When the average American citizen thinks about marriage, a few activities generally come to mind— a formal ceremony including family and friends which is a monogamous heterosexual union, followed by raising biological children all while living separately from one’s extended family. These thoughts, along with other traditional American ideologies, go hand in hand with the ideas of the Standard North American Family or SNAF. SNAF advocates tend to assume that this form of family is the most real, natural, divine, longstanding, and functional (Harris 2021). Janice Stockard’s (2002) book, Marriage in Culture, gives detailed anthropological insight into marriage and family practices of a handful of cultures throughout the world that are different from the traditional North American viewpoint of marriage. In the first half of this paper, I will draw on Stockard as well as Shih (2001) in order to contrast SNAF with the familial practices of the Kung San, Iroquois, Moso, and Nyinba. Non-SNAF practices are common in the contemporary United States too. Some of these families include but are not limited to, transnational families whose members span borders; married couples who choose to remain childfree; single adults who form “families of choice” with friends and extended kin; and those who consider pets as their immediate family. Thus, in the second half of this paper, I will contrast the beliefs of SNAF with the groups of families and people mentioned above. My argument is that it is important for people to have viable life options and for society to realize that no approach to life, family, relationships, and marriage is perfect.

Professor Harris has guided Mitch in many stages of his major, has helped him to become a significantly better writer, and overall made his experience in Sociology the best he could have asked for. Professor Harris was significantly influential in developing Mitch's presentation for this symposium.