Introduction

Classifying Factors (Spacial, Biological)

Institutional

Daily Routine

"An essential prerequisite for the study of any community is an understanding of their social structure. By social structure is meant the whole network of social relations in which are involved the members of a given community at a particular time. It defines on the one hand the forms in which people are grouped for social purposes in that society, and on the other the socially recognized ties reflected in the behavior of individuals to one another and to their social groups. Notes and Queries on Anthropology, 1967:63.

In a study of social organization two factors need to be considered... status and role. Status is a position or place in a social system including its accompanying rights and duties. Contrary to our normal narrowed meaning of the term, ALL members have status. In fact they occupy many of them. Some statuses are totally or partially inclusive... housewives are always female, but not all housewives are mothers. Some are totally exclusive... a son is never a daughter. Some statuses are prescribed in that we are born that way... male, female; black, white, oriental, Indian. Others are achieved... married, missionary, lawyer, janitor, farmer.

Obviously statuses carry with them cultural values. "Lawyer" has a higher stigma in our minds than "farmer" as an occupational status. These statuses are often recognized by other signals in our culture. We never imagine a lawyer in a court dressed in overalls and we never hear someone spoken to in a derogatory way... "you lawyer!" Though knowing some lawyers, maybe we should!

"Role is the behavior, attitudes, and values associated with a particular status. Every status has a role but the two are not the same thing." Cultural Anthropology, a Christian Perspective, Grunlan & Mayers, 1988:128. Doing the activities of a particular status doesn't mandate that status to a person. For example, a baby-sitter does activities associated with the status of mother, but is viewed socially as one only when she gives birth to her own child.

"In order to function properly in a new culture people need to know, not only the symbols of a status, but also the pattern of behavior or role that goes with it." (Grunlan & Mayers 1988:129) That knowledge will lesson the "culture jolts" of wrongly assuming that the role of "employer" in Latin America is the same as it is in the U.S.. But it will also enable us to see more clearly what the Holy Spirit may be wanting to change in a particular status as we plant a church.

Social Organization consists of three areas of consideration... classifying factors, daily routine and kinship. Classifying factors simply refer to the elements by which a culture tends to arrange or classify itself socially. Daily routine refers to the "normal" routine for these classifications. Kinship refers to the system by which "family" and "non-family" is defined.

CLASSIFYING FACTORS

We relate differently according to WHERE we live. Relationships between members of the same household differ from their relationships outside that household. Relationships between members of the same village (community, valley, country, etc.) are different from relationships outside that group. Here are some examples of spacial organization in other cultures.

The Asmat are divided into villages who are usually enemies and go on raids against each other. When two villages agree to "unite" to smooth tensions, they have an adoption ceremony. They stage a mock birth and childhood for several of the adults of the village being adopted.

A Kalinga won't identify himself with a region because the settlement in which he lives isn't an important social unit. The household, extended household, kinship circle, kindred, and territorial region are significant units in his society.

The oldest Marquesan child of either sex, or the child who was adopted to take the position of the eldest, became the official head of the household as soon as he was born or arrived in the family. Of course, in practice, the father administered the household group until the child reached maturity, but socially the child outranked his father from the moment of birth. The parents exercised almost no authority over the children, especially the oldest. These infant family heads could do about anything they pleased. Once an anthropologist was visiting a village and found the chief and his family camping in their front yard. Their 8 year old boy was sitting in the house looking both glum and triumphant. He had had a quarrel with his father a day or two before, and had tabooed the house by naming it after his head. Until he lifted the taboo, no one in the family could enter the house. So, the family was uncomfortably camping in the open until the child could be persuaded to lift the taboo and allow them to enter the house again.

The new Gururumba villages built down on the grasslands are divided, with each part having its own men's house. Each part represents an old village up in the mountains. Many of the adult males in a segment claim to be descended from brothers or from a common father.

The village is a relatively closed unit. You won't see people in it who are strangers. They don't go to other villages unless they've come to discuss a particular matter.

Among the people from the small town of Ixtepeji, the neighboring towns are considered bad. They refer to people from other towns as killers, brutes, bad people, etc., and generally don't think much of them, although there is some trading that takes place among them. But one thing binds them together. They are all people of the mountains as opposed to the "bad people" of the valley. When talking about the people of the valley, all the people of the mountains are the "good people", even if they are in a neighboring town! The towns nearby are often seen as enemy territory but if, when you go there, you watch your step, you'll be all right. But to venture to the valley is dangerous foreign ground and a "mountain" person is disadvantaged because of his lack of sophistication and distance from help in case of need.

The Cubeo prefer having the whole village living under one roof - a large maloca. They believe that one roof unites a community while several roofs divide it. Sometimes a family will move out of the maloca because they can't get along with the others but the maloca will still be considered their center and they will at times be coaxed into moving back in with the group.

Semai tend to marry from the same river basin because river travel is easier than climbing hills. As a result, most of the inhabitants of a single river basin are related to each other. Each river valley tends to speak its own dialect and have customs different from other valleys.

The Tiwi household is held together by the father or husband. When he dies, the household splits and the rest join other households. Everyone has to live in a household if for no other reason than that this is the only way one can eat regularly. The Tiwi household is a self-governed unit, producing and consuming its own food, making its own decisions, camping wherever they see fit, etc. In a large household, the old man is the executive director and the household is a community in itself.

We relate differently according to biological factors as well. In some societies a whole new set of social rules come into play when a person enters a new life stage. These social divisions can be based on biological changes and stages such as: life cycle, age, or sex. Even in our own society there are certain rights and expectations when someone reaches the age of 21, or 63, or certain expectations for you because of your age or sex. In many cultures these social groupings often involve complicated ceremonies (sometimes called "rites of passage") that rarely exist in our society. These ceremonies are common for certain stages of life... naming, puberty, parenthood, etc. The fact that we to some degree ignore these stages may have a numbing effect on our desire to understand them and their importance in a tribal culture. Notice these contrasts of biological factors as a means of classifying people socially.

Ayore teenagers have relations with each other but if a girl has a baby, it is buried at birth. The child isn't touched by the mother or attendants because they believe the child is made up of many fathers and not just one man.

While a Lesu woman is pregnant she can't have sexual relations with her husband or anyone else. Some taboos affect the husband, such as, he can't fish or hunt wild pig during the pregnancy. If he does, he will have no success. The man and his wife also observe sex taboos when their pigs are giving birth. If the taboo is broken, they believe the pig would get sick and die. Pigs are very valuable property.

When a Kurtatchi woman is in labor, the husband can't enter her hut until 3 days after the birth. He also can't eat any food during this time. He must stop working and stay indoors, either in another wife's hut or with a neighbor. He can't carry or lift anything heavy or touch a knife or any sharp or pointed instrument as this would hurt or kill the child. On the fourth day he may go see his child but isn't allowed to go outside the village. On the fifth day, he and his wife go to wash in the sea, then he pretends to cut the child with a knife or axe. This removes the taboo on his use of sharp instruments and he can return to work.

With the Samoa, there is no privacy about birth. The mother shouldn't cry out, or show pain, or complain about the 20 or 30 people gathered around who sit around laughing, joking, and playing games. The midwife cuts the cord with a bamboo knife and then all wait for the cord to fall off, which is the signal for a feast. Then they all go home and the mother gets up to go about her business.

With these 2 tribes, the grandmother usually takes the child away from home when it is weaned, keeps the child with her, and then returns it to its parents some years later.

When a Kwoma child is weaned, he may no longer sit in his mother's lap by day nor lie by her side at night. This is felt to be the most severe frustration experienced at this period of life. His mother won't respond to his needs instantly like she once did. When he demands her attention, she ignores him unless he is in real danger and if he is too persistent in his demands, he is punished. All this produces much anxiety for the child. He wants to be with his mother but he is punished for it and is told there is a monster in his mother's breast, and is punished for wanting to suck. He goes from a very favored position in his society to the very bottom in just one day, and has to make real adjustments.

The name of an Eskimo is believed to have a life of its own. It combines all the good qualities of all who have had the name before. A person who has died can't be spoken of by name until the name is reborn. Immediately after a birth, the witch doctor or other wise ones are called in to determine the name, which has to be the name of someone who died recently. They can never call themselves by their own name.

To our way of thinking, all Wogeo children are terribly spoiled. They are never slapped or beaten no matter how naughty they have been. The parents give them anything they demand and hide the knives so they can't demand them! Even when they break earrings or anything of value, the parents never express annoyance. One time when a little girl found out her mother was going to be gone all day in the garden, she threw herself on the ground screaming and every time one of the women tried to pick her up, fought, kicked, and bit. Her father ran around wringing his hands and pleading with her to stop. Finally her mother came and ended up nursing the child all day. After that, when she had to leave the village, she took care to slip away unnoticed.

As soon as a girl is old enough to carry heavy loads, about 14, her duties change drastically. These young girls are responsible to take care of the babies, run errands, kindle the fires and pipes, light the lamps, and anything else anyone asks them to do. This is one of the worst times of their life as they are constantly busy from morning to night. When government schools started, these children were out of their homes for most of the day. This brought about a complete disorganization of the native homes. Performing small routine tasks, running errands, and caring for young children became the unaccustomed duties of the adults.

When a Chulupi girl reaches puberty, they hold a feast. During the feast, the devil people, with bags over their heads, come making much noise and scaring the people. They go to the girl's hut and drag out the girl. Everyone tries to chase them away but the devil people drag her until she becomes unconscious. They then pour water on her face to bring her around. They believe that a girl has died and a woman has been born. Society reclaims her from demons and she is grateful.

Teenage Kalinga boys may visit girls at night but only engaged couples may have sexual intercourse. In the Northern Kalinga, youths may secretly have sexual intercourse without parents' approval. If a girl is unwillingly forced into it, the boy's parents are fined. If the girl is discovered, and especially if she's pregnant, her parents whip her if she did it willingly. In this case, the boy will be forced to marry her.

Ona boys go through a full-fledged initiation into manhood. The ceremony not only stress sex differences but also emphasizes age contrasts in distinguishing men from boys. During the ceremony the young men fast, go through physical endurance tests such as lying naked in the snow for 24 hours, and are restricted in their normal activities. Meanwhile, the elders give them extensive instruction in their adult roles.

The Yagaria have several stages of initiation, both for boys and girls. You can tell what stage a person is in (and what he has been taught) by the bark cape he wears and the nose piece he wears. They also get a new name at each stage.

A young Yanomamo man is gradually considered a man when he shows his anger when others call him by his name or use his name. When the adults in the village quit using his personal name, the young man has achieved some sort of masculine adult status. It shows a man has prestige when others pay him the courtesy of not using his name.

Four days after a death among the Zuni, the priest makes a ground altar and they put the dead man's bow and arrow, hairbrush and clothing on it. They gather around to feed the dead man for the last time and send him away. The chief bids him enter and eat, then the priests chase him out of the village. They take with them the articles on the altar and bury them outside the village. Then they return on the run and bolt the door against the dead by scratching a cross on the door. The chief tells them not to remember the dead man anymore.

Dani children have the tips of their ears cut off as a sign of mourning the death of a relative. They also cut off the tips of the fingers to show genuine sorrow at the time of a funeral.

Gururumba men use the term "ambo", "my ambo", "his ambo", etc., but it's not a kinship term. It means "men born on the same day." Actually, though, it is used between boys ranging in age from 11 years to 16 years. The reference to birth isn't when they are actually born but when these boys were initiated together. This is when they pass from the status of a child to an unmarried adult. The initiations take place at regular intervals. "Age-mates" are very responsible to one another's needs, support one another in arguments, help one another, and stand together in dance groups.

Rajput women must crouch on the floor and pull their saris over their face when in the presence of their husband or any man older than their husband. When a man has entered the house for his meal, he will quickly retire to a room or behind the wall of his hearth. The women are then free to move about their business quietly. Because of this custom the men always announce their presence with a warning cough before entering the household and when possible, send a boy or the youngest male present, on errands to the courtyard since the younger the man the fewer the women affected. When the eldest male enters, the entire courtyard is immobilized until he has been safely attended. In nuclear families the wife usually doesn't cover her face before her husband because he asks her not to continue this custom.

When they walk together, the wife usually keeps at least half a pace behind her mate and when they enter the house, he always precedes her. When there is only one animal, the husband rides the horse and the woman walks behind. If there is a burden to be carried, usually the woman carries it.

The largest factor in institutional groupings is obviously the family. It is culture that determines who we will marry, what is proper behavior in courtship, where newlyweds will live and what is expected of them by their new families. There are other institutional groupings however... lodges and secret societies. One American man can simultaneously belong to the following institutions... male; carpenter; husband; Christian; Baptist; member of the Rotary Club; etc., etc., ad-infinitum!

If an Iban girl likes a boy and the parents don't approve of it, they can take off. The boy will pick up the girl in his canoe and they'll take off as fast as they can for his village. Villagers will pursue them and he'll stop every now and then and deposit articles of value on the bank (gun, jars, etc.). Finally he'll deposit his sword and the pursuers know he's in earnest about it and will quit pursuing them. When they reach the boy's village he has a feast prepared for all of them and they all sit down to eat together. He sends them home satisfied and he has a wife.

The Samoans never express affection in public. A couple might spend their wedding night in a room with ten other people but would shrink in shame from even touching hands in public. Husbands and wives never walk side by side through the village, for the husband, particularly, would be ashamed.

The Kipsigis live in grasslands country and occupy rather widely scattered farm-homesteads. They have various household arrangements, including the mother-child farm-homestead. The goal of Kipsigis men is to accumulate wives and cattle. They practice polygamy so they can have more cattle. A young man marries a first wife and lives with her on a farm-homestead. As time passes, if he is lucky, he has a son who is mature enough to manage the homestead cattle. Then he will try to marry again and set up a new homestead, fairly distant from the first, with a new wife. If he is fortunate and successful, he will end up with several farm-homesteads, with a wife and children on each. He spends some time at each of the homesteads but will probably devote more time to the homestead of his youngest wife.

The Eskimo husband and wife form an economic unit. However, wife swapping is common, but must be with the husband's permission or the wife will be beaten. The wife doesn't mind the beating, though, since she knows the story will spread that she is the object of desire for men.

If the Kenyah see or hear certain signs from nature during the day of the wedding, or up to one year later, they consider it grounds for divorce. Some of these signs are interpreted to mean that they definitely must get a divorce. If this happens, and the couple is happy together, they can arrange trial marriages with other partners for a year. At the end of the year they hope to receive a good omen and be able to return to their first mate. In a case like this, the parents counsel them to find a partner of the opposite sex who is old, unattractive, deaf, lame, or any combination of negative features that will make it easy to end the temporary arrangement after a year.

If a married Pukapuka woman goes from her house and sleeps with another man and stays with him until daylight, she has committed adultery and then belongs to her lover, for her act is the same as a divorce. If she returns to her husband's house before dawn, her behavior might be considered adultery but it isn't usually condemned, even though her husband is free to whip her. A woman can get her husband's permission to sleep with another man and won't be punished if she returns before daylight. Also, the man can go to another woman's house if he tells his wife where he's going and returns home before daylight.

They have a socially legitimate sexual union, begun with the idea of impermanence, called a "mut'a" marriage. It takes place for a specified short term period, like when a man is on a business trip. A mut'a marriage contract is drawn up showing the length of time the union is to last. When the time is up, the couple parts forever. The man pays the woman for her services but there are no further obligations. However, any children born of this union are considered the legitimate children of the man and may inherit from him. In addition to mut'a marriages, these people also have lifelong marriages.

The husband will take his wife into the center of the village and beat her up. This is done to show he's the head of the house. She'll be disappointed if he doesn't do this periodically.

With the Tepoztlans, the first step in courting is to send a girl a letter declaring love. Apparently, this is done before the boy ever meets or talks to the girl. He writes the letters in flowery style and usually copies them out of a book of etiquette. A boy may send two or three letters like this anonymously before he has the courage to sign his name. If the girl responds favorable, the boy arranges for a meeting. Any answer but an outright refusal is taken to be favorable.

The Siwai don't have more wives to increase their sexual enjoyment (they don't have to be married for that) but to increase their herd of pigs. One man didn't even go to the trouble of moving his second wife from her village to his own. She was twenty years older than him and simply remained at her own home and tended two of his pigs.

Chiricahua brothers and sisters hardly speak to each other. They will talk to the father and mother in each other's presence but not to each other. If joking goes on when they are both there, one of them has to go away to show respect. If a man comes home and the sister is home alone, he must leave the camp so as not to disgrace the family.

In India, the classic land of caste, there are 4 general caste categories (varnas). Some think they were originally based on occupational or ethnic distinctions. They are: the Brahman or religious category at the top, the Kshatriya or warrior category next, the Vaisya or landholders and merchants below them, and the Sudra or cultivators and menials in the lowest category. Within these there are many subcastes and each is normally an endogamous (in-marrying) group or else marries according to prescribed linkages with others. Only about 1/10th of the people in India are in one of these four castes. The rest of the people are the Pariah, or outcastes, including many groups that are like castes. The many tribal people can be considered outcasts.

Most marriages among the Reindeer Chukchee begin at a young age, sometimes when the bride and groom are still infants. The marriage ritual is performed and the children grow up playing together. When a little older, they tend the herd together. Of course, the ties between them grow to be very strong and when one dies, the other may also die from grief, or commit suicide. Once there was a boy of two, who while still being nursed, lost his mother. Since the family wanted a woman worker, the boy was almost immediately married to a full-grown girl. After a while she had a child from a marriage-companion. When she was nursing her own child, she also nursed her infant husband.

A newly married Kalinga couple usually lives with her parents while their house is being built. The girl's relatives build a home near her parent's home or on land provided by her relatives. They are permitted to live near his parents if her parents have already provided homes for many daughters, or if the groom's parents are well-to-do and influential and there is obvious advantage in living near them. A family which can't provide a home for its daughters is shamed, so every effort is made to observe traditional customs.

A correlation exists between a person's social status and daily routine. Even in our own culture those of higher social status often have more freedom and even legislate the routine of those on a lower level. Therefore, a study should also be made of the typical daily routine of the people. Records should be based on men and women well known to the missionary. An approximate calendar or time-table of village and household life can be constructed including hours of rising, retiring, beginning and ending work, preparing and taking meals... any habitual or seasonal activities.

Kalinga children under 6 sleep with their parents. Unmarried children over 6 sleep together in different houses of the extended family unit (usually 3 to 4 houses), in a different house each night.

Ma'anyan crave variety - variety in their daily activities, variety in where they live, and variety in their neighbors. After a year or two in one small hamlet, they want a change. Because of this, the associations between individuals and families are periodically altered, readjusted, and rearranged.

Daily activities begin early in a Yanomamo village, as most people are awakened by the cold and build up the fire just before daybreak. They usually go back to sleep but many of them visit and talk about their plans for the day. There are always a number of people leaving the village at dawn to relieve themselves in the nearby garden and the noise they make usually wakes up the others. Work begins as soon as breakfast is completed. They work until 10:30 a.m., retiring because of the heat. Most of them bathe in the stream before returning to their hammocks for a rest and a meal. Most of the people rest in their hammocks during the heat of the midday and avoid being in the direct rays of the midday sun. If the men return to their gardening, they do so about 4:00 p.m., working until sundown. Otherwise, they gather in small groups and take hallucinogenic drugs. However, the women are usually found gathering firewood and hauling immense, heavy loads of it to their houses. By the time supper is over it is nearly dark. The fires are prepared for the evening and despite the inevitable last-minute visiting, things are usually quiet in the village by the time it is dark.

After Kurelu men finish eating (usually sweet potatoes), they smoke and talk in the dense warmth of a hut. They do slow, peaceful work of manufacture and repair. Several work together in repairing shell bibs.

At certain times of the year, it is not uncommon to find the Kalapalos bathing 3 or 4 times a day. Soap and shampoo are prized possessions they use to wash themselves and also to clean ornaments and cooking vessels. At times their attitude toward cleanliness is almost that of extremely clean Americans.

Here are some cultural examples of kinship.

Every Bedouin youth has the right to marry his parallel cousins on the father's side. (FaBrDa) If his parallel uncle (FaBr) wishes to dispose of the girls any other way, he must first obtain and pay for the nephew's consent.

Chagnon, an anthropologist studying the Yanomamo, spent five months extensively studying the genealogies, including names of deceased ancestors. One day, by accident, he discovered that his best informant had been lying all along. There was a fight in the village and one man who was not actually from that village ended up very mad. To retaliate, he began saying the names of his opponents' dead ancestors so Chagnon began asking him for more. They became close `allies' and Chagnon was able to get all the genealogies he needed. He found, though, that he had to start from scratch as all his previous work had been false. His informants had lied because of the taboo on saying the names of dead people and also because they delight in lying.

Tlingit warriors consider it an honor to die for their clan. Clan loyalty is very strong.

The Bunyoro have a patrilineal society (the lineage is based on the father) so their relationship to their father's family is quite different to that of their mother's family. All of father's brothers and sisters are called father. (The exact translation is `male father' and `female father') All of his father's relatives are called "brother", "sister", "grandfather", "grandchild", according to what generation they are in. To call them by these terms means that one should behave toward them, to some extent at least, as one would toward one's nearest kinsfolk. This kind of classification of kinship terms stresses the unity of groups, for it implies that the same kind of cooperation and mutual support should be given to and expected from all its members. They don't care about the exact relationship because they say that where clansmen are concerned the important thing is friendship, not the degree of relationship. On the mother's side, all members of her group are considered "mothers" and a Bunyoro's expectations and obligations in regard to members of these two distinct groups are quite different. So, a man could marry his grandmother! This is because a grand-mother is anyone in his father's mother's clan.

The Yir Yiront have a very limited number of highly

standardized roles which an individual plays over and over again in almost all of his interactions with others. This is an orderly organization which makes up an extremely simple but almost complete social system. Everyone has 28 kinship roles, 14 for his own sex and 14 for interactions with the opposite sex. Each role has varying aspects which permit a variety of possible behaviors between any two kin but they are well defined so that little room is left for improvisation. So the behavior of two male cross-cousins at any given time will depend on many factors, such as how often they see each other, how closely they are related, the health or physical state of one or the other, relative age or absolute stage in the age-grade and initiation hierarchy, the recent death of a wife or sister of one, whether they are in public or in private, at a ceremony or in a secular situation, or whether a spear just thrown in a general fight by one has, even by accident, come dangerously close to the other.Because of all this, no two men deal with each other on exactly the same terms. They have no real form of "government", and unless a drastic change is made in the entire kinship structure, they can't even tolerate mild chiefs or headmen, while a leader with absolute authority over the whole group would be unthinkable. Some of the roles are malevolent (evil), which serve a kind of legal or police function which is approved of by others at the appropriate times. Under the right conditions, an individual playing a malevolent role might be defined as having public authority. So we can see how their kinship role system makes up their entire social and political system.

Within each generation of the Yanomamos, all the males of one lineage call each other "brother", and all the women call each other "sister". Males of one lineage (lineage X) call males of lineage Y "brother-in-law" and can marry their sisters. In fact, the males of lineage X call the females of lineage Y "wife" whether or not they marry them.An important marriage rule is this: A male must marry a woman of the category called /suaboya/ - "wife". In fact, men have six categories to classify female relatives, and five of them refer to women they can't marry (because it would be considered incest). But, for convenience, they often change the kinship terms so that certain people can marry that otherwise couldn't. For instance, when a village moved into another village, they weren't related at all but the chief of the "host" village wanted to be able to exchange wives with the new group. But to do that would create incestuous relationships. The chiefs of the two villages solved the problem by calling each other brothers. That put everyone in a right relationship with the others.

When a Ma'anyan couple has a child, their names change to "father or mother of (child's name)." Until then, they aren't considered adults. If a couple is unable to have children, or just hasn't had any yet, they will adopt a child so they can be recognized as adults.