ABSTRACT
This chapter examines human relatedness in light of what people know about marriage and kinship in a cross-cultural perspective. Human sexuality and reproduction are partly regulated in many societies through marriage. Marriage is not, of course, always a monogamous union of two individuals for life. Many marriage forms exist, and these unite the two sexes in different ways, usually for economic purposes as well as for sexual ones. Marriage occurs in all societies, but people now know its cultural expression is highly variable. In the mid-twentieth century, most anthropologists assumed that a pair bond between husband and wife was universal, though few species are monogamous. In kin-based societies, women and men tend to have different yet complementary roles. The sexual division of labour is less obvious in complex, nonkin-based societies, though not entirely absent. The sexual division of labour, which is variable across societies, is generally reflected in gender identities.
