ANTH/WMNS 326 Cross cultural families and households
3 February 2010 The number of partners
Required readings: Falen, Douglas J. (2008) "Polygyny and Christian Marriage in Africa: The Case of Benin." African Studies Review, 51(2): 51–75. Project Muse.
Levine, Nancy E. and Joan B. Silk (1997) "Why Polyandry Fails: Sources of Instability in Polyandrous Marriages." Current Anthropology, 38(3):375-398. JSTOR. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2744329
Sheff, Elisabeth (2005) "Polyamorous Women, Sexual Subjectivity and Power." Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 2005; 34(3): 251-283 Sage publications. http://jce.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/34/3/251
Terms used in these readings:
Polygyny
Polyandry
Polyamory
Subjectivity (versus objectification)
Agency
Ecological/evolutionary behaviour explanations
Sociocultural explanations
Reproductive success/reproductive fitness
Per stirpes inheritance
What is the argument in each article?
Notice the essay structure of each article: Falen’s is a very good model, reflecting the parts of an essay that the Department of Anthropology style guide discusses.
What are the similarities and differences between these three articles?
- with respect to the people they focus on?
- what are the types of societies involved here?
- with respect to the forms of group involved in the marriage form being discussed?
- with the kinds of data they use?
- with the kind of explanatory (or theoretical) model they use?
- which explanatory model do you prefer?
- that is, what do you think explains cultural models of who and how many are in an intimate partnership?