The Nayar social arrangement is characterized by?

The Nayar social arrangement is characterized by?

• A. West Indian society had no nuclear family; a woman could have sexual relations with any man she wished (up to a maximum of 12) and the biological father of the children was therefore uncertain. The mothers brother, rather than the father, was responsible for looking after the mother and the children.
• B. Nuclear family with monogamous father
• C. Patriarchal authority with paternal lineage
• D. Adoptive care networks

Answer: (A)

The Nayar family pattern centers on kinship through the mother rather than the father, creating a non-nuclear, matrilineal household structure. In this system, households are often built around the mother and her kin, with the mother’s brother taking on a key caregiving and social-provision role for the children. Paternity is not the main basis for family bonds, and the biological father’s place in the children’s social world is not the defining link.

The statement that a non-nuclear family structure exists and that the mother’s brother is responsible for the mother and her children captures this core idea, along with the idea that biological paternity is not the central determinant of kinship. The other options describe more typical nuclear, patriarchal, or adoptive networks, which don’t fit the Nayar’s matrilineal, matrilocal pattern.