Families
Every culture has families, but finding an adequate definition of "family" is surprisingly difficult.

Virtually every function the family performs in a culture is also done by other institutions within the culture. 

What are these relationships' true meaning?  Families are behavioral entities that relate more to property and influence than you might think, and they are more complex and variable than you might imagine.

Nuclear Families
When you think nuclear family, think of the classic image of mom, dad, 2.5 kids 1/2 a dog, 1.5 cars and a house in Levittown. 

The problem is:  Does the Nuclear Family Really Exist?
Our concept of the nuclear family is a post-war (WWII) concept. While the American middle class might have lived in nuclear families in the 1950s and 1960s, many do not today, and historically, some form of extended family might have been more the rule than the exception.

In 1900, for example, the middle class was defined as a family with 6 or fewer servants! This was the top 1 or 2 percent, and included a large "extended" family.

In late 19th and early 20th centuries a new wave of immigrants came to America. Immigrants were "clogging" up American cities, scaring everyone.-- the solution: sweep through cities and collect up children, who were, in the opinion of citizens, uncared for!

In a book, Dangerous Classes and My Twenty Years of Work Among Them, Mr. Brace described the conditions children were living in and the organization formed to care for them. This care led to the "free-home-placing-out" of over 150,000 children between 1854 and the early 1930s.

How the program worked 
Children were taken in small groups of 10 to 40, under the supervision of at least one "western" agent, traveled on trains to selected stops along the way, where they were taken by families in that area. It was an early form of foster care.

By 1860, 30,500 miles of tracks had been laid. Eleven railroads met in Chicago. A person could leave Boston by railroad and reach St. Louis in three days. By 1870 the trains ran from the East coast to Omaha, Nebraska.

The history of the railroads is deeply tied to the history of the "Orphan Trains Era" in America. Railroads were the most inexpensive way to move children westward from poverty filled homes, orphanages, poor houses, and off the streets. In the west, and mid-west, Brace believed, solid, God-fearing homes could be found for the children. Food would be plentiful with pure air to breathe and a good work ethnic developed by living on a farm would help them to grow into mature responsible adults able to care for themselves.

The first group of children went to Dowagiac, Michigan, in 1854.

Annual reports of the Children's Aid Society prints selected letters from the children. Glowing reports of a good life with a caring family often closes with a wistful, "If you should see my brother, please tell him where I am." 

What Do We Make of This?  Was it shameful?
It was done in the name of philanthropy and foster programs are still controversial.
Whatever we say, it doesn't much match out idea of nuclear family. 

Where do the orphan train kids fit into the American notion of the nuclear family?

Extended Families
Most people in the world live in some sort of extended family. An extended family is any family that includes more than two generations or includes the nuclear families of siblings.

Traditional Ethnographic Extended Family,
Traditionally, extended families include all the individuals directly descended from a single individual. For example, your grandfather's three sons, their wives, children, grandchildren and so on. Generally, extended family is either patrilineal or matrilineal (more about these later).

In modern industrialized nations, families come in everyh form you can think of, including very extended families from divorces, etc. There is no socially accepted way of dealing with this kind of complexity, and there is no terminology for them!

Marriage, like family is also tough to define.

Marriage Types
Monogamy: a single man and a single woman; accounts for a relative minority of the world's societies.
Polygamy: one individual married to more than one individual Polygamy is divided into Polygyny and Polyandry. 

Polygyny and Polyandry
Polygyny is the practice of one man marrying several women.
Polyandry is the practice of one woman marrying several men.

Polygyny is extremely common-- most of the world's societies permit polygyny-- it becomes a position of status... more wives you have, more status you gain-- most people within those societies still have but one wife.

Polyandry is extremely rare, well under one percent of societies allow it (and in those that do, it is usually fraternal).

November 6, 2006

In 100% of the world's societies there is an equal number of men to women-- the supply of women is the same.... the supply of men is the same... so how do polygamous societies function?

Polyandry
Polyandry is common where it is permitted, but it is not a status position.
Fraternal polyandry is most common form --- 3 or 4 brothers marry a woman mostly to keep b rother's property together... assures inheritance will stay amongst them.
Polyandry mostly occurs where there is not a lot of land available and providing for children is difficult. It tends to exist where social or land conditions are very harsh, places like Tibet. If there are "extra" women, they tend to become celibates. 
Under 1% of all societies permit polyandry.

Polygyny

Where do the extra women come from?
Even with relatively few people married polygynously, there is still a shortage of women. 
This is generally solved by increasing the number of "marriage years" for women and decreasing it for men.  Thus, men marry relatively late in their lives but women marry relatively early. 

Example:
Imagine everyone dies at 60 years old.
If men marry at 30 that equals 30 years of marriage
If women marry at 15 that equals 45 years of marriage
Therefore, women have more years of marriage and unmarried men at near 30 remain unmarried, but there are no unmarried women past 15-18 years old.

It's not unusual in polygynous societies for a teen woman to marry a 60 or 70 year old man, usually wealthy, and usually an arranged marriage.

(Until 20th century most marriages were arranged!)

Re-marriages are common!

Wives in a polgynous marriage are called co-wives.

Polygyny is Popular
Americans overwhelmingly reject the idea of polygyny, yet huge numbers of people around the world find it extremely desirable.  Perhaps the majority of the world's population would rather be married polygynously.  Why should this be true?

Polygynous families obviously have more kids than other types of families. This is a good thing in societies where having more kids means less economic deficit and more of an economic "good deal". This is in societies where it costs less to raise a child (not in the US!!)

Numbers Behind the Numbers
In today's dollars:
In 1970, to raise a middle class American child through its 18th birthday: $140.965
In 1999, to raise a middle class American child through its 18th birthday: $236,600
Add college to that: $32,000 (four years of Texas State) or $125,864 (four years of Harvard) 

What are the chances that the average parent will see more than a quarter million dollar financial benefit from a child?

On the other hand, the less it costs to raise a child, the greater the chance of seeing financial benefit.

Is the Bottom Line the Bottom Line?
Polygyny means more kids in your family...and in many societies, more kids means more wealth. So, the choice is marry polygynously and marry wealth.  Marry monogamously and marry poverty.

The statistics show a clear disconnect between children, families and marriage.
Since children's economic value is negative, their primary value is emotional. 
Thus
:a) People decide that they don't need that and are better off without kids (consider dinks and gay couples).
b) People decide that they want kids but are just as well off without marriages (Men, in particular, may be highly motivated to leave marriages).

...and population replacement oocurs in interesting patterns:

(charts fromWarms' lecture)

In wealthy nations, kids are expensive, a poor investment of money and the population of the middle class is declining.
Having kids in poorer countries is cheap and a better investment as you children will work and thus the family will recoup their investment, and therefore polygyny is a good investment. 

In traditional societies, kinship is politics, therefore the most power goes to the largest families.

Why would a woman prefer polygyny?

In underdeveloped countries most of the domestic labor is done by women-- a wman's workload is lightened by polygyny--- there's more kids for labor.

In theory, 1st wife is boss of 2nd wife, who is boss of 3rd wife, etc. This ability to rule the roost is a powerful motivation for polygyny... an exception is when the "4th wife" is very young, but there's a "rule of equal sharing" in every polygynous culture.

(By the way--- we must remember that some form of divorce is present in all societies. In most cultures, men control divorce proceedings, but women always have ways to equalize the process.)

Protection -- Polygynous relationships, when in patriachal and patrilineal societies, offer security to a woman. When she becomes a part of  her husband's family she is a total stranger (remember most marriages are arranged)-- she will get allies in the other co-wives-- protection from possible violence from men.

Disadvantages of polygyny

Jealousy and rivalries between co-wives, especially when a man has more than 2 wives.

Dual morality for men and women. It's the man who marries polygymously-- woman are essentially monogomous. This means there is a morality gap in polygymous societies as a man can have relations with other women (they could be looking for another wife), but women cannot do the same with men. The penalties for women violating this arrangement are sometimes severe and a certain amount of brutality is accepted--- but not too much... in other words, it's okay to occasionally beat your wife... but not too much-- doing that most always creates a serious decline in a man's respect and prestige. Rewards must exceed punishments within the relationship in order for the man to gain respect.

November 13, 2006

Anomalous Marriage Types
While they are relatively rare, unusual types of marriage challenge our notions of what marriage is and what is normal. 

Three unusual forms of marriage are found among: 

The Nayar (an Indian sub-caste) 
Nayar men do not truly marry... a young girl is married to an older man, then they frequently never see each other again.. there's no sex, no living together. Marriage is not necessary in order to have descendants-- instead, Nayar children are descendant from women having sex with other Nayar men who are not married to her. Men have sex with other women, non-Nayar or in a different group within the same caste. The Nayar are matrilineal and children belong to the mother's family.

"In Nayar marriages, wives stay within the shelter of their mother’s households throughout their lives, and husbands continue to live in their mother’s households. A Nayar wife lives with her grand mother, her mother, her aunts, her uncles, her sisters, her brothers, her cousins, and assorted children. These close blood relatives provide a sympathetic reference group empowering a Nayar female at every crossroad throughout her life. A husband is allowed to visit his wife’s family compound and her apartment at her convenience." quoted from http://www.jadski.com/kerala/f4femalesexuality.htm

What is the point in all this?  The Nayar are a warrior caste--- warriors who never marry-- this gives protection and support to the matrilinear lines and creates a system of vassalage for the men.

Some West African groups
Female Husbands in Africa
In some African groups, children belong to the family of the husband in a marriage (Patrilineal)
If a wife wants children in her family, she can marry another woman.
In THAT marriage, she is the husband, and the woman's children belong to her family!
This form of marriage is reported for 30 African groups but probably most common in Benin and Nigeria.

The Indians of coastal British Columbia
Kwakiutl Man/Man Marriage 
 Among the Kwakiutl, and other NW Coast tribes, a man can marry part of another man.
So for example, I could marry the chief's right kneecap. 
Since I would then be the wife of the chief, my children would be the sons and daughters of the chief. The Chief gets more kids-- lots more kids, and with no easy method to determine a successor. It's not considered reasonable for relatives to fight... socially very unacceptible.

Totem poles are a thing only found in the northwest and they represent a particular claim of lineage and position. Lots of people have claims for any one position and so competitive feasting becomes necessary in order to win over allies, to impress them.

Of course, marriage to the Chief's kneecap requires payment of bridewealth.

November 15, 2006

What's The Point of marriage?

Marriage is about social relations, especially in the traditional world, pre-1850.

The great variation in forms of marriage point to the fact that marriage is really less about a relationship between two people who love each other than it is about alliances and inheritance between two groups of people. 

Marriage is best thought of as a contract between two groups. 
Marriage is about rights to children.

The individuals involved really may not matter too much. 
Some common social practice that really points this out are the levirate and the sororate. Both of these situations are designed to keep arrangements together, even after the death of a property-holding spouse.

In a levirate, a widow marries ("is inherited by") the deceased husband's brother, or other male member of household. Any later children produced are the original husband's children.

In a sororate, a widower marries the deceased wife's sister(s). The wife's family loses out here because they cannot arrange the marriage of that sister.

"To death do us part" means nothing in this kind of marriage.

A failure of the marriage system between families end up in sometimes deadly feuding. Property is at stake here, as are inheritances and power.

Marriage is mostly a movement of women, the other side of which is the movement of property.

Generally service, goods, and money change hands at a marriage. 
Payments come in four forms:
1. Sister Exchange: In sister exchange marriage, families agree to exchange women.
Sister exchange marriages may be cross-generational;
2. Bride Service: In bride service the groom agrees to work for the family of the bride for a specified period of time--Many times marriage rights increase over time and each culture sets parameters for this-- sometimes it is many years before the couple live together or sleep together;
3. Bridewealth: Bridewealth is a payment from the family of the husband to the family of the wife. Bridewealth is extremely common.  It functions to hold marriages together and to compensate the family of the bride for the loss of her labor-- consists of cattle, cloth, grain, money, kola nuts, etc., all negotiable items. Divorces are difficult because many times the bridewealth would need to be returned, or some other negotiated settlement;
4. Dowry: Dowry is a payment from the family of the wife to the family of the husband.
It is common in areas where land is in short supply and families difficult to support.
It is particularly common in Europe and India. Females are devalued in this system-- in theory payment is necessary for a daughter in order to support a family. Failure to pay dowry can be devastating as women have been kileed by hubands when families have failed to pay dowry.

Dowry is a very controversial thing in present-day India. Google "dowry" and you're likely to recieve many hits from anti-dowry editorials and movements. Here's a link to an editorial purporting to show flaws in the anti-dowry legislations.. a quote from which: "Destined to fail: 
The present day dowry system symbolizes the disinheritance of women and the resulting desperation of parents to push their daughters out of their homes after marrying them off. Madhu Purnima Kishwar points to inherent flaws in the anti-dowry legislation, and argues that equal inheritance is the way forward..."   India Together  July 2005

November 17, 2006

Incest Taboo
Every society splits humans into two social groups: those people one can marry (and/or have sex with) and those people one cannot.  That is to say, every society has an incest taboo. 

However, different people are in these two groups in different societies, and that makes explaining the incest taboo difficult.  Brother/sister and parent/child sex taboos are nearly universal--- in fact, in most cultures, 50% of people one knows are forbidden. 

Three explanations are generally offered but each has its problems and none seem entirely satisfactory:
1. Genetic/Biological explanation-- Whike the truest explanation in which interbreeding causes horrible defects, biology alone can not really explain this taboo. It was a taboo in cultures completely ignorant of genetics and biology;
2. Sociological explanations-- As proposed by Levi Strauss, this taboo forces you to m,arry "outside" of the family in order to create alliances between families. Having many alliances has its advantages therefore if you marry those close to you, you decrease your chances of survival in a time of stress.   Trouble with this explanation is that the explanation is about marriage and incest is about sex.
3. Instinctual explanations:  Humans have a hard-wired tendency to find people with whom they are raised sexually unappealing. However, this kind of incest happens frequently... and if this explanation were instinctual, there would need to be no taboo!

But none of these explanations is, on its own, entirely satisfactory.
 

Kinship
Kinship is distinct from family.  It is the system through which we name those who we consider our relatives.  Kinship is a system of naming, but what is in a name?

Relational names: mother, father, cousin, etc..
Biological metaphors: "father" as title for preacher, of God.
Names representing "rights and responsibilities": by using certain names for people, we are announcing the kind of behaviors and behavioral expectations we associate with that "title."

Put another way:
When we call someone a kin name, we are using words that are rooted in biology, but are actually metaphors. When we say "He is my brother." we mean the same kind of thing we mean when we say "He is a pain in the butt."
That is: An aggravating person does not literally make your rear end hurt. And a brother is not necessarily someone with whom you share genetic material.
Kin names identify behavioral roles!

There is no reason at all that all that all societies must assign kinship names similarly.

Outstanding kinship tutorials can be found at: http://www.umanitoba.ca/anthropology/kintitle.html
and at
http://daphne.palomar.edu/kinship/default.htm

Who's family are we a part of?

Female
Male
Marriage
Siblings
Descent

Are You A Member of Your Mother's Family, Or Your Father's Family?
For us, the question doesn't really make much sense.  We are members of both our mother's and our father's family.  Our system is called Bilateral Kinship and the family groups that it creates are called Kindred. (Bilateral kindred, in this case.)

Bilateral kinship systems are not the most common. There are a lot of people in this system, but the cousins of your cousins are not your cousins! Only brothers and sisters have the same kinship. Your brother-in-law's cousins are not your cousins either!

November 20, 2006
 

Unilineal Systems
Most cultures use Unilineal kinship systems reckoning their families through either their mother's line or their father's line but not both.

Most unilineal kinship systems are either patrilineal or matrilineal.
Bilateral kinship systems bind a large number of categories together loosely, unilineal systems bind a small number of categories together tightly.  You're either in the family or out of it.

Patrilineal Kinship 
Most societies are patrilineal. In a patrilineal society, children belong to the family of the father and property is usually passed from fathers to sons. 

Matrilineal Kinship
A substantial minority of societies are matrilineal. In a matrilineal society, children belong to the family of their mother but property and power pass from mother's brother to sister's son. 

Note that matrilineal societies are not matriarchal societies! Men definitely run these families... but the woman's family line determines where the property passes.

Naming Names
Since kin names refer to behavioral expectations rather than to biological realities, they can be assigned using any pattern or system one wishes to use. (Behavioral expectations as set by societies).

However, these patterns are, in large, set by societies and not individuals, and they use a specific set of criteria. 

A "kinship system" is a specific application of these criteria. 
It turns out that there are 7 criteria and 6 kinship systems.

Criteria
The criteria are different rules that are invoked in creating kinship systems.  For example, if the criterion of gender is used, individuals of one gender are called by one kin name and individuals of the another gender are called by a different name.  If the criterion of gender is not used, then individuals would be called by a single name regardless of their gender. 

The criteria are:  Gender, Generation, Lineal vs. Collateral, Consanguine vs. Afine, Sex of Linking Relative, Bifurcation (side of family), and Relative Age

Lineal vs Collateral--
Lineals are what we would call mother, father, sister, brother and your kids (but not your brother and sister's kids)-- all others are collaterals
Consanguine vs Afine --
Consanguine relatives are blood relatives, affines are, for example, your brother's wife (marriage relations, in-laws under our system)

Kin Systems
The six major kinship systems were identified by Louis Henry Morgan in his 1871 work Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family.

The criteria are found in Morgan's six different kinship systems. 
These systems are named after Native American groups.  However, they describe types that are found all over the world.  They are: Hawaiian, Eskimo, Iroquois, Omaha, Crow, Sudanese. Though they might be modified slightly, these six systems seem to describe kinship systems represented in all cultures!

An explanation of several main systems-- we won't review them all: 
(NOTE: Letters represent roles, A & B, for example, representing, respectively,  Father and Mother; C and D representing, respectively,  Brother and Sister, etc..)

So, assuming bilaterality, under the Hawaiian system Ego's (your) Mother's and Father's brothers and sisters are all called Mother and Father, and all of their kids are your brothers and sisters.

The Eskimo system is "our" system. We do not merge generations, but we do merge sex (cousins can be male or female). We pay attention to consanguinity (blood), but little to afines (marriage relations).

Here, you can see that your father's brother is considered your father also. 
Your mother's sister is considered your Mom also.

Your father's brother's children are considered your brothers and sisters-- they are your parallel cousins and marriage/sex relations with them is considered incest. The same situation is in effect for your mother's sister's children-- they too, are your siblings and are considered parallel cousins.

Your father's sister is considered your aunt, and her children are your cross-cousins.
Your mother's brother is your uncle, and his children are your cross-cousins.
Cross cousins may marry, sometimes this is the preferred arranged marriage partner.

In many societies, Iroquois sytems are matrilineal. In this situation arranged marriage with your mother's brother's kids is preferential.

from Wikipedia...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_anthropology
 

As you can see, these systems offer great variability. More on kinship rules and systems can be found here: http://era.anthropology.ac.uk/Kinship/kinIntro.html

November 27, 2006

Sex and Gender
Sex is a condition of biology.
One is born either male or female.
Gender is a social condition.
It's about roles and behaviors which society considers appropriate to male or female sexuality (usually learned behaviors). It is powerfully affected by culture.

Mangaian Sexuality 
A South Pacific group alleged to have the most active sex life of any known society (but who really knows?) [Society where people have the least amount of sex?--- In the northern Irish Islands]

Mangaian men and women are encouraged to have sex several times a day, everyday, from the time they first sense their sexuality.

Outward reserve between men and women belies very active private lives.

Notions of attractiveness very different than our own. Full-figured women and "fullback"-figured men are the sexy body types. A particular emphasis of attactiveness is the form of one's genitalia. There are hundreds of vocabulary words for types, shapes and smells of genitals.

Notion of the relationship between love and sex is the opposite of our own. Good sex, and lots of it, is what is expected to lead to love... there's no dating culture, and coitus is expected. 

{Feeling ethnocentric yet?}

November 29, 2006

Hindu Sexuality

Despite reputation for sensuality, traditional Hindu society is highly reserved.

Celibacy believed to be a requirement of holiness...and if it can't be achieved, it can at least be approximated.

Belief is linked to notions about the spiritual power of semen.  Loss of semen is understood as equivalent to loss of life force. (this belief is quite common around the world)

Semen is hard to come by (so to speak).
"40 days or 40 drops of blood to produce one drop of semen" is a commonly held belief.

As one gets older, men are meant to become more celebate because they are meant to be pursuing sprituality. Therefore women become the bewitchers, usurpers of men's spirit (semen).
 

Sambia Gender

The Sambia (a typical New Guinea group) also believe that semen is in short supply.
Young children are genderless.
However, they add the notion that children must be made into men by the receipt of semen.

In their tribal villages the Sambia segregate the sexes as much as possible. Men and women each have their own paths and meeting places. The boys have no contact whatever with the girls. Without regular ingestion of male seed, the Sambia believe, boys will never grow up into strong, mature men.  After puberty the boys enter the second phase of initiation: it is now their turn to provide seed for the benefit of the younger ones. They do this until, at around age 22, they marry. Marriage terminates the young man's ritualized-homosexual life, since once his penis has penetrated a woman's vagina it is no longer considered clean and it would be dangerous for any other male to touch it. 

December 1, 2006

And Then, Of Course, There Were the Greeks...

(illustration from Warms' lecture notes)
This scene, from 550 BCE illustrates the erastes/eromenos relationship.

The model for homoerotic attachments in antiquity was that of elder erastes (lover, pursuer, and active participant) and younger eromenos (beloved, pursued and passive participant). Individuals did not switch roles as the mood struck, and at least in Athens, coeval partnerships were frowned on. 

Berdache/Two-Spirit
The Hyper-male/Hyper-female And The Warrior Society 
In many societies there were men who dressed as women and took women's roles. 
The berdache, or two-spirit among many Native American groups is typical.

The berdache was a "super-woman" and consorting with a berdache or marrying one was understood as adding to the warrior's masculinity. 

From Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-Spirit:
 

19th Century Plains Indian cultures were unusual. This was a culture which came to focus on the horse, a non-native breed, but one which had opened up so many possibilities for them. These were farmers who gave up farming in part because the horse made it so much easier to hunt buffalo-- to hunt nearly anything. Mobility given by the horse made possible the whole trading post network.

Warfare gained incredible mobility and speed. 
Being a warrior escalated to becoming the hyper-warrior--- brave, courageous, perhaps foolhardy-- 
there was the daring "counting coup".
from http://www.fourwindsnp.com/dance_coup_sticks/
"The ultimate act of bravery was to get close enough to touch an enemy with a coup stick and let him live (and also survive himself!) This allowed him to claim some of his opponents medicine or spiritual powers. 

A warrior who was really brave might even touch an enemy with his bare hand. If he also killed his enemy, after touching him and finally scalped him, he could count three coups. Stealing a horse from an enemy would entitle a warrior to count coup also. He could count coup by dashing into the enemy's village and striking a tepee or lodge and then was said to have "captured" the tepee. Whatever design or symbol was painted on the enemy tepee the warrior could paint on his own. 

Should a warrior count coup on an enemy tepee, enter and touch a live enemy, finally kill and scalp him and on his way out of camp steal a horse he would have plenty to boast about!"

Warms postulates that hyper-female entities were needed for these kinds of hyper-male entities.

Hijras

The Hijras are a third-gender group: neither male nor female.
They are devotees of the fertility goddess Bahuchara and their dancing performances bring fertility to newly married couples and new born babies.
Hijra are born male but undergo voluntary castration. They are thus, eunuchs.

info from http://www.worldpress.org/Asia/845.cfm
"The Hijra code, a set of unwritten rules, compels all those who join to wear women’s clothing and to have women’s hairdos. They are often taken for women, but their goal is not to fool other people. “No,” says Farrah, “everyone should see that we are Hijras and are proud of it.” In truth, you can spot Hijras at a distance from the way they clap their hands as they go through the bazaars in the afternoon, making obscene gestures and rude remarks in front of shops where customers hang out. Everyone knows that the Hijras will leave only when the shop owner gives them money, usually 10-20 rupees [US20-41 cents]. They are offensive and mocking, not so much because they want to be, but because tradition demands it. That is their job.

Hijras are considered dangerous. They can bestow not only blessings but also curses. The curse of childlessness is wielded as a weapon against anyone who makes fun of them or refuses to give them money. But usually the Hijras bestow blessings, as only blessings bring them money, up to 1,000 rupees (officially worth about $20 but actually worth about $340 in purchasing power).The attitude of Pakistanis toward Hijras is contradictory: Some accept them, others hate them, many fear them, many are amazed by them, a few like them, many make fun of them, and no one invites them in. They are considered unclean, and only their lovers eat with them at the same table. “Only a Hijra can understand another Hijra!” claims Farrah. Even for me, after living with them for months, they remain mysterious and incomprehensible. Once, when I ventured to doubt a bold assertion, Farrah warned me impishly, “Just be careful, all Hijras lie!”"

Read more about Hijras here: http://www.thingsasian.com/stories-photos/2022

Interestingly, there are no social institutions where women act similarly to the men in the above examples. It seems to be an idiosyncratic thing for women. No one knows for sure why, but perhaps it is because men are redundant and women are not. It's easy for cultures to absorb alternative roles for men because they do not have children.

The point of examining all of these variations is to see that humanity is so diverse in its attitudes and behaviors. 

Worldview
We experience the world through our senses.  But they react only to light, sound, and other stimuli.  Our brains must somehow make sense out of these.
From a strictly sensory perspective, it is a random world upon which our brains must impose some sort of meaning.

Imposing Meaning
Cultures impose a more-or-less systematic thread of meaning on random reality.
We use certain underlying fundamental principles to discover the thread of meaning that holds the random events of the world together and helps us make sense of the chaos.
Anthropologists call these threads of meaning worldviews.

Limited Good
Some anthropologists have argued that many peasants live in a world of limited good.
The fundamental element of their meaning is that all things exist in finite supply.
If you believe this is the case and some are rich, where did they get their wealth? 

If you are rich, how are you going to behave?

American Worldview
So, do Americans have a worldview? 
If we do, what are its basic elements?
1) Unlimited good.
2) Atheoretical pragmatism.
3) Individualism versus conformity.
4) Effort optimism (Kluckhohn)

Religion
Religion is a human universal in that every group has something that anthropologists identify as religion. Things are complicated however, because not all groups have words for religion or understand what they do in the same way Westerners understand religion. 

Defining Religion
It is tempting to define religion as simply belief in the supernatural.   However, that doesn't work well.  Is the existence of "supernatural" entities really supernatural if you believe in them?
One way we can define religion is by the characteristics we would be likely to find in all religions.

Religions are Composed of Stories
We can call these sacred narratives or myths. 
They offer explanation of origins, morality, fate, and so on.
They may be historically accurate or not but are held to be "true"  (whatever that means).
They are myths in the sense that they have common characteristics such as non-human characters, mystery, and the bending of natural law. 
But, keep in mind that in this sense, Jesus or Moses or the Buddha is every bit as mythic as Zeus or Hercules. 

Non Empirical Worlds
Not all religions propose that supernatural entities such as gods and spirits exist.  But all propose that there is a reality that is beyond the ability of any form of science to measure.  This is a reality that is non-empirical.  Non-empirical reality may be filled with gods, spirits, powers, ancestors...or as in the case of Buddhism, nothing at all. 

Rituals
Religions all have rituals in which the people interact with the empirical. 
Ritual is the principal observable manifestation of religion.

Symbolism
Religions include central symbols.
Emotion, meaning, values, and practice may all be bound up in simple objects or ideas.
In ritual, symbols are properly manipulated, but great emotional impact may also be had by improper manipulation of symbols.

Specialists
Every religion has people who specialize in its practice.  These are generally divided into two categories: Priests and Shamans.

Priests Full-Time Office holder, Training, State Societies, Exclusive
Shamans Part-time Independent, Contact, All Societies, Allows Others 

Altered States
All religions provide at least some of their members with what members of the religion interpret as authentic experiences of non-empirical reality.  This is done through the use of some means of reaching a trance state... an altered state of consciousness.  Means of doing this include music, dance, meditation, pain, and drugs.

Variability in Religion
 Note that one thing that is missing from our description of religion is a set of beliefs that everyone subscribes to.  It would be nice if, under all the ritual there was a set of principles believed by all the worlds people.  However, this is not the case.

What Religion Does:  Explaining the Unknown 
Religions offer explanations of events and conditions of existence that seem otherwise inexplicable. 
There is nothing that is explained by every religion, but some typical topics are the origins of the earth, the origins of people, and what happens after death.

What Religion Does:  Offers Meaning
Religions provide a reasonably coherent model of the way the world is "supposed" to be.  Within this model, they lend meaning to life and action. This is particularly important in times of social or personal stress.

What Religion Does: Supports Social Order 
Religion supports the social order.
People overwhelmingly tend to understand non-empirical reality as a mirror image of their social reality. In "normal" times, everyone believes their society is they way that religion says society is supposed to be (or at least the best available approximation).

Prayer and Magic
Prayer and Magic are two different ways of doing religion.
All religions use both prayer and magic, but how can we distinguish between the two?

Prayer has nothing to do with the position of your hands. Most prayer functions as praise, petition, or is done to increase the sanctity of the actor. When people pray, they do so with the belief that the non-empirical acts according to its own agenda.  The results of prayer are ultimately unknowable. 

Magic is always done in petition. When people do magic, they do so in the belief that their words and actions compel the non-empirical world.  If the practitioner does the right actions, then the result in guaranteed.

Differences Can Be Subtle 
Most Christians don't think of baptism as magical, but it is.
Christians believe that if the right ceremony is done by the right person, the baptism has taken place.
God never looks down and says "gad what an ugly kid, I'm not going to baptize that one!

Principles of Magic: Similarity
One of the key principles by which magic operates is similarity.  The notion is that objects that are in some way similar are magically connected, such that doing something to one results in something happening to the other. The Voodoo Doll is a classic example of this type of magic.

Principles of Magic: Contagion

Shroud of Turin

Contagion is the notion that objects once in contact retain magical connection.

Sacrifice
If Prayer is asking and Magic is compelling, then what is sacrifice?... Bribing!
In sacrifice we attempt to increase the efficacy of our prayers by offering to give something up.

Types of Ritual
As anthropologists analyze ritual, they find many different types,
But all societies have Rites of Passage and Rites of Intensification.

Rites of Passage
Rites of passage are rituals that mark public changes of status.
Baptisms, coming of age, weddings, and funerals are all rites of passage.

Rites of Intensification
All societies have rites of intensification as well. Rites of intensification serve to bring people together and give them a sense of identity that is useful in generating common action.

Changing Cultures
Cultures are constantly changing.
Two critical processes of culture change are diffusion and innovation.

But, to say that culture is always changing does not mean that all cultures change at the same speed.
Historically, in most places, culture change seems to have been relatively slow.  But, in the past several hundred years, it has speeded up enormously.

Europe, 1000 AD
We think about European society as being wealthy and advanced, but 1000 years ago, things were pretty primitive. Much more going on in the Middle East, China, Africa, and the Americas.
The story of culture change is, to a great degree, the story of European rise to wealth and power.
The other side of that story is the fall of the wealthy powers of a thousand years ago and creation of a global economic system that, for better or worse, affects all the world's cultures.

An Advantage of Backwardness
Europe was relatively weak: composed of competing feudal mini-states.
Starting in 1095, the Crusades begin to bring Europeans together in large scale enterprises.
The Crusades were ultimately disastrous militarily but they accomplished several ends that proved critical to future European success: They created new trade and new wealth; They created a critical alliance between aristocrats and merchant/bankers.

Merchants and Banks
To finance the Crusades, and enlarging their realm, European rulers turned to merchants and bankers.
The result was a dynamic linkage between wealth and power.
This set the stage for the expansion of European power and the creation of an global network of wealth.

Two Worlds
Starting in the 15th century, Europeans began pushing out in search of wealth, power, and God.
There are many tales of the mercantile and colonial age, but there are two essentially different themes: the Atlantic World and the Indian World.

Disease and the Fate of the World
In the Americas, Europeans confronted a largely empty continent.  Disease ravaged native populations, oft times in advance of European contact.
In Africa and the Indian Basin, Europeans and natives died in equal numbers.

Critical result: Europeans were able to take over the Americas with relative ease. 

In Africa and the Indian Ocean, Europeans and natives fought to a relative standstill.  Europeans were unable to fully control most places until the 19th century (if they ever did at all).

Stock Companies and Slavery
The inability of Europeans to conquer in the East meant that the story there was largely one of trade...the spice trade was most important. In the West, the story was one of, first pillage, then sugar and settlement.

Pillage and Plunder
Of course, the first way the Americas were exploited was with the pillage and plunder of precious metals.  These went on to create Spanish and Portuguese wealth and power in Europe (and mostly ended up in China).

Sugar
Surprisingly, it was sugar that proved to be critical.

Humans have a universal taste for sugar.  Thus, almost any amount that is produced will be consumed.  But, historically Europeans considered it a rare spice. In the New World, Europeans discovered an ideal location for growing sugar.

Slavery
Producing sugar in the Caribbean and in South America was a road to wealth and power.  However, producing sugar required lots of labor.

The principal source of this labor was slaves brought from West Africa.  The vast majority of slaves were shipped from West Africa to the Caribbean and South America to labor on sugar plantations.

Capital to the Capitol
The wealth produced in the Caribbean was returned to England (and North America).
In these places, it provided substantial funding for the enlightenment and the industrial revolution.

However, in addition to the loss of millions through disease and hardship, this process had other critical effects:
1. Communities in Africa, the Americas, and Europe were brought into a vast trading network.
2. They entered in ways that created poverty and instability for them, but wealth and power for Europeans.

The Modern World
World historic processes have left us with a modern world of really savage inequity.
Consider: the table below shows the world's ten most populous countries by their population and GNP in 2000 

Real Effects
These are not just numbers.  The level of poverty has real effects on real people.  Consider the following infant mortality rates:
 

Poor nations and peoples of the world face a series of critical problems. 
These include
1. Very low levels of living
2. High levels of population growth.
3. High levels of pollution
4. Unprecedented Urbanization
5. Dominance, dependence, and vulnerability in economic and political relations. 

Low Levels of Living
About one quarter of the world's population lives on a dollar a day or less.
Hundreds of millions of people are deprived of things that we consider essential. 
Consider:

Population Pressure
World population has reached unprecedented levels. 

1. On the one hand, population growth seems to be critical to the generation of wealth.  All rich nations experienced high levels of population growth; 
2. On the other hand:
a) population growth has never been as high as it has in the past 40 years. 
b) providing basic services to rapidly expanding populations is extremely difficult.

How Many People?

How many people can the earth support?  No one knows.
Ultimately, the question is not about resources but about quality of life and biodiversity.

Urbanization
Many of the world's biggest cities are in poor nations. 
How can poor governments provide basic services to cities of more than 20,000 people?

Five biggest cities today:
Tokyo 26.8 million 
Sao Paulo 16.4 million 
New York 16.3 
Mexico City 15.6 
Bombay 15.1 

Five biggest cities in 2015
Tokyo 28.7 million 
Bombay 27.4 
Lagos 24.4 
Shanghai 23.4 
Jakarta 21.2 

Multi National Corporations
Top 10 MNCs
General Electric (US)
ExxonMobil Corp. (US)
Royal Dutch Shell Group (Netherlands/UK)
General Motors (US)
Ford (US)
Toyota (Japan)
Daimler-Chrysler (Germany)
TotalFina (France)
IBM (US)
BP (UK)

Consider:
Seven of the top 10 MNCs and 10 of the top 40 had worldwide sales in excess of $100 billion in 1999.
Any three of them account for more sales than the gross national income of all of sub-Saharan Africa.
Any four of the are larger than the economy of India
Four of the top ten are individually larger than Indonesia
The top seven together are larger than China.

Instability
The burden of instability falls disproportionately on the world's poor.

In the 20th century people predicted the emergence of superstates and world government.  Instead, the past twenty five years have seen the breakup of large states in Europe and to some degree in Africa and Asia.

Improvements in technology and manufacturing have made advanced means of communication, weaponry, and data manipulation that were once the prerogative of wealthy country governments into consumer items.

What's an anthropologist to do?

End of Course