GRE Reading Comprehension
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Source: XDF
Gutman's examination of the slaves' extended kinship system produces important findings. Gutman discovers that cousins rarely married, an exogamous tendency that contrasted sharply with the endogamy practiced by the plantation owners. This preference for exogamy, Gutman suggests, may have derived from West African rules governing marriage, which, though they differed from one tribal group to another, all involved some kind of prohibition against unions with close kin. This taboo against cousins' marrying is important, argues Gutman, because it is one of many indications of a strong awareness among slaves of an extended kinship network. The fact that distantly related kin would care for children separated from their families also suggests this awareness. When blood relationships were few, as in newly created plantations in the Southwest, "fictive" kinship arrangements took their place until a new pattern of consanguinity developed. Gutman presents convincing evidence that this extended kinship structure一which he believes developed by the mid-to-late eighteenth century一provided the foundations for the strong communal consciousness that existed among slaves.
According to the passage, all of the following are true of the West African rules governing marriage:
- A The rules forbade marriages between close kin.
- B The rules were not uniform in all respectsfrom one West African tribe to another.
- C The rules have been considered to be a possible source of slaves' marriage preferences.