Practice question · Select all that apply
Which findings count against Murdock’s 1949 claim that the nuclear family is universal?
Hints
- Three of these are ethnographic counter-cases; one denies something no counter-case shows.
- The universal claim that survives is weaker than Murdock’s and concerns function rather than form.
Show the answer
- A. Nayar descent and residence arrangements did not require a co-resident husband and father
- B. Matrifocal households are a normal and stable form in parts of the Caribbean
- D. Israeli kibbutzim organised child-rearing collectively rather than within couples
Why
The three counter-cases attack the form, not the function. Every known society provides somehow for reproduction and child-rearing; what varies is whether that provision takes the shape of a co-resident couple with their children. The third option would deny the weak claim as well, and nothing in the record supports it.
Practise Family, Gender and Sexuality
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