FINAL EXAM WINTER 2010

INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Susan Vincent

1.    As Peletz indicates in his article ("Kinship studies in late twentieth century anthropology"), and as various readings from throughout the course have demonstrated, Schneider’s views which displaced biology as the basis of kinship systems have had a great influence on the anthropology of kinship. Do you agree with his approach? Explain your position with reference to Peletz’ article as well as four other required readings of the course.

SECTION B. 25 Marks. One of the following questions will be on the exam.

2.    As a concept in the anthropology of kinship, is marriage best thought of in terms of the relationship among the married partners, or as a mechanism for broader social networks between the families of the partners? Explain your position with respect to the articles by Applbaum ("Marriage with the proper stranger: Arranged marriage in metropolitan Japan") and Sullivan ("Rozzie and Harriet? Gender and family patterns of lesbian coparents").

3.    Falen ("Polygyny and Christian marriage in Africa: The case of Benin"), Levine and Silk ("Why polyandry fails: Sources of instability in polyandrous marriages"), and Sheff ("Polyamorous women, sexual subjectivity and power") provide quite distinct approaches to the study of marriage. Is it analytically productive to apply Sheff’s approach to the case presented by Falen OR Levine and Silk (choose one)? What insights, if any, would be generated? Explain.

4.    "To ensure that women receive justice in family legal conflicts (including divorce, child custody, domestic violence, etc.) all countries should adopt a common family law system based on the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Answer through reference to Griffiths ("Reconfiguring law: An ethnographic perspective") and Merry ("Human rights and transnational culture: Regulating gender violence through global law").

5.    What cultural conditions (economic system, ecology, gender roles, political system, etc.) permit a specific descent system to operate in a society? Explain with respect to the information in the articles by Peters ("Against the odds: Matriliny, land and gender in the Shire Highlands of Malawi") and Zhang ("Bracing for an uncertain future: A case study of new coping strategies of rural parents under China’s birth control policy").

Section C. 25 Marks. One of the following questions will be on the exam.

6.    Why are there such different perceptions of identity as it  relates to kinship among adopted children in two of the following cases: Carsten ("Constitutive knowledge: Tracing trajectories of information in new contexts of relatedness"); Weismantel ("Making kin: Kinship theory and Zumbagua adoptions"); and Volkman ("Embodying Chinese culture: Transnational adoption in North America")?

7.    How does culture drive research on new reproductive technologies? Answer with respect to the articles by Ragoné ("Chasing the blood tie: Surrogate mothers, adoptive mothers and fathers") and Inhorn ("Middle Eastern masculinities in the age of new reproductive technologies: Male infertility and stigma in Egypt and Lebanon").

8.    Should states take a role in developing policy about reproduction and child placement in families? Answer with respect to two of: Feldman-Savelsberg, Ndonko and Schmidt-Ehry ("Sterilizing vaccines or the politics of the womb: Retrospective study of a rumor in Cameroon"); Krause and Marchesi ("Fertility politics as ‘social Viagra’: Reproducing boundaries, social cohesion and modernity in Italy"); and Leinaweaver ("On moving children: The social implications of Andean child circulation").

9.    Which of the main reasons given in anthropological research (psychological, evolutionary/genetic, social) for why the incest taboo exists do you find most convincing? Explain with respect to the readings by Hutchinson ("Changing concepts of incest among the Nuer") and Gilgun ("‘We shared something special’: The moral discourse of incest perpetrators").