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"Introduction "Why do you do that?" "Why does our family insist on doing things that way?" Questions about people's behaviors are the essence of social science inquiry. The focus may be on individuals, families, social groups, communities, or cultures. To engage in the process of social science inquiry, you need two things: research and theory. Before we enter into a discussion of social science theory, specifically family theory, we first must have a discussion about theory in general"--
"A book like this is needed because we teach about couple formation as in some ways ′universal′ and in other ways culturally bound. We have few resources for showing how various countries and cultures are the same and yet different....I am interested in giving students a broad view of relationships and families, and this text would help me." --Susan Hendrick, Texas Tech University "I believe that this is a much needed book. . . . Faculty in family studies, personal relationships and other fields are working to. . . diversify their courses, and this book has the potential to be a true asset in such endeavors." -- Sally A. Lloyd, Miami University Mate Selection Across Cultures explores one...
Crossing geographic, cultural, and historical boundaries, this volume explores the diversity of the world's families, emphasizing the importance of understanding and valuing them within their own cultural contexts. Covering contemporary Third World as well as Western families, this excellent teaching text addresses topics essential for developing a multicultural perspective. The book begins with background information on family theories and comparative research methodology, along with an overview of the history of the family and gender relations in the Western world. This is followed by chapters on family variation, which explain research on the origin, functions, and universality of the fam...
This expanded new edition of Edith Clarke's groundbreaking work, My Mother Who Fathered Me includes material taken from her personal collection in the Jamaican archives, published reviews of the earlier edition and a foreword by Rex Nettleford.
Beyond Kinship brings together ethnohistorians, archaeologists, and cultural anthropologists for the first time in a common discussion of the social model of house societies proposed by Claude Levi-Strauss. While kinship theory has been central to the study of social organization, an alternative approach has emerged—that of seeing the "house" both as a physical and symbolic structure and a principle of social organization. The house stands as a model social formation that is distinguished by its attention to a number of material domains (land, the dwelling, ritual and nonritual objects). As the essays in this volume make clear, the focus on material culture and on place contributes to the ...
Every culture has a way of perceiving and practicing marriage. Many contemporary Western Christians mistake what their culture prescribes regarding marriage with what the Bible portrays, and thereby take as biblical what is merely cultural. Uncritical conformity to cultural imperatives of marriage then becomes a Christian virtue, and a sweet surrender. Few recognize, much less question this confusion, even when its consequences are unhealthy. In Sweet Surrender Dennis Hiebert challenges Christians to comprehend what is cultural in their view of marriage, hold as optional what is not explicitly required by the Bible, and live out their marriages within the transcendent grace of God. Gaining greater awareness can free marriages from the control of culture for something more simply but deeply Christian. Marriages benefit when they are released from cultural directives that are not biblical callings, even if they choose to retain them as cultural practices. This book is for Christians who are ready to rethink their assumptions about marriage.
"This is an account of the lives of a small band of cattle herders, the Himba, who live in and around the settlement of Otutati in northwestern Namibia. The narrative chronicles the events of a single year, though within that year are found the events of a lifetime: birth, maturation, aging, death; generosity, meanness, accomplishment, failure." "The author draws the reader into a human world that appears so utterly different from our own in the first decade of the twenty-first century. However, as the leading characters' lives and personal qualities, their joys, hopes, and anxieties unfold, the exoticism of their world fades and the experience of life rings strangely familiar."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Contemporary trends such as increased one-parent families, high divorce rates, second marriages and homosexual partnerships have all contributed to variations in the traditional family structure. But to what degree has the function of the family changed and how have these changes affected family roles in cultures throughout the world? This book attempts to answer these questions through a psychological study of families in thirty nations, carefully selected to present a diverse cultural mix. The study utilises both cross-cultural and indigenous perspectives to analyse variables including family networks, family roles, emotional bonds, personality traits, self-construal, and 'family portraits' in which the authors address common core themes of the family as they apply to their native countries. From the introductory history of the study of the family to the concluding indigenous psychological analysis of the family, this book is a source for students and researchers in psychology, sociology and anthropology.
In a hard driving society like the United States, holidays are islands of softness. Holidays are times for creating memories and for celebrating cultural values, emotions, and social ties. All Together Now considers holidays that are celebrated by American families: Easter, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Halloween, and the December holidays of Christmas or Chanukah. This book shows how entire families bond at holidays, in ways that allow both children and adults to be influential within their shared interaction. The decorations, songs, special ways of dressing, and rituals carry deep significance that is viscerally felt by even young tots. Ritual has the capacity to condense a plethora of meaning into a unified metaphor such as a Christmas tree, a menorah, or the American flag. These symbols allow children and adults to co-opt the meaning of symbols in flexible and age-relevant ways, all while the symbols are still treasured and shared in common.