Native Culture Outline Lecture II

Social Organization Family vs. Kin –Family: relation by Blood (consanguineous) Marriage (affinal or conjugal) Fiat (fictive) Comes in nuclear or extended varieties –Kin: socially recognized descent relationship Bilateral (down both sides) Unilineal descent (one side of the tree only) –Matrilineal –Patrilineal

Social Organization, cont. Descent Group –Group of people who claim descent from a common ancestor Lineage – demonstrable descent from a named individual Clan – group of related lineages who claim descent from a common (usually legendary or mythical) ancestor Moiety – group of related clans claiming further distant ancestral relation. No more than two moieties in a society.

Marriage A socially recognized contract between one or more men and one or more women establishing rights and responsibilities of household work, legitimacy of children, and ties between families Love versus Economics –Bridewealth/brideprice –Dowry Polygamy or Monogamy? –Polygyny versus Polyandry Levirate or Sororate Endogamy or exogamy? (in or out) Residence patterns –Matrliocal/Patrilocal/Avuncolocal

Social Status & Control All societies have status by age and sex Many were generally egalitarian though With social complexity comes stratification Associations or sodalities –Age Grades and sets –Sex –Common Interest –Medicine Societies

Politics A system for distribution of power in a society Bands –No central leader –Decisions by consensus –Small group size, autonomous from other groups –Associated with foragers Tribes –No central leader (council) or leadership by a headman –Autonomous local groups tied together into larger entity –Larger populations (hunters, pastoralists or horticulturists) –Heavy use of sodalities to tie groups together, still egalitarian Chiefdoms –Hereditary leadership –Stratified society –Large groups of horticulturists or agriculturists States

Economics System for the production (or collection), distribution, and consumption of resources in a society Reciprocity –Exchange of goods/services without money General (no set time or amount of return) Balanced (set time and/or amount of return) Negative (attempt to get something for nothing) Redistribution –Collection of goods by central power for later disbursement Prestige Economics –Giving away wealth in exchange for status (Potlatching) –Often acts as a leveling mechanism in society Market Exchange