Resident Rules And Decent Systems example essay topic

#1. Foraging is a collection of wild vegetation, hunting animals, and fishing. In most societies a single family for various reasons doesn't own the land. One important reason is there demographic and settlement characteristics. Most foragers can not stay in one place for a long period of time causing them to share and switch settlements all the time. Food gathers must follow herds of animals in order to survive so they must be prepared and willing to move at any given moment.

Horticulturists cultivate plants using tools and small plots of land only relying on manpower. They decide the concepts of property mostly by extended family. Each family only needs a small piece of land to grow crops on, so they can pass their land down throughout the family. This is more convenient and faster than trying to obtain a new piece of land each generation.

Pastoralists are like foragers in that they need a large span of land to live on unlike the horticulturists. They follow domestic animals and use the animal's products for their sole food supply. Pastoralists rely heavy on their relationship with the environment. In order for their survival they must have an abundance of water and grass at all times. Staying in the right environment keeps this society growing and provides healthy livestock for them to live off of. Intensive agriculturalists are more productive than horticulturalists because of mechanical power and irrigation.

The intensive agriculturists had a concept called property rights that solved their problems with the concepts of claiming property or territory. In this kind of society a person can actually own a piece of land and sell, it trade it, or do whatever he or she wants with it. This concept varies from the other three by giving the land a permanent location and a continuous value. #2. (A) The Eskimo Kinship Classification Eskimos make up 11% of our world's societies.

They work their system by a couple of kinship principals. One is by generation because the Eskimos build their societies solely with a bilateral decent, which is a symmetrical split of land or property between both sides of the family. Another principal of kinship classification the Eskimos use is social conditions. This is because Eskimos are mostly found in areas or societies with a strong nuclear family, which makes them more suitable to survive by providing them with a large family to divide their possessions. #3.

Unilineal decent groups are straightforward groups that make up about 60% of all kinship systems. A membership in an uni lineal decent group is very clear. One way into this group is simply to be born into it, which makes someone automatically a member. Another benefit of being a member of this kind of kinship group is that there is no confusion to whom owns what and who has rights to their, because it is known to all which person belongs to which decent group. Unilineal groups also benefit by no one has to be bothered by planning social functions, because they have a social organization that provides services for all the members of the group. Last these types of groups are very clear -cut and unambiguous which makes them able to be an adaptive society to be a part of.

#4. Residence rules provide people with guidelines on where and with whom couples should live with. These rules also help decide when children are to move out and where they should go. Decent is a term used for kinship systems when referring to the rules of a culture. Decent groups, also known as social groups, are how a family breaks apart to go and live on their own.

There are two main rules of decent. One is un lineal decent, where people trace back their ancestry through either the mothers line or the fathers line, but not both. (Ferraro, p. 211) The second type of decent is cognatic decent. This is when the family traces back the whole family line. Both resident rules and decent systems provide basic regulations for families and whom they should live with.

Even though decent groups are more sophisticated than residence rules they are equally important when starting a family and moving into a home. #5. Family is defined as a social unit characterized by economic cooperation, management of reproduction and child rearing, and common residence. Families include both male and female adults who maintain a socially approved sexual relationship. Family members, adults and children recognize certain rights and obligations toward one another. (Ferraro, p. 180) Marriage is defined as a series of customs formalizing the relationship between male and female adults with in the family.

Marriage is a socially approved union between a man and a woman that regulates the sexual and economic rights and obligations between them. Marriage usually involves an explicit contract of understanding and is entered into with the assumption that it will be a permanent arrangement. (Ferraro, p. 180) These definitions are true only to certain parts of the world. Not all cultures accept marriage or even believe that there is a set way two people should unite. This is true also to families because people's definitions vary depending on their culture or their own personal beliefs.