As you read, consider the following questions:

• What do we know about the social organization of nonhuman primates, and can this shed any light on human societies?
• What different types of marriage do we find in human societies, and how might this variation be explained?
• What kinds of variations do we find in descent lines, and how do these correlate with other cultural variables?
• What are some of the variations in kinship terminology, and how does such terminology relate to other aspects of a cultural system?
• How are different cultural systems organized above the family level?