Social Structure
Paper Abstracts

Stephanie B.
The Honor-Shame Complex and the Value of Female Chastity

In identifying the cultural values of societies worldwide, it becomes evident that female chastity prior to marriage and female fidelity during marriage have varying degrees of importance. However, in nearly every society where such chastity and fidelity are valued, a double standard exists that emphasizes the purity of females over that of males. The purpose of this paper is to survey the occurrences and variations of this phenomenon in cross-cultural examples, and to explore various theories of why female chastity is valued in some societies but not others. In addition, this paper will examine how female purity is related to specific social structures, in particular those complex societies that are patrilineal or patrilocal and involve dowry exchanges, and will consider the various controls that are used to limit female sexuality, ranging from restricted male contact to clitoridectomy and infibulation.

Carl M.
Mate Selection Criteria and Preferences

Cross culturally there appears to be some shared standards of what constitutes beauty, similarly though, there are many differences in the qualities looked for in a mate. I intend to examine the reasons behind the cross culturally shared characteristics of preferred mates and examine whether or not those characteristics are favored for the same reasons. Perhaps the most interesting question I wish to explore is why different societies favor different characteristics in mates, and are these differences accounted for simply by culture? I hope to examine these questions from both the male and female perspectives. I am interested in how my findings will apply to our own society and what changes we may see in mate selection criteria in the future. Age, wealth and aspiration are some factors I will attempt to include in my perspectives on mate selection. Sources I intend to refer to include, David Buss (Evolution of desire), Don Symons (The evolution of Human Sexuality) as a starting point, from which I will then attempt to bring in others sources as appropriate.

Nick H.
Marriage and the Malevolent Witch

At some point in their respective histories, nearly all (if not all) societies held beliefs of individuals as practioners of evil powers possessing ways of inflicting some sort of mystical harm on other members of a society. This idea of malevolent witchcraft, however, extends far beyond a simple explanation of witches representing scapegoats resulting from hysteria due to personal or social misfortunes. Rather, the idea of the evil witch stems from underlying social attitudes at work. Sanders writes that “their selection in not random” (1995:205). Similarly, Needham states that the “synthetic image” of the witch is associated with particular “social concerns” (1978:42-45). Noted social historian Christina Larner argued that understanding the phenomenon of witchcraft is partly led by understanding family life (Larner 1984:ix). This paper attempts to interpret the role of witchcraft within the context of family structure. This study essentially argues that many of the accusations of witchcraft indeed stem from fears rooted in individual’s desires to maintain their family lines. While this is a universal concern, this paper also predicts that there will be cross-cultural differences in who is accused as a witch as well as what they are accused of in monogamous versus polygamous societies.

Mara G.
Who is Illegitimate and Why? – A Look at Illegitimacy and Legitimacy in England

The rules for legitimacy and illegitimacy are not universal, yet every culture classifies its children into valid and invalid. A review of the literature, particularly by Teichman, Hendrix, and Davis, has indicated that legitimacy is a status of marriage. This status is determined by several factors including race, class, inheritance patterns, lineage systems, the role of fathers, and the position of women. European and sub-Saharan African cultures use these factors differently to validate the boundaries separating the legitimate from the illegitimate. Until as recently as thirty years ago, English culture asserted that a man had to be proven to be the legal father of a child in order for it to be considered legitimate and the most successful way to prove legitimacy was through marriage. In comparison, Evans-Pritchard’s research on the Nuer has shown that as a patrilineal group the legitimacy of their children is based not only on marriage but on the strong sense of paternal kinship felt in the culture as well. Another contrast is Malinowski’s study of the Trobriand Islanders, a matrilineal society that has a much simpler concept of legitimacy, for all children born to a mother belong to her line, yet there is still a preference for marriage. Thus it was through the institution of marriage that the concept of illegitimacy was formed. The tentative focus of this paper will be to examine illegitimacy as directly related to marriage in English culture using the Nuer and Trobriand Islanders as non-English cultural comparisons.

Katherine C.
Matrifocal Families

There are many reasons why women end up raising children without a man in their household. Divorce, death of their spouse, deciding not to marry the father of their child, or deciding to go it alone and use a sperm donor, can all be stated reasons for this situation. In studies of this family form, there are some conditions that researchers think may lead to large numbers of matrifocal families within a particular culture: poverty, in places where female opportunities are greater than those for males (either higher income or more reliable employment), and in places where male absenteeism is common due to economic factors- like being a migratory laborer so that you can send remittances home to support your family. In my experience, all of these situations apply in Jamaica and much of the study of matrifocal families has been conducted in the Caribbean. I plan to compare the literature on matrifocal families in the Caribbean to that of Sweden where several studies have also been done, and to research on this subject in the US, to see if there are differences in reasons for why people end up living in this type of family form.

Sara K.
Title: Factors in Mate Selection

My research paper will deal with the topic of mate selection and attractiveness. I will research and discuss the qualities that people find desirable when considering a potential mate. The qualities that women and men find attractive in the opposite sex, of course, are going to differ, in every culture. I will go into depth discussing the reasons men and women differ in this area, and how it has shaped our culture today, as well as other cultures. There is much complexity in the factors that go into why there is such a difference in this area between men and women. Each culture is surely different in how it ranks the importance of the different qualities they find attractive in the opposite sex. I will discuss the different contexts under which qualities are placed higher than others, and tell possible reasons why some societal characteristics have an impact on the desirable qualities in selecting a mate. What a person may find attractive when seeking a mate is due to both biological and cultural factors. I will discuss how culture can amplify either of these areas (biological or cultural factors), and influence people’s choices in desirable factors of mate selection. Some of the factors people find attractive in their mate that I will discuss include physical attractiveness, economic/monetary influences, kindness and understanding, social status, age, family and kinship ties, with a possibility of others.


Joseph T.
Adoption and Conflict within the Family

The study that I will be conducting will consist of families that already have children. These families will have adopted children or step children living in the households. I will be asking questions such as why do adopted children in these households seem to be left out? Why do parents see their biological children as more important than those that have been adopted into the family? Many times adopted children in these families are given less support by the family (mother or father) and also relatives. Why does this lack of support occur? For data I will try to find statistics from SPSS to back up what goes on in these households. What would be the effects that are embedded in these children or adults as they grow older? All these questions bring to mind past childhood experiences and life long lessons. I will try to discover more information on these questions that have plagued the lives of many adopted kids. Also I will research adoption as a positive occurrence in our society today and how many young youth have benefited from being adopted.

Jarod Johnson
Parental Investment Across Affluence

Levels of investment in children range across the nation and across the world. Analysis of parental investment in the United States as compared to other societies globally is the primary focus of this paper. Debate about the generalizability of parental investment to contemporary US society continues today. Gaulin and Robbins’s (1991) study of birth statistics is often cited as to illustrated that the Trivers-Willard Hypothesis does influence resource allocation in the US. However, later studies such as Freese and Powell (1999) showed an opposite result, countering the Trivers-Willard Hypothesis. Recently Keller, Nesse, and Hofferth (2001) found no effect of the Trivers-Willard Hypothesis for the US. Data for other, less affluent societies exists, and will be examined for this paper. One question that has been raised focuses on the applicability of this idea to such an affluent society. The effectiveness of differing measures will also be part of this paper, as comparison of parental investment hinges on vastly different, but hopefully comparable measures of resource allocation.


Elly L.
Socially Approved Roles for Homosexuals and Transvestites

In this paper I plan to analyze the roles that homosexual and cross-dressing members of society play. It appears to be uncommon that homosexuality and cross-dressing is permitted, and even more uncommon to be given social roles. There will be analysis of what role they play economically and how they fit into the social structure of the community. I plan to look at two to three societies with socially accepted homosexual roles, including the roles of the North American Berdache. In relation to the people in these societies I will try to answer the following questions: What unique roles do they play in the society? Do they marry, whether it is a same sex partnership or not, and if it is not than do they have children? Do they continue their roles after marrying someone of the opposite sex? How do they relate to their families and what roles do they play in their families? What roles do they play in the economy? I will conclude with a summary of the results and compare and contrast the roles in the different societies.

Joni G.
African AIDS Orphans: Overextending the Extended Family

Many of the countries in Africa are facing a crisis of epidemic proportions with the rise of AIDS/HIV cases in some countries up to sixty percent. With the direct complications caused by this fatal disease there are also many indirect problems that families are facing when it comes to dealing with the children of AIDS victims after their parents die and they are left looking for someone to care for them. The number of AIDS orphans in Africa is rising by the thousands daily and this leaves aunts, uncles, and grandparents searching for ways to provide for extra children as well as their own. In some cases family members, possibly also suffering from AIDS, do not have the means to provide for more children and that leaves the oldest child with the burden of provisioning for their younger siblings. Child headed households are becoming much more common because there simply isn’t enough facilities to take on all the abandoned orphans. Children are often forced to commit crimes in order to feed their siblings and themselves. Burglary and begging for handouts is sometimes the only way they can come up with the things that they need to live. Child prostitution is another way that orphans, especially female, gain money for their families, but this solution to monetary problems often results in contact with AIDS infected individuals that lead to them contracting the disease or becoming pregnant when they can’t provide for themselves let alone a new child.

Another dilemma facing these children is that without the guidance of parents or adult role models, they are loosing their culture and education with the death of their parents. The knowledge that has been passed from generation to generation for centuries about their culture as well as education about subsistence activities that will allow them to continue the family business, such as cattle or goat herding, is not being transmitted to the new generation. The future of this generation of parentless children is very uncertain, and without help many of them will, like their parents, die from AIDS or at best struggles to make a life for themselves in the face of poverty and without adequate education.

Jeff B.
Primate Paternalism

Without the ability for direct observation of hominid social structure, non-human primates may offer the closest observational link to the evolution of strengthened paternal care and male-female associations in reproduction. Socioendocrinology data (Bercovitch, Ziegler) and reduced estrous swelling (Sillen-Tullberg, Moller) show how primate signals reinforce parental investments by males. However, the Pan lineage, our closest relatives, shows evidence of swelling, while savanna baboons have concealed ovulation and evidence of bi-parental care not seen in Pan. Recent research unveiled that baboon males even defend their own progeny more often than not, showing that infant care in baboons is more paternal that previously understood. The understanding of baboon reproductive strategies may lead to the understanding of hominid cultural adaptations on the savanna and the advents of Homo bi-parental care (Taub). This investigation is aimed at finding under what conditions facilitates non-human primate paternal care and whether or not this becomes a decent model for the paternal care seen in humans.

Benjamin P.
Comparison of the Traditional and Contemporary Extended Family Units of the Hopi and Lakota (Sioux): A Study of the Deterioration of Kinship Structures

Drawing on a body of classical and contemporary ethnographic resources, one finds a number of conflicting conclusions and assumptions in not only the evolutionary role of the extended family and its functions, but also—in a post-colonial context—how these units as well as their roles and functions change. This paper will discuss classical Hopi ethnography (structural-functionalism) and compare newer trends of post-modern ethnography in order to compare effectiveness of describing the traditional and contemporary extended families of the Hopi Pueblos and the Plains Lakota (Sioux). Concerning the latter of the two, the paper will attempt to devise or refer to an appropriate schema, which is evidently thus far lacking in the ethnographic record.

When comparing a number of sources, extended families are explained in diametrically opposed terms (e.g. some say extended families result from hunter-gatherer societies while others attribute it to agricultural groups), creating conflicting theory obviously not considered together as often enough—hence the necessity of comparative study between traditionally agricultural Hopi and hunter-gathering Sioux. In addition, I will look at the ecological factors involved for extended families in order to locate the rift between cultural and ecological explanations.

After establishing the forms and functions of both extended families, we will look at traditional Hopi and Lakota social life in order to understand the societal role of the individual and how this may have eased/resisted the assimilation process. This, of course, will inform us as to the present-day state of these extended family units as well as the conflicting interpretations found in the anthropological study of their extant realities (e.g. whether or not they still exist and what their respective roles are) and what likely will constitute their roles in the future.

Roshan B.
Marriage in Islamic Cultures

Life in Islamic societies is heavily influenced by religion. Of particular interest are marriage customs, which are not only intricately intertwined with Islam, but also a large aspect of life. Marriage in Islamic societies is considered to be a union between the two hemispheres of male and female, a means of independence, and a responsibility to uphold familial status. What is more, differences between generations are developing, and causing disagreement. Of main concern is an increasing population of women attending college and working outside of the home, which dramatically varies from these youths’ parents and grandparents, who married in their teen years. The research of several Islamic societies in areas such as Africa, the Middle East, and Asia supports these ideas, and attempts to explain the significance of marriage in Islamic societies.