FAMILY AND KINSHIP

This project requires three specific steps:

1. Collect data (elicitation, articles, and other research you choose)
   
   
2. Analyze data
   
   
3. Write essay
   

Create the kin diagram on a separate sheet of paper. Use the spaces in this interview schedule for entering data, using additional sheets of paper as needed.

Use the notation in this box, as appropriate. If you need to create special symbols, define them in your diagram.

Interview Schedule

Ask your informant for the following information. If your informant is uncomfortable giving some information, do not press him or her for an answer.

1. Note on the diagram the ethnic background of each individual, to the best of your ability. Include friends who you consider to be "family," and treat them as "relatives" and "family members."

2. Where do the various relatives live? You may note this on the diagram, if you have room, or write separately.

3. If you have siblings, what kinds of responsibilities do you have toward them? (for example, if they are sick, if they need financial help, if they need emotional support)

4. Do different people in the family have specific jobs to do? (examples: taking out trash, buying groceries, cleaning bathroom, keeping bedrooms neat, mowing lawn, earning income) List a few for each individual.

5. Who in the family earns money?

6. Does each individual control their earnings, are they pooled, or are there other arrangements?

7. How are family decisions made about money?

8. If an elderly member of your family needed help (being driven to doctor, shopping; help with home maintenance; etc.), who would you expect to provide that help? Note the exact relationship (father's sister, mother's brother, mother's father, etc.), since these obligations vary significantly from cultural group to cultural group.

9. If your family sends holiday greeting cards, who sends them? To whom?

10. If a cousin, aunt, grandparent, or friend who is considered "family" were sick, which family member(s) would you expect to make the telephone calls and provide support? Be as specific as possible.

11. Do other relatives visit frequently, or do your family members visit other family members frequently? List the individuals and estimate how often you visit one another.

12. Do other relatives phone frequently, or do your family members phone other family members frequently? List the individuals and estimate how often you phone one another.

13. On a major holiday, when families gather, who visits whom? (This may show a patri- or matri-lineal bias in the family, depending on which side visits/is visited -- probe for such patterns.)

14. Are there people who, although they are not "kin" through marriage or descent, behave like "family" within your family? Why do you consider them to "be like family"?

15. Would your parents especially approve your marriage with any of the relatives you identified? Why?

16. Would your parents disapprove of your marriage with any of the relatives you identified? Why?

17. What kinds of people would your parents especially approve of you marrying?


18. What kinds of people would your parents especially disapprove of you marrying?


19. What important aspects of your family have not been asked about here?

THE ANALYSIS:

1. Analyze your interview data

1. Describe residence patterns, if any. (matrilocal, patrilocal, etc.)

2. Describe patterns in family responsibilities. What are male responsibilities? What are female responsibilities? Do these responsibilities vary by age? Are there matrilineal or patrilineal tendencies in patterns of responsibility? Are they bi-lateral, with wives responsible to their "side of the family" and husbands responsible for their "side"? Or can you discern other patterns guiding major responsibility (e.g., relative wealth or poverty of kin, geographic closeness to kin)? Can you discern any other patterns in the distribution of responsibilities?

3. What forms of household arrangements (nuclear, extended, monogamous, blended, heterosexual) did you find?

2. Analyze the readings and other materials

Review the assigned readings and other course materials (film, lectures). You may draw on other sources, as well. Be sure to make notes to turn in and reference them in the essay.

• a. List the residence patterns where the readings give you enough information to know or infer them.
  
  
• b. List the division of responsibilities where the readings give you enough information to know or infer them.
  
  
• c. List the marriage and kinship patterns where the readings give you enough information to know or infer them.
  

THE ESSAY

Using the data assembled in items 1 and 2, write an essay that supports or argues against the following proposition:

The nuclear family, in which the household is made up of a heterosexual couple and their children, is the optimal form of family. The most functional family is the one in which male and female roles are clearly defined, with men being the primary provider and women having primary responsibility for caring for the home and children.

Clip together your notes from items 1 and 2. Turn these in along with your essay.

Please note in your essay whether or not you found these pop-up hints helpful.



© Jane Adams 2002