Abstract This paper explains the development and purpose of kinship networks in female prisons. The paper identifies and describes the roles that make up these groups. The paper also discusses the fact that women represent the fastest growing prison population.
From the Paper "The number of women incarcerated in prisons and jails is growing dramatically. According to Harrison and Beck, during ... alone, the number of women under the jurisdiction of State or Federal prison authorities increased..."
Abstract The paper analyzes the treatment of kinship in Sophocles' "Oedipus the King" and Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream" and considers why family relationships are such a frequent subject in these genres. The paper shows how kinship is treated in relationship to its role in patriarchal societies in both of these two plays. The paper explains how kinship is a powerful plot driver in both plays, due to the fact that kinship, as epitomized in the paternal bond, lies at the heart of patriarchy.
From the Paper "It is not surprising to find family relationships to be such a frequent subject in these genres - after all, these are the deepest ties that bind, and thus offer a rich source to be mined for both comedy and tragedy. In both of these plays, kinship is crucially important because it sets up the problems that are key drivers of the plots. In Midsummer Night's Dream, the problem consists in the fact that a father is attempting to invoke paternal authority to thwart the romantic wishes of two of the principal players. Egeus, an Athenian nobleman, is pleading with Theseus, Duke of Athens, to force his (Egeus's) daughter Hermia to marry the man Egeus has picked for her: Demetrius. Hermia is insisting she would rather marry the man she loves, Lysander."
Tags: family, relationships, patriarchy, paternal, bond
An analysis of how Campbell relates the political relationships and political values of the Sarakatsani shepherds to the cycle of their economic life and their kinship relationships.
2,000 words (approx. 8 pages), 2 sources, 1999, $ 63.95
Abstract This paper provides an ethnography of the Sarakatsani shephards, with emphasis on their economic life, kinship relationships and system of values. The paper is broken up into an introduction, a discussion o f the three "political relationships" and a conclusion. In buliding up his picture of political culture in this Greek rural community, Campbell's central concern, the paper proves, is how social solidarity is maintained.
From the Paper "The institution of patron client relationships enables the shepherds to deal with the villagers and government officials without loss of honour. It establishes a face-to-face relationship that in other cultures is substituted by the impersonal citizen-representative dyad. The competition for social prestige among related families gives expression to their mutual hostility so that a violent means of retaining self-regard may be avoided."
Abstract This paper analyzes a poem by Charles G.D. Roberts, "Kinship," that encapsulates the privations of Native Canadians during the latter stages of the nineteenth century. Specifically, the paper discusses how native Canadians found themselves marginalized in the Canada of that time - and how Charles G.D. Roberts, while progressive in his empathy and feeling for the plight of Canada's aboriginal population, nonetheless sees this segment of the nation's population through a European lens.
From the Paper "In late nineteenth century Canada, the question of what to do with the nation's natives was one that preoccupied policy-makers. Simply put, here was a large number of men and women (and children) whose traditional habits, attitudes, modes of living, and religious sentiments were well outside the mainstream of Canadian society. The end result, as grimly noted in an online report sponsored by the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Center, was for the Canadian government to pursue a policy that forcibly remade Native Canadians in the image of their European counterparts ("Our Way," para.5-6). This meant, for all intents and purposes, the imposition of policies that undermined traditional native culture, the creation of the Industrial and Boarding School Systems and the abolition of religious ceremonies and dances."
This paper discusses in detail the development of the customs and social structure of the more primitive Inuit society as a direct result of its need to survive in a hostile climate. The Inuit, a member of a group of Eskimoan peoples, live in the Arctic.
Abstract This extensive paper states that all aspects of Inuit life revolve around the survival of the group including marriage, kinships and gender role divisions. The author believes that the Inuit are highly connected with the changing of the seasons and are highly dependent upon one another. The paper states that the Inuit value respect and caring for others as an integral part of their culture because group cohesiveness and cooperation are necessary for survival. The author compares the Inuit culture with the more civilized culture of Judaism.
Table of Contents
General Description of Inuit
Food Restrictions and Symbolism
Kinship and Social Organization
Gender Roles in Inuit Society
Conclusion
From the Paper "The eating of seal is done at a special feast called alupajaq. In this ceremony, the men gather around the seal and cut it up in a special way. The women are grouped together several feet away. The men carry on a conversation that can be heard by the women telling about hunting stories. The women talk about the seal and how nice it is to be blessed with plenty. The meat is passed from the men to the women. The women get the choicest parts of the seal."
Abstract This paper examines the arguments over how one can formulate a cross-cultural definition of marriage. Through a literature review, it looks at some some definitions of marriage as well as some of the ethnographies that subvert and call into question how we actually conceptualise marriage. These include the Na of Lijang, the Nayar of central Kerala, the debate over the Virgin Birth and Bourdieu's work on marriage with a parallel patrilateral cousin. It attempts to show how these case studies call into question some of the basic understandings of kinship and marriage as formulated by both descent and alliance theorists. It concludes by looking at some of the more recent developments in kinship theory and how they can help us work towards a definition of marriage.
From the Paper "The economic and social factors involved in marriage have tended to be reified by many kinship theorists. One can trace some of the origin for why marriage definitions and kinship studies of marriage have been reified and abstracted in an attempt to produce harmonious wholes in the Virgin Birth debate. Dogma and ritual, Leach (1968) points out, to not necessarily correspond to internal states. One could equally argue that the reified systems of kinship studies show little relationship to how marriage actually works in all of its ambiguities."
Abstract This paper introduces, discusses and analyzes the cultures of the San and Yanomam?. Specifically, it looks at how and why San culture has changed since 1948. It aso compares and contrasts the San and Yanomam? with respect to marriage and kinship in both cultures.
From the Paper "Outwardly, the !Kung San live very much as their ancestors did thousands of years before. They are one of the last hunter-gatherer sects still surviving in the world today. They live in Africa, in out-of-the-way areas in Angola, Botswana, and Namibia. The author studied the San in 1969, and wrote her book "Nisa" in 1981."
This paper presents an extensive discussion of Muslims in America, Pakistani social history and finally Pakistani-Americans, especially wedding customs.
Abstract This paper discusses that the Pakistani-American community began as a strictly Muslim and strictly Pakistani enclave of immigrants who tried to maintain their traditional customs to the highest degree possible, but as time goes by their social customs are modified by the American culture. The author points out that the Pakistani practice of keeping males and females completely segregated has worked against preserving intra-community marriage because young people have to make friends with others in the community, since they are kept away from people their own age in their own community.
Table of Content
Introduction
Immigration
Cultural Background
Kinship Marriage Customs
A Changing Community
The Traditional Wedding
Conclusion
From the Paper "Purdah is practiced in different ways, depending on family tradition, region, class and rural or urban residence. However, there is nowhere that unrelated men and women mix freely. The most extreme restraints are found in parts of the North West Frontier Province and Balochistan. In those locales, women almost never leave their homes except when they marry and almost never meet unrelated men. They may not be allowed contact even with male cousins on their mother's side--in a patrilinear society; these men are not classed as relatives. At the same time, women have only very formal relations with those men they are allowed to meet, which might include the father in law, paternal uncles, and brothers in law. Interestingly, poor rural women have greater mobility because they are expected to work and are responsible for transplanting rice seedlings, weeding crops, raising chickens, selling eggs and stuffing wool or cotton into comforters (razais). Women are more circumscribed once the family becomes more prosperous and begins to aspire to higher status, for then it is common to require stricter purdah among women as a first social change."
Abstract Despite seeming unrelated, the search by adoptees for their biological families and the revelation of a nonstandard sexual identity by gays and lesbians to their families actually involve similar psychological components and elucidate similar cultural stereotypes about kinship. In both circumstances, individuals risk discovering weaknesses within assumed American definitions of family. This essays discusses the difficulties encountered by adoptees and gays and lesbians in coming to terms with their nontraditional status. It emphasizes the role of gender and cultural assumptions by looking at the views of authors such as Judith Modell and Kath Weston.
From the Paper "Interestingly, both adoptees and gays and lesbians frequently rely on their mothers rather than their fathers for support. In Modell's research, adoptees searched more frequently for their biological mothers than for their biological fathers, and they often expected more support from their adoptive mothers than from their adoptive fathers (1998: 158-9, 165-6). ?"Mother" called up conventions about acting like a child to a parent? (Modell 1998: 166), showing the influence of traditionally assumed kinship ties felt by adoptees. Gays and lesbians also had assumptions about the roles their mothers would play in their coming out. Weston explains, "when people attempted to predict the outcome of disclosure, their judgments generally reflected cultural assumptions about gender, power, and specific categories of kinship relations" (1991: 52). As a result of these assumptions, many people felt that a mother's "feelings" would make her more understanding than a father's "reason" (1991: 53)."
Abstract This paper analyzes the role of ghosts in the plot, themes, and language of Carson McCullers's novel, "The Member of the Wedding." Using Judith Butler's theories on kinship and queer relationality in "Antigone's Claim," the paper argues that ghosts help the novel to present an expanded vision of the field of human love.
From the Paper Carson McCullers? The Member of the Wedding is, essentially, the story of a twelve-yeard-old girl named Frankie Addams searching for love and connection in a lonely world. Frankie's world is frightening, even nightmarish at times, and it is filled with the ghosts that inhabit her imagination and described in the textually ghostly terms of the unknown, the secret, and the unnameable. The figure of the "ghost" ? as imagined by Frankie and as a primary descriptive device in McCullers? prose ? quite literally haunts the novel, complicating its conceptions of human relationality and connection. The ghosts enable the novel to posit a tenuous definition of what it is to be a living human being; every living figure in the novel is not only deeply aware of the presence of non-living figures but is in constant danger of falling out of the realm of the living, of becoming a ghost, and every relationship between the living is negotiated over the presence of the dead. Ultimately, the novel's ? and its characters ? ghosts allow for the at once terrifying and redemptive possibility of relationships and identities that transgress not only normative societal boundaries but the boundaries between the living and the dead.
Abstract Describes traditional community, matrilineal social structure, and the underlying causes of transformation of the values and practices of kinship system from the end of the 19th century. Explores the role of Europeans and the federal government.
From the Paper "The topic of this paper is the changes in the kinship system of the Cherokee community. In order to understand the significance of the status of the kinship system of the Cherokee Indian tribe during the period from the end of the 19th century to today, ..."
Abstract This paper describes the subject of Carol Stack's book, "The Neighborhood", the focus of the book, and the purpose of Stack's research, which was to search for some kind of relationship model among black families. The paper then goes on to discuss Stack's findings regarding the kinship network she uncovered and how poverty is such a defining element of this network.
From the Paper "The author has conducted an in-depth study of the lives of families living in these neighborhoods marked by perpetual poverty. "Poverty" as we all know is the one thing that has been perpetually and negatively affecting the lives of this community for ages and nothing significant or concrete has been done so far to address this issue successfully. Several attempts have been made to bring the African American community out of their dismal situation but all these measures have failed to cast a lasting impact and for this reason, most black families in poor neighborhoods are still living in sub-human conditions."
Abstract This paper examines descent theory and alliance theory and some of the ethnographies associated with them in an attempt to discover why these formulations are not considered satisfactory analytical tools today. It then turns to modern developments in kinship to try to analyse the common points of failure for both theories. It takes the view that the two theories in question were very much a product of an attempt to reproduce a conception of existing in the world that is the product of a European elite.
From the Paper "Descent theory became popular in the 50?s, and was used as an analytic tool to explain everything from divorce rates to witchcraft accusations. In this application to everything, the first cracks in theory began to emerge. In Papua New Guinea, where descent theory seemed to be an almost perfect fit, John Barnes notes that it did not explain why the foundations of community organisation included a large number of non-agnates who were powerful figures in the community. Behaviour is descent theory, as evidenced by these examples, is simply not realistic. Social systems allow room for manoeuvre and manipulation."
Abstract The paper discusses the ritual practices common in Sinhalese villages, specifically, the art of "devil dancing". The paper points out the Sinhalese respect and fear for the unknown and abstract. The paper looks at the disparity in formal education systems, the role of family in Sinhalese society and the contested role of women.
From the Paper "A large majority of the people of Sri Lanka pratice Buddhism or a synthesis of Buddhism and Hindusim. But throughout history, folk cults stemmed from cultural traditions with beings and deities of supernatural powers that influence day-to-day lives of the people have also been integrated into the Buddhist practices of Sinhalese villages (Baker 39). A great deal of emphasis is placed upon the complex and elaborate rituals needed to pacify evil spirits and to appease the benevolent deities. Although this practice is not condoned by the Buddhist temples, there is a large following of these rituals, especially in the Sinhalese villages."
Tags: rituals, spirits, deities, education, kinship, women
Abstract In this article, the writer notes that throughout the world there are different cultural norms, or otherwise stated, there are different activities that are either accepted or shunned within different cultural groups. The writer points out that this is especially true of sexual relations within a culture. Different marriage systems exist within different sectors of society and within different cultures throughout the world. The writer researches and relates the different methods used in various societies in order to regulate sexual relations among members of that cultural group. This paper includes color diagrams.
Outline:
Objective
Introduction
Basic Regulations of 'Exogamy' and 'Endogamy' in Cultures/Societies
Yanomamo Culture
Sexual Relations among Young People in Developing Countries
Kinship & Anthropology
Summary & Conclusion
From the Paper "All societies have rules related to certain incest taboos, or rules of 'exogamy'. This states a specific range or category of relatives that may not be considered for marriage or sexual partners by those within the society. Rules of 'endogamy' within a culture or society relates to marriage restriction not only among kin who are closely related but also rules that specifically channel individuals towards marriage within certain groups. The following diagram illustrates three specific ranges of relationships which are those of ..."
