study guide fo anthropology final exam

What is a unilineal descent group?
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Terms in this set (36)
What is a unilineal descent group?
establishes descent group membership exclusively through male or the female line
patrilineal, matrilineal
What is the difference between matrilineal and patrilineal descent groups?
partilineal - males control distribution, nearby warfare
matrilineal - females are primary farmers, males: hunters and long distance trade, more distant trade
Define lineage
composed of all of those people who believe that they can specify the parent-child links that connect them to one another through a common ancestor
define clan
when members of a descent group believe that they are in some way connected but cannot specify the precise genealogical links
Group of lineages that assume descent from a common distant, symbolic ancestor distant, symbolic ancestor
larger than lineages
what are the functions of descent groups?
-Mechanism for inheriting property and political office
-Control behavior
-Regulate marriages
-Structure primary political units
- religious and economic needs
- political leadership, military organization
Describe the traditional marriage, family and kinship patterns of the Cherokee Indians.
- They had a matrilocal residence where men lived in the household of his wife's lineages,
- polygamy for men was common, they commonly terminated their marriages and would go back to their mothers lineAGE
- Women had considerable sexual freedom and that the indians were casual about sex
- women worked communally in large fields
Describe the traditional gender roles and status of Cherokee women.
Women farmed in a society that depended primarily on agriculture for subsistence, women performed most of the manual labor with men assisting only clearing fields and planting corn
What's the difference between sex and gender?
Sex is biological such as male, female, and intersex. Gender is what someone identifies their sex to be, socially constructed as masculine and feminine.
What were the impacts of Europeans and European Americans on Cherokee economic, political, kinship and gender systems?
- Indians became culturally indistinguishable from their white neighbors, they owned plantation, operated successful businesses, attended christian churches, promoted formal legal and judicial systems and wrote and conversed in the English language
- emergence of Cherokee elite class (recognized as leaders)
- elites must adopt cult of true woman hood, have marriage
- The introduction of new technologies, crops, etc. change gender work rules
- move male elite leaders to partlineal descent systems
- adopt euro American view of them as less civilized
the shift in gender roles
Mission schools provided elementary education for girls as well as boys. Examinations took place annually and were attended by parents, learned bible history and hymns,
Mastery of the domestic arts was an essential part of the girls education
Girls milked, set tables, cooked meals, washed dishes, sewed clothing, did laundry
Hoping to exert influence in their own homes