1. Marriage & Family

2. A Family Is…. A social unit of two or more people
Blood, marriage, adoption
Household: living arrangement
Family of orientation: experience socialization
Family of procreation: formation of family through children
Legal or blood ties

3. Kinship network based on family ties
Pattern of descent: tracing kinship over generations
Basic needs
Production of goods
Allocation of power
Transfer of property
Matrilineal: through mother’s side
Patrilineal: through father’s side
Bilateral: both sides

4. Family Types Extended: network of parents, children, other relatives
fictive kin (Stack 1974)
“othermothers” (Collins 1990)
“compadrazgo”
Nuclear: parents, children
Developed out of industrialization & suburbanization
“Isolated”

5. Marriage
Legal, cultural, and/or socially approved arrangement by 2 (or more) people
Romantic love & intimacy
Economic cooperation
Alliance between families

6. Cultural Variations of Marriage
Monogamy: one spouse
Serial monogamy
Endogamy: within group
Exogamy: outside group
Polygamy: multiple wives
Polyandry: multiple husbands

7. Mate Selection, Or: More to Marriage Than Just Love
Marriage Resources
Homogamy: similar characteristics
Outside influences
Demographics
Sex ratio
Geography
“Marriage Market”