Cultural Anthropology Journal: Exploring Family and Religion

This journal entry reflects on the author's interest in cultural anthropology, specifically focusing on family structures and religion. The author highlights the influence of these topics on their perspective of anthropology. The entry discusses how family structures vary across cultures, with examples from North America, Europe, and other parts of the world. It also explores the impact of religion on family dynamics, including marriage, divorce, and custody. The author expresses a desire to research these topics, particularly within marginalized communities, aiming to understand the interplay of family and religion in diverse contexts. The author references key scholarly sources to support their viewpoints.

Running head: CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY 1
Cultural Anthropology
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2
Some of the two topics that draw my interest are family structures and religion. They are
among the topics that have ever influenced my view of Anthropology. It is one thing to love
anthropology and another thing to have interest in what anthropology entails.
According to George (2003), cultures appear to have various family structures. For
example, In Canada and the United States, the nuclear family appears to take predominance
(father, mother and the children). This also cuts across some of the countries in the Northern
Europe. In almost the remining part of the globe, the well-known family type is extended family
(included grandparents, father, mother, children, uncles, aunts, cousins and other related kin).
They also note that there has been a significant shift in the history of family change in the 20th
century. For instance, families have been changing with a fall in extended families and a rise of
nuclear families.
Scupin (2019) adds that one of the major factor of consideration ‘in the types of families,
divorce and custody of the children is religious dogma.’ For instance, Islam allows polygamy
while the Christian advocates for only monogamous marriages. Similarly, the catholic church
prohibits divorce while the orthodox doctrine allows a maximum of three divorces. There are
however many other examples that defines how religion shapes the various cultures.
When I become an anthropologist, I would love to focus on family structures and religion.
It is at the center of my heart to invest intensively in doing research on some of the
family/religion factors and influences among the marginalized communities.

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY 3
References
Georgas, J. (2003). Family: Variations and changes across cultures. Online readings in
psychology and culture, 6(3), 2307-0919.
Scupin, R. (2019). Cultural anthropology: A global perspective. SAGE Publications,
Incorporated.

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY 4