Social Studies Terms and Concepts

• Kinship

  a sharing of characteristics or origins
• Status


  Relative social or professional high rank or social standing
• Nuclear family


  A couple and their dependent children, regarded as a basic social unit
• Monogamy


  The practice of marrying or state of being married to one person at a time
• Polyandry


  In which a woman has more than one husband
• Polygyny


  In which a man has more than one wife
• Patriarchal


  Relating to or denoting a system of society or government controlled by men
• Matriarchal


  Relating to or denoting a form of social organization in which a woman is the head
• Patrifocal


  Focused or centered on the father / the father takes the lead in making decisions and raising children
• Matrifocal


  The mother as the head of the family or have had a prevailing influence