What We Know and What We Don’t Know About Variation in Social Organization: Melvin Ember’s Approach to the Study of Kinship

2010/11/09 by Carol R. Ember · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences #Land Rights and Reforms #Anthropological Studies and Insights

paper · doi:10.1177/1069397110383947

openalex publication_date 2010/11/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Focusing on Melvin Ember’s kinship interests, this article tries to summarize what we know and don’t know about the conditions favoring different aspects of cultural variation in kinship and social organization. What explains the incest taboo and its variable extensions to cousin marriage? What explains marriage? What explains variation in marital residence patterns? Why polygyny versus monogamy? Why are family households extended or independent? Why do unilineal descent groups form?

Citations

• Migration, External Warfare, and Matrilocal Residence
• The Conditions Favoring Matrilocal Versus Patrilocal Residence

Cited by

• Marriage [wikipedia]

Related

• Monogamy, strongly bonded groups, and the evolution of human social structure
• The fragility of marriage in matrilineal societies
• Some Formal Aspects of a Kinship System
• Cohabitation and Marriage: Complexity and Diversity in Union‐Formation Patterns
• Formation of human kinship structures depending on population size and cultural mutation rate