Anthropology is the study of the meaning of being human with respect to time and geography. It is a foregone conclusion that some traditions may make sense to some groups and not to others. Some critical cultural aspects across groups are the definition of kinship, family, and marriage. Essential questions about a group are who a person can marry and who they are forbidden or discouraged from marrying. The terminologies applied to siblings, cousins, aunts, and uncles are what define the various kinship systems. Rynkiewich explores these anthropological concepts in his book and incorporates a religious lens into the subject.
Chapter five of “Soul, Self, and Society” is about marriage, family, and kinship. Rynkiewich (2011) describes the various kinship systems that have existed around the world. The Hawaiian kinship system, also known as the generational system, is a kinship term that defines languages and families. The Hawaiian system is part of the larger major kinship systems that have been identified in anthropology, namely the Eskimo, Iroquois, Omaha Crow, and Sudanese. The Hawaiian system is a simplified system where relatives are differentiated through gender and generation. In the system, there are both parents and children generations. A child refers to all women of their parent’s generation as ‘mother’ and ‘father’ for the males of his father’s generation. For the children generation, all females are ‘sisters’ while all males are ‘brothers.’
In the Iroquois kinship system, there is the differentiation of ‘cross sex’ and ‘same sex’ in addition to generational and gender differences. For example, a subject’s father’s brothers and their mother’s sisters are identified by the same kinship terms for their father and mother. On the other hand, sibling kinship terms are applied to parallel cousins. In marriage, the subject can marry cross-cousins but is not encouraged to marry parallel cousins.
Monogamy is the form of marriage in which an individual has one spouse only. Polygamy, on the other hand, is the practice where an individual has many spouses. When a man marries more than one wife, the definition is polygyny if the women are not married to each other. The practice of a woman being married to more than one husband simultaneously is referred to as polyandry. Rynkiewich devotes specific contexts to the church, where men are few and inaccessible and where women face oppression.
He talks about the role of the church in defining what marriage is. He sees the church as instrumental in dealing with human cohabitation, which he paints in a negative light. In this chapter and many others, the role of religion is indispensable in creating an order. In a way, Rynkiewich sees practices such as polygamy and polyandry as a disorder and the church as an authority that seeks to restore order. He considers the church to be motivated by practicality and inspired by Western ideals. In the theological defense of a monogamous type of marriage, Rynkiewich interprets this to be inspired by western cultural norms and not a legitimate postulate when juxtaposed against many social systems around the world.
Anthropology is the study of humans with respect to geography and time. People are not uniform, and what may be practical to some groups may not make sense to others. In chapter 5 of his book, “Soul, Self, and Society,” Rynkiewich devotes the discussion to marriage, kin, and family and their various forms across the world. For kinship, he talks about Iroquois, Marshallese, Americans, and Hawaiians, while for marriage, he talks about polygamy, polyandry, monogamy, and polygyny. There is a theological angle to the discussion, such as the church’s insistence on monogamy. The chapter is exhaustive and achieves the intended purpose of informing the reader.
Reference
Rynkiewich, M. A. (2011). Soul, self, and society: A postmodern anthropology for mission in a postcolonial world. Cascade Books.