Marriage

Universality of marriage
Giving a universal definition of marriage is a difficult task. Many anthropologists have attempted to
give a universal definition of marriage.
Edward westmarck (1884: history of human marriage): attempted to give the first definition of
marriage. He define marriage – “marriage is a relation of one or more men with one or more women
which is recognized by custom or law and which involves certain rights and duties, both in case parties
entering in the union and the child born into it.”
This definition defied many ethnographic realities –
1. It does not accommodate the women – women marriage in the Nuer of Sudan.
2. Man – Man marriages of Azande of Sudan.
3. Sham marriages of Kwakiutl Indians.

Malinowski and Radcliffe Brown (1930):

“Marriage is a union of a man and a woman in which they are the legal father and legal mother of the
children born to the woman.”
Notes and quarries on anthropology, 1951:
“Marriage is a union between a man and a woman such that a children born to it are the legitimate
offsprings of both the parents.”
But they do not accumulate the following institution of marriage:-
1. Homosexual marriages modern societies like U.S.A.
2. In Trukese community of Micronesia, marriage is not necessary for legitimizing the offsprings.
3. Ghost marriages in China.
4. Modern living in relationships.

G.P. Murdock (1949): stated that “marriage exists in every society” and it comes into being when “the
economic and the sexual functions are united into one relationship” and it involves “residual co –
habitation, economic co – operation and formation of nuclear family.”
It does not withstand following ethnographic realities:-
1. The father less societies of Jamaican negroes and the black families in the Negroid community
of Caribbean islands.
2. The alternating habitation of Asante tribe in Ghana – wife living in maternal house and husband
living in paternal house.
3. Taravad families with arbitrary fatherhood (with 2 marriages – sambandham and kalayanam) in
Nayar community in Kerala.

Kathleen Gough (1950):

Marriage is a relationship established between a woman and one or more men or other persons, which
provides that the child born under circumstances is not prohibited by the rules of the relationship, is
accorded the full birth rights common to the normal members of the society.
This could not cover the following ethnographic exceptions:-
1. Tree marriages in India.
2. Concubine unions in Jamaican Negroid community.
3. Societies like Onatoa marriage in not necessary to have children.
4. Kibbutz in Israel – does not includes the marriage and family system.

Moreover, Peter Prince opinioned that feeling of fatherhood is missing in the Nayar Society.
Sir Edmund Leach (1960) defined marriage as a “bundle of rights” and gave list of 10 rights that are:-
1. Legal fatherhood
 2. Legal motherhood
3. Husband’s monopoly over wife’s sexuality.
4. Wife’s monopoly over husband’s sexuality.
5. Husband’s rights over the wife’s domestic and other labor services.
6. To give wife the right over the husband’s domestic and labor services.
7. To give husband the right over the wife’s property.
8. To give wife the right over the husband’s property.
9. To establish the joint fund of family for the benefit of children.
10. To establish the socially significant relation with the wife’s brother.

He tested his definition on many societies and found out that there is no society that have all 10 rights,
nor there is one right which is common to all societies with regard to marriage.
Therefore he concluded that giving a universal definition to marriage is very difficult but there is
established universality of the marriage, ie the institution of marriage is universal, but may not be
defined universally.
Functions of marriage:-
1. Malinowski: fulfillment of biopsychic needs.
2. R.C. Brown: Creation of family and family helps in nourishment of children, enculturation, thus
maintaining the structure of the society.
3. Lech: establishment of joint property funds.
4. Linton: establishment of the roles and responsibilities in the society.
5. Levis Strauss: creation of alliances.
6. Raymond Firth: marriage binds everything together in the society from rituals to descent
association and solidarity eg Riudi Tribe of Indonesia.
7. Goody and Tambiah: transfer of goods and services among the husband and wife families like –
dowry, Bride wealth, Bride service etc.

Marriage rules
Refrences:-
- L. Dumont, (1968) "Marriage; Marriage Alliance"
- R. Fox, Kinship & Marriage;
- C.C. Harris, The Family
- R. Keesing, Kin Groups and Social Structure
- E.R. Leach, Rethinking Anthropology
1. Proscriptive rules – the forbidden rules
- Incest taboo
2. Prescriptive
a. Endogamy
b. Exogamy
i. Anuloma.
ii. Pratiloma.
3. Preferential rules
a. Cross cousin marriages
i. Symmetrical/bilateral marriages
 ii. Asymmetrical/unilateral marriages
1. Matrilateral
2. Patrilateral
b. Parallel cousin marriages

Incest taboo
Incest is sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual
activity between people in a consanguineous relationship. In primitive societies, incest taboo is
associated with natural fear. It is a prohibitive rule which is a negative compulsion; hence it is called as
incest taboo.
 Incest taboo is a cultural rule that prohibits this type of sexual relation.
 Incest taboo is different from exogamy which prohibits marriage between close relatives.
 Needham says that there is no anything like incest taboo and incest is found in various societies.
To support his statement Needham gives example of incest in following families or societies.
(1) Hawaiian Incuan
(2) Egyptian Royal family,
(3) Peru
(4) Kachin tribemen – mating with daughter or sister is incestuous but with mother is
adulterous
(5) Lakher of Myanmar – Half siblings with same mother can have sexual relations.
 Theories explaining existence of incest taboo
1. Childhood familiarity theory of Edward Westermarack
 He argued that people, who are associated with each other since childhood, for example
siblings, are not sexually attracted towards each other and hence avoid sex (Westermarck
effect)

Some scholars conducted studies to prove this theory:-

Kibbutz studied by Yanina talmon: (family and community in the Kibbutz)
 He investigated the marriage pattern of second generation of Kibbutz (Israeli commune). He
found that children reared in commune not only avoided marriage they also avoided sexual
relation among themselves.
 It tells us that people reared together firmly believe that over familiarity leads to sexual
disinterest. For other members of Kibbutz, they feel ‘we are llike open book to each other’
which make them sexually disinterested to each other. They rearly prefer spouse of same
Kibbutz.

Tang Yang studied by Arthur wolf: He conducted studies on Chinese in Northern Taiwan. There was
a custom called Tang Yang His which is a practice of giving a young female to another family to be
raised as a future daughter-in-law. But this marriage is unsuccessful in most of the cases due to
childhood familiarity of the husband and wife.
Hilda and Seymour Parker- Fathers who sexually harassed their daughter: He compared two
samples of fathers. One who sexually abused their daughter and another who reportedly did not, In
former case, father spent most of the time away from home. It might have been the cause of sexually
exploiting their daughter. Here, again question of familiarity is pointed out.
Criticism of Childhood familiarity theory: All the above studies go in favour of childhood familiarity
theory of incest taboo, however they could not explain:
 Why societies have to prohibit marriage that can be avoided because of disinterest itself?
 Also why did it not apply to the first cousin marriage?

Because of these criticisms this theory has been rejected.

2. Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory

According to Freud, incest taboo is a reaction against unconscious and unaccepted desires. From the
very beginning, there was attraction between father-daughter and mother-son. As a result, son felt
jealous and hostility towards father.
But son knew that this feeling could not be continued as it might lead the father to retaliate against him.
Therefore this thought was renounced. Although the feeling is renounced and retreat into unconscious,
the desire to possess mother continues to exist in unconscious mind.
According to Freud, the horror of incest or incest taboo is a defence against this unconscious impulse.
Criticism of Freud’s theory: But he does not explain:
a. Why societies need explicit taboo?
b. Nor does it account for why parents should not be interested in committing incest with their
children?
c. What about families where father died young? Does son get involved in incest? Such examples
are very rare.
3. Malinowski’s family disruption theory

According to him sexual competition among family members results in rivalry and tension and family
could not function as an effective unit. Hence society has to curtail sexual competition within family, by
imposing prohibition of incest which keeps the family intact.
But there are some inconsistencies in this theory
a. Society could have set other rules.
b. Why would brother-sister incest being so disruptive, existed in ancient Egypt?
4. Family cooperation Theory of E.B. Tylor
It is proposed by E.B. Tylor and elaborated by Leslie White and Claude Levi Strauss.
It emphasised on value of incest taboo in promoting cooperation among family groups and thus helping
community to survive. According to E.B. Tylor, incest taboo was an answer to the choice between
marrying out or getting killed due to suspicion and hostility towards other groups.
This cooperation theory does not adequately explain the existence of incest taboo in all societies. They
might have made other customs to promote alliance.
5. Inbreeding Theory

This theory focuses on potentially damaging consequences of inbreeding. But can it be assumed that
early people knew the consequences of inbreeding when they did not have any scientific
understanding about it?
Raymond Firth’s report on Tikopia living in South Pacific says that they have an idea of ‘Mara’
associated with inbreeding. It means barrenness, illness and untimately death. Thus it can be said that,
though the primitive people did not have scientific knowledge of consequences of inbreeding but they
had an idea about it.
Cirticism of inbreeding theory
According to population genetics studies of 20th century, inbreeding has both advantages and
disadvantages. It brings out recessive genes of both superior and inferior character.
Why some societies prefer endogamy, even parallel cousin marriages?
Points supporting inbreeding theory
a. Proportion of negative recessive traits to adaptive recessive traits is very high.
 b. In pre-scientific people there were two groups. One with incest taboo which experienced more
surviving children and other with incest not taboo which experienced less surviving children.
Hence reproductive advantage was with group with incest taboo and group without incest taboo
died out.

Conclusion: None of the theories of incest taboo is sufficient to explain the existence of this taboo in
humans, yet socio-functional and inbreeding theory highlight its relevance.
This tendency is seen in some higher animals (example: chimpanzee) too and hence has to do something
with our animal instinct as well. Familial incest taboo seems to be most efficient and effective means of
promoting genetic variability, familial harmony and community cooperation. These advantages can
explain the spread and persistence of this taboo, if not the theories of its origin.

Prescriptive rule:-
Endogamy: endogamy is defined as a social rule that requires an individual to marry inside a culturally
defined social group of which he/she is a member (ember & ember: 1973)
This culturally defined social group may be village, lineage, moiety, tribe, caste, gotra etc.
So there are many types of endogamy based upon the culturally defined group:-
1. Village endogamy:

For example the Yanomamo of Amazonia practise an endogamous system by forming settlements
composed of paired localised lineage, which are bound to exchange women according to a specific cross
cousin marriage rule. Exceptions occur only when villages have less than optimal population and must
contact outside marriages to acquire allies. A less rigid but still pronounced pattern of local endogamy is
evident in Turkish villages
2. Lineage endogamy:

An example of such marriage pattern was given by Freeman (1958) in Schaefer (2001) who quoted the
Yarunos of inland Venezwela. The Yaruno male of marriageable age does not engage in the kind of
dating behaviour as typical of young people in the US, rather he knows that, under the traditions of their
culture, he must marry one of his mother’s brother’s daughter or his father’s sister’s daughters. The
young man’s choice is limited because one of his uncles selects the eligible cousin that he must marry.
This type of marriage is very difficult in the societies where they take love to be important in the
courtship process for example in Zimbabwe where they consider cousins to be closely related, marriage
of such cousins is taken as incest.
3. Clan endogamy:

For example: among Kipsigis of kenys there are sub – divisions in the clan and they marry between the
sub – divisions of the clan. The kadars of kochin have to perform strict sib endogamy.
4. Moiety endogamy: Todas have 2 moieties Tartharol and Taivaliol that are essentially are
endogamous, but the sibs are essentially exogamous. Similarly among bhils – ujle Bhils and
Mele bhils that are endogamous but the sibs are exogamous.
5. Caste endogamy: Castes are hereditary social divisions that are distinguished from one another
by property ownership, occupation, political position and often ritual status (Haralambos and
Holborn,2008)

The Nayar case provides an example of such a group. They hold a high rank in their local caste system
according to their ownership of agricultural land and their traditional status and occupation as political
leaders and warriors. They are economically served by lower caste members and are forbidden to
engage in sexual relations with them. Their marriage ceremonies are almost exclusively devoted to
symbolically uniting males and females within the caste. Nayar women, particularly those on higher
sub-castes, do form liaisons with even higher caste Brahmins. However the latter do not consider these
affairs as marriages and do not accept responsibilities for any children that may result.
6. Class endogamy: Class, like caste, involves a satisfaction of the society according to wealth, and
related criteria. It differs in so far as its divisions are less rigid and allow for mobility.

An analysis of marriage patterns (Blackwell (1998), Schwummer (1995)) revealed a strong tendency for
people to seek partners with similar educational attainments, especially at the extreme ends of the
hierarchy. This is a common practice in almost all societies regardless of development. Men with six
years of schooling or less were more than ten times as likely to marry wives with an equivalent
educational attainment as were men with higher educational levels (39% as opposed to 3% of the
stratum). Only about 20% of this group married women who had finished high school, and less than 1%
married college graduates.

Reasons of endogamy:
1. Historical reasons {Chatterjee (1988: Hindu view of life)} –
a. Hindu Varna system – it aims to maintain the individuality of each class or group
flourishing in its own way, thus people of one dwij varna cpuld marry in the same dwij
varna (Pauline: 2003).
b. Evolution of Jainism and Buddhism; and strict revival of Brahmanism through strict
caste system.
c. Muslim invasion and need for retention of cultural values.
2. Hicks and Gwynne: Cultural differences in different castes and sub – castes and preservation of
cultural of cultural traditions.
3. Concept of purity of blood eg in Iroquois Indians.
4. Child marriages in India – 1.5 million girls are married before attaining the age of 18 years.

Acc. To recent report by Danik Bhaskar: on the occasion of Akshay Tritya in the village Biaora Kalan in
Rajgarh district of Madhya Pradesh in a mass wedding ceremony 69 couples were within the age
bracket of 12 – 16 years. Acc to NFHS - 4 in this district the 50% women in the the age bracket 20 – 24
years were married before the age of 18 years and nearly 7% of women between age bracket 15 – 19
are pregnant.
5. Malinowski: Desire to keep property intact.
6. Bourdillon: Maintain unity among group.
7. Mazumdar & Madan: Universal fear of strange, novel and unknown.

Advantages:
- Preserves the group homogeneity.
- Maintains the political unity and numerical force of the group.
- Preservation of religious and ethnic traditions (hicks and Gwynne: 1994)
- Preservation of ethnic purity.
- Women remain in familiar surroundings.
- Group assistance is readily available in the case of crisis.

Disadvantages:
- Restriction in mate selection.
- Encourages ethnocentrism.
- It emphasizes on the group feelings, creates communalism, regionalism and violence.
 - Increases the violence between different groups.
- Limits individualism in the society.

Exogamy: exogamy is defined as a social rule that requires an individual to marry outside a culturally
defined social group of which he/she is a member (Hoebel and Weaver: 1973).
Hicks and Gwynne: it is a social rule that one must marry someone outside one’s own group.
This culturally defined social group may be village, lineage, moiety, tribe, caste, gotra etc.
So there are many types of exogamy based upon the culturally defined group:-
A. Village exogamy: acc. To William J. Goody: In Rani Khera village in Aligarh district of U.P. the
village ecosystem is so developed out of 266 women 200 women have came from different
villages. For about 220 local women have gone to 200 villages to marry. As a result 150
household of Rani Khera have linked to nearly 400 nearby villages.
B. Lineage exogamy: Birhor community of Chhattisgarh (S. Tripathi: 2017).
C. Clan exogamy: muria Gond of Chhattisgarh( partrilineal cross cousin marriages are preformed)
D. Moiety exogamy: Korku tribe of M.P. have 2 moieties Raj and Pallari. Bondos of Orissa have 2
moieties Ontal(cobra) and Killo(tiger). Tlingit Red Indian in North America have 2 moieties
Raven and Wolf.

Caste exogamy:
Hypergamy (anuloma): This is a norm which says that a man should marry his daughter into a family
of higher status than his own .In such a marriage system , a woman is married to a superior preferably
but may marry an equal. But a man should not marry a woman of higher status than himself. Thus it’s a
preferential marriage.
 Indian cultural system legal system formulated by Manu also sanctions it.

 Examples: Anavila Brahmins and Patidars of Gujarat, Maithili Brahmins of Bihar, Ranchi
Brahmins in Bengal and among Kanyakubja and Saryupari Brahmins of U.P., Nayars and
Ambavasi of kerela.

 Acc. To Iravati Karve Anuloma marriages have a regional pattern from east to west
direction in sub – castes and castes

Reason:-
 Hypergamy is encountered in India although it is not universal there. It is found in those
societies where notions of hierarchy prevail eg. Caste system.

 Preventing a woman from losing her caste status and thus ritual purity by marring a man
from lower caste. But a man himself does not loose caste status by marrying a woman
from lower caste.

 This kind of gift is also offered to Brahmin and in this relationship of gift giving receiver
is superior. Ideally the gift offered in marriage should be that of a virgin girl known as
kanyadan. It is meritorious that no payment is received by bride’s family. Extravagant
dowry also accompanies the bride. In return the wife giver does not expect wives for
themselves or for future generation but they improve their rank and prestige which is
reflected through commensalism.

 Thus hypergamous marriage may be strategy by a caste/sub caste to improve their rank.
Consequences:-
 Repeated hypergamous inter-manage between wife givers and receivers may consolidate the
affinal relationship & create a system of asymmetric marriage alliance.

 Woman will be acuumulated at the top of hierarchy where infanticide, polygyny, enforced
spinsterhood & marrages far away would ensure a demand of woman from below. Thus it
reflects socioeconomic condition in general and poor condition of woman in population.

Hypogamy ( Pratiloma)
A form of marriage norm in which a man marries a woman of higher status than the his own social
status. This type of marriage is explained by ‘Edmond Leach’ for Kachin of Burma and some part of
india.
 Considerably marriage payment go from wife receiver to wife giver in which cattle is
predominant currency & wife receiver hardly get status of higher group. This rule is
likely to be associated with the accumulation of permanent status differences between
wife giver and receiver.

 Edmond Leach links this form of anisogamy ot his overall theory of harmonic &
disharmonic regimes claiming that hypogamy is a kind of instability within a patrilineal
system. He suggested that hypogamy is a kind of instability within a patrilineal system.
He suggested that hypogamy is a structured phenomenon which represented the tension
between maternal and paternal lines.

 Special marriage act 1872, which was repealed and replaced by new special marriage act
1954 have permitted these type of marriages.

Result of Hypogamy
a) Among shudras high bride price

b) Forced to choose between polyandry and bachelorhood.

c) Evolution of marriage by capture.

Acc. To Iravati Karve Hypogamy is generally tabooed in many societies.

Result of Hypogamy taboo
a) Huge dowries for marrying out a daughter in higher caste family

b) Polygyny and forced spinsterhood in Brahmins families.

c) Dislike for female child in higher castes and consequent female infanticide.

Reasons for exogamy:-

1. E.B. Tylor: during the evolution in the paleolithic period the bands must have entered into
marital exchanges and it must have generated positive outcome for the need of survival.
2. H.H. Risley: human desires of experiencing variety.
3. Westermarck: sexual aversion toward familiar group.
4. E. Durkheim: the primitive belief of blood and life has given rise to exogamy.
5. A.I. Richards, Mc Lennon, John Ferguson: Food scarcities lead to marriage by capture and thus
exogamy.
 6. Y. talman, wolf: it has certain adaptive advantages:-
a. Indictment of new blood & foster cultural innovation.
b. Mechanism for formation of alliance between neighboring tribes.

Advantages:-
- Less frequent movement of daughter in laws -> stability of marriage.
- Formation of alliance (Tylor: 1889; Malinowski: 1922).
- Fostering of cultural innovation.
- Easy social mobilization.
- Low scope of cheating in marriage.
- Good provision of subsistence necessities in case of failure of harvest in one region
(Hicks: 1990).
- Mutual solidarity and performance of rituals eg Rindi Tribe of eastern Indonesia (G.L.
Forth 1981)
- Mutual defense eg Tetum of Indonesia (Hicks: 1990)
- Carrying out of the mutual trade relations (Podolefsky: contemporary warfare in the new
Guinea Highlands)

Disadvantages:-
- Does not maintain the purity of blood and purity of ethnicity.
- Cultural differences between spouses.
- Disintegration of wealth.
- Threat of disintegration of the social structure of the society.
- Acc. To Kalmijn, de Graaf, and Janssen(2005):-
o the chances of divorce in exogamous marriages is higher than the endogamous
marriages.
o To avoid frequent divorces the marriage is followed with economical transactions
like dowry and bride wealth.
Preferential rules
Cousin marriages:-

Cousin marriage is marriage with consanguinity related kin, ie, if the partners are related by the bold of
blood, it is called cousin marriage.
Diagram: acc. to Levis Strauss:-

Different frequencies of cousin marriages

Acc. To Murdock (1957):-
Types of cousin preferences Number (564) Percentage
Preference for parallel 12 2%
cousin
Preference for patrilineal 16 3%
cross cousin
Preference for matrilineal 49 9%
cross cousin
Preference for symmetrical 88 16%
cross cousin
Marriage permitted with 45 8%
any cross cousin
Marriage not approved with 277 48%
first cousin
No data available 14%

Thus we can say that cousin marriages are in some society cousin marriages are preferential, in some
they are prescribed and in some they are prohibited, but we will study cousin marriages from point of
view of the communities in which they are preferential.
Cross cousin marriages
Definition:
Acc. To Hammond:
In this type of marriage an individual is married to his/her cross cousin, ie the cousin born to the
different sex kin of same lineage, for example father sister daughter/son or mother brother daughter/son.
If single is performed then it is called asymmetrical and vice versa.
They form the part of lineage exogamy.
Theories:-
1. Levis Strauss puts forward alliance theory, ie, marriage is an alliance and an exchange system.
After incest taboo men entered into exogamous unions and eventually gave rise to cross cousin
marriages.
2. Psycho cultural theory of Malinowski: psychologically man wants to retain the property and pass
it to his son but cultural dictates that the property should be given to nephew. This clash gives
rise to cross cousin marriages.

3. Psychological explanation by David Schneider and G. Holms: In most of the patrilineal societies
the father is an authoritarian figure but mother is sympathetic and indulgent, he extends the same
attitude towards mother’s brothers and develops close relationship. So, it ultimately influences
the psychology of man to accept Mother’s Brother Daughter.
4. Sir James Frazer: due to totemism the exogamy started and cross cousin marriages were first
form of exogamy.
5. Iravati Karve studied the cross cousin marriages in the Hindus of Maharashtra and remarked
“seems to be a result of the impact and subsequent absorption of the northern people with some
southern people, who already had the practice of cross-cousin marriage.”
6. R. Sinha (1962), during ethnographic work in Akas of Arunachal, remarked that man generally
likes to marry a woman whom he might have known from his childhood and got familiar, and a
cross- cousin, as such happens nearer to him and as next to his own kin.
7. Acc. To Leigh Hunt and John [Link] there are no. of prohibitions in the different parts of
india due to which the choice of the person whom to marry gets reduced.
Effects:-
- Restriction on mate selection eg Kadars of Kochin .
- Minimizing of the marriage payments through bargaining and effective reciprocity eg
dudhlantawa in Gonds.
- Cooperation in the society eg kadars of nilgiri.
- Restriction to assimilation in other tribes Daflas of Arunachal Pradesh.
- R. Sinha in Buguns (khowas) of Assam – it encourages the classificatory kinship.

Symmetrical/bilateral marriages:-
They are the forms of direct exchange system of marriage between 2 linages or families that establish
permanent alliance through exchange of women. For example in Tiv community man’s marriage
requires him to provide a bride to his in laws family from among the group of his own group.
Diagram:-

Characteristics
1. Acc. To Levis Strauss the symmetrical cross cousin marriages are either patrilineal or
matrilineal.
2. The structure of both the groups is similar ie the the constitution and arrangement of the
institutions are similar.
3. The functioning of the 2 groups is similar, ie, gender division of labor, working pattern is almost
similar.
4. The exchange of bride is 2 way in same generation.
5. The exchange generates the mechanical solidarity through interdependence of alliance.

Asymmetrical/unilateral marriages
Matrilateral
When marriage alliance is done with ego’s mother’s brother’s daughter/son, ie, conjugal alliance is from
maternal side of kinship (consanguine relation of opposite sex).
Examples (S.F. Moore): Sema Naga, Rengma nagas, Kukis, vendas (patrilineal societies), siriono,
Garo, Kaska (matrilineal societies)
Diagrams

Characteristics:
1. Acc. To Levis Strauss they occur in patrilineal societies.
2. The groups are generally dissimilar in both structure and functioning of the institutions.
3. The exchange of bride is in one direction – the transaction is does not gets completed, so groups
are in perpetual obligation to give or receive bride.
4. Sometimes it is called circulating connubium, because of the cycling of marriage throughout the
system as shown in the figure.
 5. Organic solidarity is evident in the society so, other institutions take responsibility of facilitation
of solidarity.

Patrilateral
When the alliance is done with ego’s father’s sister’s daughter/son, ie, conjugal alliance is from paternal
side of kinship (consanguine relation of opposite sex).
Examples (S.F. Moore): Trobriand, Tlingit, Mudukkulattur (Matrilateral), Maria Gond, Apalai
(patrilineal societies)

Characteristics
1. These marriages are generally found in matrilineal societies, but there are exceptions like
Paraiyars of south India(Dumont: 1957)
 2. The groups are structurally and functionally similar, ie, the institutions in the group are
structurally placed in similar pattern and division of labor is similar in institutions of both the
groups.
3. They facilitate mechanical solidarity, acc. To Needham these marriages weaken the structure of
a group due to low built up for organic solidarity.
4. The exchange of women is completed in the next generation.

Parallel cousin marriages

Definition: parallel cousin marriage is where the partners in marriage are cousins belonging to same
lineage of same sex siblings. Or simply put when children of same sex siblings marry. When it is
practiced in unilineal descent group, it generally results in lineal endogamy. They are not as common as
cross cousin marriages.
Theory:-
1. Acc. To Rosenfeld: it helps in retention and consolidation of property, but Barth notes that
property rights according to the Koranic Laws are rarely followed.
2. Barth argues that it help “solidify the minimal lineage as a corporate group”, where political
support is of outmost importance, for example Arab Bedouins, Kurds.
3. Acc. to Madan(2001) it provide a viable option for status/class endogamy – which is quite
popular.
4. Acc. to Aggarwal(1976) and Mines(1976) – these marriages are quite effective in regulating the
marriage payments.
5. Acc. to Dube (1969) – these marriages have originated from intermixing of the tribal and
Muslim traditions.

Effects:-
- Overlapping of kin circles and rigidifying of rishtedari.
- Acc. to khan(1994) – in Muslims of Gulwar in Karnataka – they have formed highly knit
endogamous community called Patel Biraderis.
- Acc. to khan (1994) – it gives way to caste dominance – as in Gulwar Mullanis are
considered inferior to them.
- Joking relationship between the possible partners & they get teased by others villagers
also.
- Acc. to Mistry (2001)- in his study on Gujjar Bakarwals – remarked that it leads to the
tradition of child marriages – girls is married at the age of 12 – 16 years but cohabitation
of the couple takes place around 20 – 22 years.

Examples: Arab Bedouins, Kurds, ancient Hebrews.

Characteristics
1. It generally results in lineal endogamy.
 2. It enhances the group/lineage solidarity.
3. It eliminates the universal fear of unknown and outsider.
4. It results in consolidation of group property.
5. The groups generally have less alliance with other neighboring groups eg. Patel biradiris of
Gulwar district of Karnataka.
6. It may be result of assimilation with diffused cultural values

Types of marriages
Acc. To the no. of spouses that are engaged in the marriage the form of marriage is decided. It is divided
into 2 broad categories – Monogamy and Polygamy.
Frequency of marriage
Thus, wide majority of societies practice monogamy.
Acc. to Murdock(1967) in a survey of 862 societies he concluded:-
Forms of marriage Number of societies Percentage
Monogamy only 137 16
Polygyny at least occasionally 712 83
Polyandry allowed 4
Unknown 9 1
Total 862 1

Bourguignon & green(1973) conducted a survey of 854 societies:-

Forms of marriage Number of societies Percentage
Exclusive monogamy 136 15.9
Monogamy or occasionally 335 39.2
polygyny
Predominately polygynous 379 44.3
Polyandry 4 0.47
Total 854 100

Different types of marriages with examples:-

Monogamy
It is the marriage in which one man marries one woman at one time. Monogamy includes following sub
forms:-
 - General monogamy
- Serial monogamy

General monogamy or strict monogamy occurs when a man marries a women and the marriage
continues for rest of his life.
In the case of serial monogamy the marriage can be annulled and there can be many marriages in
succession, one after another. Such marriages are quite often in Semang and Sakai tribes of Malaya
forests.
Monogamy occurs world – wide in different ecologies and different communities engaged in different
economic activities like Andaman Islanders, veddas of Ceylon, Arunta in Australia (hunting gathering);
Gond, Munda, Ho, Santhals (agriculturist) and in the civilized societies.
Monogamy:-
General monogamy L.P. Vidyarthi:-
Hunting gathering – birhor, juang, kadar, hill
korwa and lodha.
Agriculture – gond, bhil, santhal, oroan,
munda, mezzo.
Traders – Bhot
Serial monogamy Hunting gathering- chenchu (haimendrof,
1943), Yanadi (Thurston, 1909), semang &
sakai, Malasia (Forde, 1939), whites in U.S.A.
(Goode, 1964).

Acc. To Chatterjee Monogamy is the best form of marriage and more over in the hindu society it has
been made compulsory via hindu code bill, 1955.
Theories of monogamy:-
- Evolutionary theory: acc. To the evolutionary theorists the evolution of marriage started
from group marriages to matrilocal horders to matrilineal monogamous marriages.
- Marriage as an eternal union between man and woman.
- The proportion of males and females are same around the world. Thus monogamy is an
obvious option.
- High bride price and capitalization – eventually forces the society to move towards
monogamy.

Advantages:-
- Provides maximum opportunity for everyone to mate.
- Intra – sex jealousy is minimum.
- Sociological factors like inheritance, property rights, lineage membership are easy to
handle.
- Emotional need can be effectively fulfilled.
- The child rearing can be done more effectively.

Negatives of monogamy:-
- High incidence of dowry.
- Continuation of problematic marriages due to tough or no divorces.
- Low frequency of remarriage.

Levirate and Sororate:

Levirate: marrying deceased husband’s brother.
E.g Middle East, Zimbawe
Reason:
- To ensure permanent relationship
- Prevent return of bride price.
- Question of upbringing of children is resolved.

Characteristics:
- It coincides with patrilineal descent.
- Levirate may have claim to the property of brother and even father.
- It provides security of husband to a widowhood.
- Acc to Evan Pritchard levirate may have many forms like Ghost marriage in Nuer
community.

Sororate: Marrying deceased wife’s sister. Eg. Bagada Tribe of Uganda.

Reason:
- To ensure permanent relationship
- Prevent return of bride price.
- Question of upbringing of children is resolved.
- Acc. To Hammond: wife’s consanguine kin is the nearest one to approach.

Characteristics:-
- They are complementary to levirate.

Polygamy
Acc. To Linton(1936: Science of Man) states that polygamy is of 2 types:-
- Polygyny
- Polyandry
a. Polygyny:

Polygyny is the marriage in which a man can marry more than one woman at a time. It can be divided
Sororal and non – sororal.
Polygyny:-
General Polygyny Baiga, Muria, Munda, Gond and Naga
(Vidyarthi, 1985)
Betsilang of Madagascar(Linton, 1939),
Bagada of Uganda and kanuri of
Nigeria(Cohen,1967)
Sororal Polygyny Vidyarthi(1985): Gond, Ho, Munda, Bhil
Bigany Vidyarthi – Ho, Baiga, Gond, Munda

Acc. To miller and weitz (1976) (Baganda tribe of Uganda) Sororal is much preferred due to folloing
reasons:-
- Conducive environment in consanguine husbands.
- High bride price.
 - Less need of resources for accommodation.

Theories:-
- Linton emphasizes that polygyny is the result of human’s predisposition for plural
marriages.
- Osmond Marie polygyny is favored by the societies having simpler socio – economic
structure, while monogamy is favored by the societies having complex social structure.
- M. ember- sex imbalance leads to polygyny
- Carol ember – it is caused due to high male mortality rate.
- John Whiting – it is due to long postpartum sex taboo ,eg, in Tallensi & Ewe of Black
Volta in north Ghana have taboo period ranging from 2 to 3 years.
- Generation of mare labor force in agricultural tribes like Santhals.
- In Nagas wives are status symbol.
- In pre – independence Bengal hypergamy resulted in polygyny.
- Hamid Toursunof (2007), in his field work in Kazakhstan – poverty in patriarchal society
further perpetuates it.

Advantages:-
- Adequate sexual gratification from the side of husband.
- Brings economic stability to the family engaged in intensive agriculture.
- Better care of progeny.
- Better division of labor among wives.
- Surety of progeny eg in Hmong society.

Disadvantages:-
- Generally status of women suffers in the society due to polygyny.
- Jealousy among wives.
- Increases sexual dissatisfaction among Wives.
- Increases the population burden on the natural resources – so china banned polygyny in
1953.
- Acc. To Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences – it has increased psychological
anxiety in the children of Zimbabwe.
- Acc. To Rodriquez women of Gotu community have to comply with the rules and have
to choose between the brothers after the death of husband.
b. Polyandry

Polyandry is the marriage in of a woman with several men who may be brothers or may not.
It is of 2 types:-
Fraternal Todas of India (Rivers, 1908), khasas of India
(Majumdar, 1964), Gallong of Arunachal
Pradesh (srivastava ,1968)
Non – fraternal Kotas and todas (Madelbaum, 1963)

Acc. To miller and weitz (1976) adlephic polyandry is preferred over non- adelphic reasons being:-
- Conducive environment in consanguine husbands.
- High bride price.
- Less need of resources for accommodation.
 - Non – aldelphic or non – fraternal: if the husbands/men are not brothers. Examples –
Tibetan polyandry.

Theories:-
- Imbalanced Sex ratio – D.N. Mazumdar – khasas of Jaunsar Bawar – due to evil practice
of infanticide.
- Mythologies - Khasas – practice is attributed to their ancestors – Pandavas.
- Ecological factors – Khasas and Tibetan – low availability of resources; Zanskar – north
west India – by Cook and Cook – “response to an ecology where the carrying capacity of
the land is not only restricted but subject to severe seasonal constraints.”
- Religious reasons – Todas – first girl child is sacrificed
- War– nayars – matrilineal warrior tribes – (Tambiah)
- High bride price –
- Westermarck stated a set of "co-existing conditions," for polyandry, including high sex
ratios at birth, resource limitations, geographical circumscription, and prolonged
absences of husbands from home.
- Lech – desire to keep joint ownership of land.

Question of fatherhood
- Among Tibetan, khasa and others, the fatherhood goes to the eldest brother who is not necessarily the
genitor or biological father.
- Among Toda fatherhood is voluntary. The brother who performs the ceremony of bow and arrow is
given status of father.
- Among Nayar, the ritual husband enjoys the status of father and not the visting husband.
Advantages:-
- Controls the growth of population in the society.
- Avoids the division of family property and maintains solidarity in the family, upon
economical resources.
- Fosters the ‘US’ feeling in the members of the family.
- Security and sustenance of the family in the case of missing husband.
- Divorces are easy.
- Goldstien – leads to the homeostatic adjustments of group size to resources.

Disadvantages:-
- Lack of sexual gratification and jealousy among husbands – Levine in Nyinba tribe of
Nepal.
- Polyandry sometimes leads to sterility or Barrenness due to fertility pressure on females.
- It may lead to severe competition and mala – fide magic that creates anxiety in the
society.
- Limits male reproductive success – can’t be practiced for a long time.

Group marriages
This concept is related to that of primitive promiscuity for sexual communism.
It refers to a type of marriage in which the right and obligations of marriage relationship are held in
common among the group of men and women. It is marriage of two or more women with two or more
men at a time.
Sometimes these marriages are equated with polygynandrous marriages – but there is slight difference
the the marriage exchange in group marriages is for the whole society, but in the case of
polygynandrouss marriages it pertains only to a household.
Polygynanadry Marquesans of Polynesia (Linton, 1939),
Todas (Vidyarthi, 1985)

Group marriages Kaingang of Brazil (Murdock, 1949)

L.H. Morgan a classical evolutionist held that this was the earliest form of marriage while other argued
that patriarchal, matriarchal or monogamous form of marriage are earlier forms.
Marriage provides for family to be established on the basis of division of labour including taking care of
children, providing economic substances to group, imparting socialization.
These basic functions cannot be performed by any other group. Group marriage cannot lead to the
establishment of well – defined family.
Therefore for many anthropologists for e.g. Rivers this form of marriage never existed never existed in
any society.

Marriage transections
Frequency of marriage payments- Murdock (1957: “world’s ethnographic sample”):-
Marriage finances Number Percentage
Bride price
- Substantial bride 247 45.57%
price 13 2.40%
- Token bride price
Bride services 75 13.3%
Dowry 24 4.4%
Women exchange 16 2.9%
Gift exchange 15 2.7%
No information about marriage 152 28.04%
payments
Total 542 100%

Marriage transections are the payments that are exchanged between families of bride and groom during
marriage.
Bride price
It is also called progeny price or bride wealth. It occurs when the women exchange and the wealth
exchange move in different direction.
Acc to Goody and Tambiah (1973: bride wealth and dowry):
It may be defined as the transfer from the groom’s family to the bride’s family.
In different communities it is known by many names, eg, in Nuer, Dinka community it is known as
Lobola , In Ndebele and Shona community it is known as amalobolo and roora respectively and so on.
Examples:
Food – gatherers and Hunters: North Alaskan Eskimos, Chenchu in A.P.
Horticulture: Siriono Red Indian- south America, Kamar and Baiga in India.
Pastoralist: Reindeer Chuckchee in Russian Siberia
Agriculturist: Gond, Maria, Ho.
Reasons:-
- Lowie (1927), Hobel and Weaver (1977): To bestow social prestige on girl, lower the
bride price lower the status of girl.
- Bourdillon (1997): To establish the marriage as socially legitimate sexual union.
- Hobel and Weaver: To provide compensation for the loss of girl eg inkomo yohlanga,
given to the mother of bride in Ndebele custom of Lobola.
- To establish effective jural rights over children eg roora payments in afrian community,
bride wealth among Baveda in South Africa(Linton: 1936).
- Murdock (1934):It is a guarantee from the side of groom that wife shall be treated well
thus stabilizing the marriage.
- Andifasi (1970), Ember & Ember (1993): prevents marriage against groundless
divorces.
- Acc. to Radcliff brown(1953), Murdock (1949), Ember and Ember(1997) – to have
legitimate claims over the labor of woman.
- Compensation to the girls family for the loss of claim over children that she bears eg
coustom of Thonga (Stephen, 1963).
- Acc. to Hobel & Weaver: enforces the alliance and reciprocity among the kins of family
through economic reciprocity.

Case study: In Dinka bor tribe (F.W. Leju (January, 2010) in U.N. Mission in Sudan) of Southern
Sudan the bride price of a woman may be 30 or more cattle. The courtship of marriage begins with a
boy establishing good relationship with girl, and then the groom’s parents check the genealogical
background of bride. If the girl have 2 or more boyfriends the man with more cattle and good family
background wins.
The size of bride price typically depends upon the size of girl’s family and the pride of boy’s family.
The premarital pregnancy and elopement are fined. The divorces are very uncommon.
Effects on society:
- Asian institution of social science:-
o More the Zimbabwean societies have turned towards capitalism, bride price have
become a source for commodification of women.
o Due to lack of bride price the living ins and cohabitations have been increasing
around the country.
 - Nava ashraf, Natalie bau, - Indonesia study – increase in education – better human
resource in bride – better bride price.
- Recent study done on Wakiso district in Uganda, by African health sciences finds out
that:-
o Bride price reduces women’s household decision-making roles.
o It limited women's reproductive freedom.
o Perpetuated unequal gender power relations, especially regarding health-seeking
behaviour.

Dowry
The payments done by the bride’s family to the groom’s family at the time of marriage is called dowry.
In dowry the bride and payments go in the same side. It is said that it initially existed in Greece and
Rome and then it spread to India.
In India dowry exists in different forms – land, money, goods, buildings, vehicles and gadgets.
Acc. To M.N. Srinivas (1960) it has high frequency in south India than north India. In India it has high
frequency in the agricultural castes like kammar, Reddy etc in Andhra Pradesh and Telangna;
Vokalinga, Lingyats in Karnataka, Nayar, Reddy in Kerela, Gulzar, Pawar in Maharashtra, Yadavs in
Bihar, Jatts in Punjab etc.
The size of dowry depends upon the socio – economic status of the boy.
Reasons:-
- Competition of wife givers: dowry started as a gift giving ceremony but due to
competition among wife givers it resulted into harmful practice.
- Patrilineal conditions: wife has to be dependent on the husbands family.
- Artificial values and westernization(srinivas(1984)): the problem of dowry is due to
forced modernization during the british period.
- The practice of kanyadan and sanskritization: the practice of kanyadan and hyper
gamy prevalent in the upper caste which accompanied dowry, thus this practice of dowry
was taken by the lower caste by the process of sanskritization.
- Compensation for the property rights - Yuko Nishimura (1998) has shown that among
the Nagarattars of Tamil Nadu, the ownership of the stridhan is well protected so that
every piece of bridal goods is regarded as part of women‘s savings but usha sharma
contradicts the view – that the movable property is made to the husband and his family
and woman have least right over it.
- Marriot (1955) – in his village study of Krishan Garhi village in U.P. opinioned that
dowry is the payment for the lavish hospitality of girl’s family.
- Goody(1973), Tambiah(1973) – dowry helps in formation of conjugal wealth eg Basseri
of southern Iran.
- Boserup (1970) – high male dependence of woman on male in agriculturist society.
- Schlegel (1988) – for alliance building and high wealth concentration.
- James S. Boster – large wealth differentials were expected to translate into polygyny,
but monogamy was followed as a strict rule, thus High Dowry differentials became a
solution to compete with men.

Advantages:-
- Provides with adequate economic support to the boy and his future family.
- Opportunity for status mobilization eg in Anuloma marriage, class mobilization.
 - High dowry provides prestige to the woman.
- Facilitates the circulation of the resources within families, kinship – there by bringing
solidarity.
- Acc. to Timbiah(1989) – dowry increases the status of women in groom’s family
increasing her voice in decision making.

Disadvantages:-
- Even though dowry was prohibited under dowry (prohibition) act 1961 and reinforcing
its enactment in 1986 – dowry prohibition(amendment) act 1986, in continues still today.
- Poor families are restoring to the practice of female infanticide.
- It delays the marriage of girls from the families without adequate resources.
- It has reduced many families to poverty.
- Dowry deaths have become common feature in India.

Case studies:-
Acc. to a case study done by jammu University of aggarwal community in 2010 - As a part of marriage
they have tilak ceremony in which cash is given to the bridegroom. Her parents gave ` 2,50,000 cash to
her husband which he handed over to his elder brother. Anju got seven sarees from her parents which
had cost of 1,00,000 ; jewellery of ` 1.5 lakhs; bed, almirah, sofa, dressing table etc. of 50,000; fridge,
T.V and air conditioner of 80,000 and motorcycle of 70,000. About 7,00,000 were spent in dowry in her
marriage.
Times of India dated 11.9.2007 – reported the case of Tasneem Khannam, 23 years old married to Zafar
from Jaunpur in U.P. had to pay the price for bringing along a Maruti 800 instead of a Cielo. Tasneem
was set aflame after 6 months of marriage.
Characters of Dowry deaths in India(Srinivas (1989), Indira Rajaraman (1983), Ram Ahuja (1989))-
1. Vast majority of victims are from middle class.
2. Victims belong to the age group of 20 – 26 years.
3. Most of the victims are from the hose hold in which mother – in – laws dominate.
4. Almost all victims suffer from harassment.
5. Offenders in all cases are brutal or authoritarian expressing their maladjustments and
abnormalities.