SOC 111

Introduction to

Anthropology

MARRIAGE

MARRIAGE

How is marriage defined and regulated?

What role does marriage play in creating

and maintaining group alliances?

What forms of marriage exist cross-

culturally and what are their social

correlates?

MARRIAGE Marriage is an institution with significant roles and

functions in addition to reproduction.

However, no definition of marriage is broad enough to

apply easily to all societies and situations.

In many nonindustrial societies, a person’s social world

includes two main categories: kin and strangers.

Marriage is one of the primary ways of converting

strangers into kin and creating and maintaining

personal an political alliances.

MARRIAGE Exogamy: having a husband or wife outside one’s own

group.

Incest: sexual relations with someone considered to be a close relative.

Cross Cousins: the children of a brother and a sister. (halave dayı cocuklari)

Parallel Cousins: the children of two brothers or two sisters. (teyze ve amca cocuklari)

In many societies, parallel cousins are tabood as sex or marriage partners. They fall within the incest taboo but cross cousins do not.

MARRIAGE A cross-cultural study of 87 societies showed that incest did occur

in several of them.

The first papyrus documents showed that 24% of the marriages of ancient Egypt was between brothers and sisters.

Why is incest taboo (almost) universal among different societies?

Because:

incest horror is instinctive. ???

Early human noticed the abnormal babies were born from incestous sex or marriages ???

It would threaten existing family roles and ties, it could destroy the family ???

MARRIAGE There is no final answer of the question about incest

taboo’s universality.

One of the most accepted explanation for the incest

taboo is that it arose in order to ensure exogamy, to

force people to marry outside their kin groups. In this

view, the taboo originated in human evolution because

it was adaptively advantageous.

This view emphasizes the role of marriage in creating

and maintaining alliances. Exogamy and the incest

taboo that propels it, help explain human adaptive

success.

MARRIAGE Endogamy: dictate mating or marriage within a group

to which one belongs.

For ex: members of an ethnic or religious group.

• Homogamy: to marry someone similar, as when

members of the same social class intermarry.

For ex: people who meet at an elite private university

are likely to marry.

Marriages in cast systems.

MARRIAGE as group alliance

Outside industrial societies, marriage is often more

a relationship between groups than one between

individuals.

Contemporary western societies stress the notion

that romantic live is necessary for a good marriage.

Wealth exchange between families/descents. For

ex: bridewealth (çeyiz), progeny price (baslık

parası)

DIVORCE

Ease of divorce varies across cultures.

Marriages that are political alliances between

groups are more difficult to dissolve than the

marriages that are more individual affairs.

Divorce is harder in patrilineal societies.

In contemporary Western societies, when romance

fails, so may the marriage.

MARRIAGE

Polygamy: marriage to more than one spouse at

the same time.

2 forms of polygamy: polygyny and polyandry.

Polygyny: Man has more than one wife at the

same time.

Polyandry: Woman has more than one husband

at the same time.