SOC 174 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Kinship Terminology, Matrilocal Residence, Minangkabau People
Document Summary
Where coresident individuals permanently work together and find intimacy. Taking care of dependents; producing externalities, public goods. Families of choice, fictive kin, living apart together. Course approach: coming to terms with variety, difference and change. There is no single natural way of organizing family life: sociological and demographic approach. Focus on groups and group differences, use of statistics. Importance of history: the place of personal experience. Helpful as a personal point of reference. Poor guide for generalization (because everybody only experiences a small sliver of a society) Kinship organizes society: who you"re related to determines whom you have to assist and who will come to your aid, fox (1967): kinship is a weapon in the struggle for survival. Many different kinship systems throughout history and in world today. Kinship terminology: a native lens on a society (including our own: reveals who people consider relatives.
