Family Systems in Comparative Perspective

Stephen K. Sanderson

Basic Dimensions of Family Life mother’s brother and a sister’s son. The mother’s The family and marriage are universal social brother (maternal uncle) is responsible for his institutions, but their specific form has varied nephew and passes inheritance to him. considerably in time and space. One of the most The third major form of descent is “cognatic fundamental dimensions of family life involves descent”. Here groups form that are affiliated to who the relatives are and how one relates to them, both the father’s and mother’s lines. There are in other words, “patterns of descent”. Descent pat- two types of cognatic groups, “bilateral kindreds” terns organize groups at various hierarchical lev- and “ambilineages”. Bilateral kindreds constitute els, from nuclear families to lineages and clans. about 25 percent of the Atlas societies. They result Lineages are groups of relatives who can defini- when the main form of the family is the nuclear tively demonstrate their genealogical connections, family and extended kin groups are relatively whereas clans are usually collections of lineages small. Father’s and mother’s relatives are of equal whose members assume, but cannot actually importance in social rights and obligations. Ambi- prove, their relatedness. lineages are unilineal kin groups that derive from “Unilineal descent” is descent through a single both fathers’ and mothers’ lines. These groups, parental line, either that of the father or that of sometimes called “ramages” or “conical clans”, the mother. Descent through the father’s line is have been found mostly in Polynesia and make up known as “patrilineality” and is the most com- only about 4 percent of the Atlas societies. mon type of descent organization the world over. With descent goes residence or household orga- The Ethnographic Atlas put together by George nization. Over two-thirds of the world’s societies Peter Murdock (1967) is a huge compilation of (69 percent) have been organized “patrilocally”, ethnographic data on 1,267 preindustrial societ- meaning that women move upon marriage into ies, including data on the family and marriage. Of the households of their husbands and the hus- these societies, some 52 percent are patrilineal. bands’ extended kin. “Virilocality” is also a resi- Patrilineages or patriclans are groups of fathers, dence pattern in which women do the moving, but sons, and brothers who organize the affairs of the in this case households are nuclear families rather group. Since most unilineal descent groups impose than extended kin groups. Patrilocal and virilocal a rule of exogamy—i.e., prohibit marriage within residence are found mostly in patrilineal societies, the group—patrilineal groups must import wives 97 percent of which have one or the other of these from other groups. Whether or not these wives residential forms. “Matrilocality” occurs when the give up their identity in their original groups or men move at marriage into their wives’ extended become fully absorbed into their husbands’ groups households; if there are no extended households, varies; sometimes there is something of a compro- the residence form is known as “uxorilocality”. mise. Descent groups define who the most impor- These residence patterns are most common in tant relatives are and the rights and obligations matrilineality or where there are bilateral kin- of these relatives toward one another. One of the dreds. “Avunculocality” means residence with the most crucial of these is inheritance. In patrilineal mother’s brother; a common pattern is for a boy descent, inheritance passes from fathers to sons. to live matrilocally or uxorilocally with his mother Some societies (about 14 percent) organize and father, but then move at puberty or marriage descent “matrilineally”, or through the mother’s into the household of his maternal uncle. Avuncu- line. This produces the unusual but very interest- locality is found only in matrilineal societies, for ing institution known as the “avunculate”. Since obvious reasons. Matrilineality goes with matrilo- males generally take the lead in all societies, even cality/uxorilocality or avunculocality; 74 percent though matrilineal groups are organized through of matrilineal societies have one or the other of mothers, males as brothers of the women organize these household patterns. the group’s affairs. In matrilineality, men invest How do people marry? “Monogamy”, or the mar- more in their sister’s sons than in their own sons, riage of one man to one woman, is the form famil- and thus a key relationship develops between a iar to the members of modern industrial societies, family systems in comparative perspective 191 but most societies (about 84 percent of Atlas soci- bridewealth, but about half of matrilineal societies eties) have permitted or encouraged “polygyny”, do as well. In societies with cognatic kin groups, which is the marriage of a man to two or more whether bilateral kindreds or ambilineages, bride- women simultaneously. In most polygynous soci- wealth is less common, and in these groups there eties only a small number of men (perhaps only is often no marriage payment expected. 3 or 4 percent) may be polygynously married, In societies with little or no real wealth, bride but there are societies in which the percentage is service may replace bridewealth. Bride service, much larger. It is not uncommon to find societ- for example, is most common in hunter-gatherer ies in which more than 20 percent of men are in societies or societies that subsist by a combination polygynous marriages, and sometimes the figure of hunting and gathering and horticulture. actually exceeds 50 percent (mostly in African A far less common, but nonetheless quite impor- and Australian Aboriginal societies; Binford 2001). tant, form of marriage payment is “dowry” (only When a large number of men are polygynous, and about 3 percent of societies in the Atlas practice especially when some of the men have numerous dowry). Here the bride’s group assists her in build- wives, the inevitable result is that many men will ing up a sum of valuables that she can use in order not be able to marry at all, because the polygynists to try to contract the most favorable marriage monopolize the women. The other possible form possible. Dowry is most common in patrilineal of marriage, quite rare, is “polyandry”, or the mar- societies, especially those that practice some sort riage of a woman to two or more men. Polyandry of intensive agriculture (86 percent). In terms of has been found in only about 0.5 percent of the region, it is most common in the Circum-Mediter- world’s societies. The best-known cases are found ranean region (the Middle East and North Africa) in Tibet and adjacent regions, where polyandry is (58 percent) and in East Eurasia (36 percent). It is fraternal. A group of brothers collectively marry unknown in sub-Saharan Africa and in North and a woman and bring her into their household. In South American societies. Goody (1976) argues a few instances in polyandrous societies, “poly- that when wives are costly to support (because, gynandrous” marriages are formed. Here polyan- say, they contribute little economic labor) women drously married men bring another wife into the bring dowry into a marriage in order to offset marriage. these costs. Bridewealth by contrast, exists where Because of the nuclear family incest taboo, women are less costly or even economically valu- and the extension of this taboo to wider catego- able, usually because they are the principal culti- ries of kin, people must acquire mates from other vators of the land. Goody contends that this is the groups. In societies with lineages or clans, in the reason bridewealth is unknown in Africa (where vast majority of cases marriage within the group “female farming” is the norm) and more common is prohibited. This might be limited to the lineage, in Asia (where “male farming” predominates). but often is extended to the clan as well. This is Gaulin and Boster (1990), however, claim that the the well-known practice of “exogamy”. When a key factors are a society’s level of social stratifica- group gives up its sisters and daughters to the tion and whether it is monogamous or polygynous. men of other groups, some sort of compensation In highly stratified polygynous societies, rich men is expected. The most common form of compen- generally take many wives, and it may be rela- sation is “bridewealth”. Here the groom’s group tively easy for women to become one of the wives must pay a sum of valuables to the bride’s group, of these men. But when highly stratified societies the amount usually determined by the perceived are monogamous, the competition for rich hus- reproductive value of the bride. The valuables that bands is much more intense, and dowry may be are transferred are usually those things that count demanded by the prospective husband’s group. most heavily as wealth in the particular society. If we look at all of these marriage and family For example, in East African pastoral societies, patterns in broad evolutionary perspective, we see cattle are the most important form of wealth, something like the following. Hunter-gatherer soci- and thus bridewealth takes the form of transfer- eties are most commonly organized into bilateral ring so many cattle. The payment of bridewealth kindreds (66 percent), are patrilocal or virilocal is usually said to “compensate” the bride’s group (59 percent), most commonly do not have mar- for the loss of her reproductive value. The vast riage payments (47 percent), and have only occa- majority (81 percent) of patrilineal societies pay sional or limited polygyny (53 percent). Small-scale