Frazer distinguished sympathetic and contagious magic; Durkheim contrasted sacred and profane. Social organisation includes bands, tribes, chiefdoms and states, and roles, statuses and associations.
Worked example
A community gives labour to the bride’s family instead of goods. This is bride service, not bride price: the groom’s group compensates with work over time. The reasoning links marriage transaction to residence and economic organisation, not to a single “price” label.
Traps that cost marks
Do not equate family with household. Do not call dowry and bride price the same. Do not treat magic as simply “false religion”; it is a distinct instrumental practice. Do not label all unilineal descent patrilineal. Avoid assuming one marriage form per society.
Key points
- Family is kinship-based; household is co-residential.
- Marriage forms include monogamy, polygyny and polyandry.
- Bride price, bride service and dowry are distinct transactions.
- Kinship is consanguineal and affinal; descent may be unilineal or bilateral.
- Magic is instrumental; religion centres on sacred beliefs and practices.