UCSP 5.1 - Cultural, social and political institutions

Cultural, social and political institutions

1. Kinship, marriage, and the household
a. Kinship by blood Descent and marriage (unilineal, matrilineal, patrilineal, bilateral)
b. Kinship by marriage Marriage rules cross-culturally (monogamy vs. polygamy, post-marital residency rules, referred marriage partners)
c. Kinship by ritual (Compadrazgo)
d. Family and the household Nuclear, extended, and reconstituted families (separated, transnational)
e. Politics of kinship (political dynasty, alliances)

REFERENCE: https://www.slideshare.net/abyko/kinship-marriage-and-the-household

2. Political and leadership structures
a. Political organization
i. Bands
ii. Tribes
iii. Chiefdoms
iv. States and nations
b. Authority and legitimacy
i. Traditional
ii. Charismatic
iii. Rational

3. Economic Institutions
a. Reciprocity
b. Transfers
c. Redistribution
d. Market transactions
e. Markets and state

4. Nonstate institutions
a. Banks and corporations
b. Cooperatives and trade unions
c. Transnational advocacy groups
d. Development agencies
e. International organizations
5. Education
a. Functions of education in society (formal and nonformal)
i. Productive citizenry
ii. Self-actualization
iii. Primary education as a human right

6. Religion and belief systems
a. Animism
b. Polytheism
c. Monotheism
d. Institutionalized religions
e. Separation of church and state

7. Health
a. Culture-specific syndromes and illnesses (e.g., “bughat”, ”usog”/”buyag”)
b. Systems of diagnosis, prevention, and healing (e.g., traditional, western, alternative healing systems)
c. Health as a human right
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KINSHIP 

• The bond of blood or marriage binds people together in a group. 
• According to the Dictionary of Anthropology, kinship system includes socially recognized relationships based on supposed as well as actual genealogical ties. 
• These relationships are the result of social interaction and recognized by society.

TYPES OF KINSHIP

• Affinal Kinship Relationships based upon marriage or cohabitation between collaterals (people treated as the same generation) 

• Consanguineous Kinship Connections between people that are traced by blood.

KINSHIP BY BLOOD

• Descent Systems Kinship is reckoned in a number of different ways around the world, resulting in a variety of types of descent patterns and kin groups. Anthropologists frequently use diagrams to illustrate kinship relationships to make them more understandable.

• Unilineal Descent  This traces descent only through a single line of ancestors, male or female. Both males and females are members of a unilineal family, but descent links are only recognized through relatives of one gender. 
  The two basic forms of unilineal descent are referred to as patrilineal and matrilineal.

• Patrilineal Descent Both males and females belong to their father's kin group but not their mother's. However, only males pass on their family identity to their children. A woman's children are members of her husband's patrilineal line. The red people in the diagram below are related to each other patrilineally.

• Matrilineal Descent  The form of unilineal descent that follows a female line. When using this pattern, individuals are relatives if they can trace descent through females to the same female ancestor. While both male and female children are members of their mother's matrilineal descent group, only daughters can pass on the family line to their offspring. The green people below are related to each other matrilineally.

• Bilineal Descent  When both patrilineal and matrilineal descent principles are combined

Kinship by Marriage

Marriage is an institution that admits men and women to family life. 

Edward Westermarck defined marriage as the more or less durable connection between male and female lasting beyond the mere act of propagation till after the birth of offspring. 

Lowie defined it as a relatively permanent bond between permissible mates. 

Malinowski defined marriage as a contract for the production and maintenance of children. 

According to Lundberg Marriage consists of the rules and regulations that define the rights, duties, and privileges of husband and wife with respect to each other.

MONOGAMY  is the practice of having only one spouse at one time. In some cases, monogamy means having only one spouse for an entire life span. Out of the different types of marriages, monogamy is the only one that is legal in the United States and in most industrial nations. 

• Social monogamy: Two persons/creatures that live together, have sex with one another, and cooperate in acquiring basic resources such as food, clothes, and money. 

• Sexual monogamy: Two persons/creatures that remain sexually exclusive with one another and have no outside sex partners. 

• Genetic monogamy: Two partners that only have offspring with one another. 

• Marital monogamy: Marriages of only two people. 

• Serial monogamy: A series of relationships. One person has only one partner at a time and then moves on to another partner after severing the relationship with the first.

Polygamy is a Greek word meaning "The practice of multiple Marriage". 

It is a marriage pattern in which an individual is married to more than one person at a time. Ex: Tiwi (North Australia) 

Two different types of Polygamy: 

•  Polygyny is the practice of one man having more than one wife or sexual partner at a time. Ex: Mormonism 

• Polyandry involves one woman having multiple husbands, within Polyandry, there are many variations on the marriage style. fraternal polyandry (Ex: Tibet and Nepal) secondary marriage (Ex: Northern Nigeria and Northern Cameroon)

Four major residence patterns: 

Neolocal Residence is most common with North American couples. This is where the couple finds their own house, independent of all family members. 

Patrilocal Residence is most commonly used with herding and farming societies. It’s where the married couple lives with the husband’s father’s family. By living with the husband’s family, it lets all the men, (the father, brothers, and sons) continue to work together on the land. 

Matrilocal Residence is most familiar among horticultural groups. It’s where the couple moves to live where the wife grew up; usually found with matrilineal kinship systems. 

Avunculocal Residence is also related in matrilineal societies however in this case the couple moves to live with the husband’s mother’s brother. They live with the most significant man, his uncle because it’s who they will later inherit everything from.

 Ritual Kinship Compadrazgo 

Ritual kinship in the form of godparenthood 

 Parents selected godparents for a child at his or her baptism, confirmation, and marriage. 

The godparents were then tied to the parents as co-parents. 

Ideally, co-parents should be a married couple; they were preferred because their unions were typically more stable and they were more likely to be able to provide a home for the child should the need arise. 

In most communities, however, there were not enough couples to serve as godparents for all children, so single women of good reputation were frequently chosen. 

It was important that the person asked should be of proper character and good standing in the community.

Family and The Household

• Nuclear Family A family consisting of a married man & woman and their biological children. The main issue for children is to help them under- stand that their two-parent, heterosexual family is a fine family, and is one kind among many other kinds of families

• Extended Family  A family where Grandparents or Aunts and Uncles play major roles in the children’s upbringing. This may or may not include those relatives living with the children. These family members may be in addition to the child’s parents or instead of the child’s parents.

• Conditionally Separated Families A family member is separated from the rest of the family. This may be due to employment far away; military service; incarceration; hospitalization. They remain significant members of the family.

• Transnational family These families live in more than one country. They may spend part of each year in their country of origin returning to the U.S. on a regular basis. The child may spend time being cared for by different family members in each country

Politics of Kinship

Kinship politics is commonly found in tribal societies across the world where kin genealogy is applied to determine the system of communal leadership. It is the traditional pattern of bequeathing political power family members. 

Kinship politics is built based on the classic political principle: blood is thicker than water. It asserts that power should be distributed among family members. 

For the sake of family security, power should not be seized from those who have kinship connections and must be circulated only among those who are tied by blood.

Political dynasties have long been present in the Philippine political structure. 

Political dynasties started emerging after the Philippine Revolution when the First Republic of the Philippines was established. Over the years, newer dynasties emerged as some of the initial ones became inactive. The majority of the positions in the Philippine government are currently held by members of political dynasties. Notable Philippine political dynasties include the Aquino and Marcos families.