Serial Polygyny, Negro Peasants, and Model Analysis

Autor: Morris Freilich
Rok vydání: 1961
Předmět:
Zdroj: American Anthropologist. 63:955-975
ISSN: 1548-1433
0002-7294
Popis: M. G. Smith's remarks are, I believe, particularly pertinent to one aspect of Negro life which has received considerable attention, namely, mating patterns and the family. Various works attempt to convince us of the African background of this complex (Herskovits 1941, 1947), of its origin in slavery (Frazier 1939; Henriques 1953; Matthews 1953), of its particular ties to economics (R. T. Smith 1956, 1957), and recently of its possible connections to European patterns (Arensberg 1957). It might be rewarding to examine some actual field data in order to arrive at an understanding of the mating system first and then attempt statements of probable connections between this system and others.1 The approach suggested is based on the assumption that sociocultural phenomena, such as the mating behavior, are systematic. Such an assumption is in agreement with modern theoretical thinking. Many, including the writer, agree with Meadows that today "the system" is the master model, and that "the image of systems . . . has indeed become the central notion of theoretical work in such diverse areas as physiology, psychology, economics, biology, and sociology and many interdisciplinary studies" (Meadows 1957:5; italics mine). The "systems" approach will be used in this paper. First, however, a methodological problem must be tackled: how does one present and analyze sociocultural data to arrive at the system? Following Levi-Strauss, one builds a "mechanical model" which has the following characteristics
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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