Australia and Trobriand Family Study

Introduction

In this report I will be completing a cross cultural study on a typical Trobriand Islanders family comparing it to my own family, as an example of an Australian family I will be focusing on the issues of `Roles and Status' and `Gender' within a family unit.

I will use definitions from the British Concise Oxford Dictionary of 1964:

roles: "ones function, what one is appointed or expected or has undertaken to do."

status: "social position, rank, relation to others, relative importance, possession ect."

gender: "is used to describe the cultural and social attributes of men and women, which are manifested in appropriate masculinity and femininity."

The Boyowans are a group of Papuans living 120 miles north, to the eastern tip of Papua New Guinea on the Trobriand Islands, a paradise largely untouched by time. Consequently the Boyowan people are a...