From a genetic point of view, aversion to breeding with close relatives results in fewer congenital diseases. Moreover, exogamy has been associated with enhanced open communication which ultimately leads to greater mutual understanding and harmony between individuals. That marriage in which all the blood relatives and members of the same kinship are prohibited to marry one another. Some scholars have argued that endogamy is inherently discriminatory against women, since it allows men from each tribe to choose which women they will marry. Maria has taught University level psychology and mathematics courses for over 20 years. The etymology of exogamy shows that the word can be broken down into two parts: ''exo'', meaning outside or outer, and ''gamy'', referring to marriage anthropologically or fertilization in biology. So, in a patrilineal society, children will be in the same kin group as their father, their fathers brother, and their fathers brothers children. Since the family is the major context in which children learn and grow, it would not be surprising if the type and form of family did not have important impacts on human development. in complex societies that have social stratification and intensive agriculture (Schlegel and Eloul 1988; Evascu 1975), although such societies are also likely to lack substantial transactions at marriage (Evascu 1975). Definition of Endogamy Marriage. The Nayar were a subcaste in India. Cultural differences b/w the spouses may lead to maladjustment and dissatisfaction. Endogamy: It is a rule of marriage in which the life-partners are to be selected within the group. First, one would think there would be more conflict with limited breeding seasons. Divorce rate? Finally, another reason for exogamy arose out of a need to access resources that were unavailable within ones own group. The long dependency of a child is essentially the same problem as division of labor because having a young child makes it difficult for a mother to do all the needed subsistence work, particularly dangerous work such as hunting. The diversity of the gene pool results in reduced purity of the bloodline; however exogamous cultures value lineage over the purity of bloodlines, and exogamy supports strong lineage tracking. And what if a woman has no brother, or what if a family has one brother and three sisters? And neither woman could likely provide game through hunting. 6) Divorce is easier to accomplish STRUCTURAL. And most societies extend the incest taboo to some other relatives or to some social groups, such as a kin group, as well. The opposite of exogamy is endogamy. Marriage is commonly defined as a socially approved sexual and economic union, presumed to be more or less permanent, and entails rights and obligations between the married couple and any children they might have (C. R. Ember, Ember, and Peregrine 2019). Children from a marriage are symbolized by a downward line from the marriage. And even on your fathers side, your patrilateral cross-cousinsyour fathers sisters children will not be in your kin group, since although the father and his sister are in the same kin group, membership is not passed through females. The second may be related to that finding that polygyny is associated with lower warmth toward children presumably because mothers have little help in childcare (Korotayev and Bondarenko 2000). Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. Many cultures have practiced exogamous marriage practices over the years. exogamy, also called out-marriage, custom enjoining marriage outside one's own group. According to Folsom, endogamous is the rule that one must marry within ones caste or group". Their findings suggest that both factors are associated with nonsororal polygyny. In gift exchange, the kin groups of the bride and groom give each other gifts of about equal value. I feel like its a lifeline. Polygynous societies appear to have responded to jealousy with certain common customs and rules that include: having separate quarters and kitchens for nonsororal co-wives, having rules about husbands sharing resources equitably, and having rules for sleeping with co-wives in rotation (C. R. Ember, Ember, and Peregrine 2019, 245). Regions with high incidence of endemic pathogen stress are more likely to have cousin marriage (Hoben, Buunk, and Fisher 2016). The assumption is made that societies with social classes are likely to have private property and such property would create interest in keeping land together rather than dividing it into smaller and smaller pieces. In social science, exogamy is viewed as a combination of two related aspects: biological and cultural. 2011. This is still frowned upon in societies that are highly stratified, such as those with rigid caste systems. In other words, a marriage outside the lineage group is . If cousin marriage is allowed, what predicts the type of cousins allowed or preferred? Preference for fathers brothers daughter marriage (patrilateral parallel cousin marriage) preference is more likely in patrilocal societies (Flinn and Low 1987). Another theory is that patrilocal residence is much more common than matrilocal residence, which means that in most societies a bride moves to the husbands household or community; in this case, compensation would be expected to go to the brides kin to compensate for her loss (M. Ember 1970; Huber, Danaher, and Breedlove 2011b). Some men will be unmarried, some men will only have one wife, and some will be currently monogamous but marry polygynously later. Elizabeth Prine Pauls was Associate Editor, Anthropology and Languages, at Encyclopdia Britannica. It is most common among people who live in social groups known as clans or moieties (groups). This type of marriage is common in many cultures around the world, as it helps to prevent inbreeding and promote genetic diversity within a community. Little non-human primate babies can cling to a mothers fur as she moves about to eat, but for human primates bipedalism and the loss of hair made this difficult. Indeed, there is tremendous variability in almost every aspect of marriage, from the rules surrounding whom one can and cannot marry, how marriage is arranged, how couples get married, how many people can be married at a time, how long marriages last, and what conditions allow a marriage to be dissolved. God Similar to sexual restrictions on women, societies with a greater interest in the institution of marriage may be more likely to classify womens extramarital relationships as grounds for terminating the marriage. Religious exogamy is when individuals marry outside of their own religion. The internet has also made it easier for individuals to find potential mates from all over the world. Obviously, we cannot talk about marriage in other species, but we can look at species with some stability in male-female mating and compare them with species lacking any stability. [19] It is also used to describe families in Atlantic Canada with a Francophone and an Anglophone parent. [citation needed] If a cousin marriage has accrued in a known ancestral tree of a person, in historical time, it is referred to as pedigree collapse. 2018. 4) Stress of marriage. Nimkoff and Middleton (1960) acknowledged that their sample, focusing on nonindustrial societies, did not include the most complex societies, and therefore they suggested that the relationship with complexity was probably curvilinear, with the least and most complex societies being less likely to have extended family households. Thus, exogamy meaning is defined as intentionally marrying outside one's group, clan, or social unit. Why? Extramarital sex or reproductive issues as grounds for divorce (Frayser 1985). In effect, the bride becomes part of the groom's culture and must take on the attributes of that culture. 25 chapters | In particular, groups that prioritize kinship (such as clans of indigenous people or moieties, meaning two kinship groups into which a group of people is divided for identification purposes) often practice forms of exogamy due to its ability to preserve lineages and reduce birth defects. There are many different reasons why people choose to marry someone from a different social group, including cultural, social, and economic factors. This finding is consistent with anecdotal evidence that arranged marriage customs tend to break down with modernization. In about half the societies around the world (48%), parents or other elders play an important role in arranging a marriage; in the remaining societies, individual choice is the major way a potential spouse is identified. These exercises can be done individually or as part of classroom assignments. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. Decrease in hereditary diseases and birth defects due to a highly diverse gene pool. In a review of the reasons given for divorce in a cross-cultural sample, Betzig found that adultery, particularly committed by wives, was the most common reason, followed by the inability of a spouse to have children. In some cases, the rules of exogamy may also specify the outside group into which an individual must marry. Simple exogamy is in practice in the Indian tribes and North American. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. What might explain why matrilocal societies generally lack substantial transactions to the grooms kin in contrast to considerable transactions to the wifes kin with patrilocality? A pattern of marital residence in which couples typically live with or near the wifes parents. Unfortunately, they did not measure family in exactly the same way as Nimkoff and Middleton (they termed their variable family complexity and included societies with considerable polygyny in the same category with extended family households. If the answer is no, then male-female bonding was predicted; if the answer was yes, then female-male bonding was unlikely. Such lineages may in turn be grouped into clans or moieties. But since women in the Arab Khalifate region are typically secluded, women would be unlikely to be able to cultivate their portion of land, leaving it to be controlled by her husband. J. F. McLennan[8] holds that exogamy was due originally to a scarcity of women among small bands. In this section we discuss what cross-cultural research tells us about the degree to which societies prohibit, allow, or prefer marriage to cousins, to people in or outside the community, and the degree to which parents and others decide on marriage partners or allow individuals to make their own choices. But why polygyny? Exogamy is a widely practiced marriage custom whereby individuals marry outside of their social group. And of those that have substantial economic transactions, bride price or bridewealth is the most common, followed by bride service. Outbreeding: the practice of breeding between individuals who are not closely related. The Selknam, on the Life and Thought of a Hunting People of the Great Island of Tierra Del Fuego., Sexual Division of Labor and Cross-Cultural Research., Factors Influencing the Allowance of Cousin Marriages in the Standard Cross Cultural Sample., Marriage, Authority, and Final Causes: A Study of Unilateral Cross-Cousin Marriage., Explaining Monogamy and Polygyny Among Foragers and Horticulturalists., Material Resource Investments at Marriage: Evolutionary, Social, and Ecological Perspectives., New Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Marriage Transactions., The Economics of Misbehavior, Love and Marriage Contract Enforcement., D-PLACE: A Global Database of Cultural, Linguistic and Environmental Diversity. Ackerman (1963) finds that. Claude Lvi-Strauss introduced the "Alliance Theory" of exogamy,[12] that is, that small groups must force their members to marry outside so as to build alliances with other groups. There are many negative outcomes in adulthood associated with low parental warmth, including low self-evaluation, less generosity, a negative worldview, and more hostility and aggression. Rosenblatt, Paul C., and David Unangst. Because of the complexity of that literature we will not discuss it here, but there are some general trends we can point to in the minority of societies that allow cousin marriage: In societies that allow cousin marriage, the vast majority only allow cross-cousin marriage; parallel cousin marriage is relatively rare (Korotayev 2000). 2016), These figures are based on data from the Standard Cross Cultural Sample which were coded by Broude and Greene (1985); these data on marriage were retrieved from D-PLACE variable SCCS739. [5], In one Old Order Amish society, inbreeding increases the risk of "neonatal and postneonatal mortality. Divorce, or the severing of marital ties, is found in the vast majority of societies in the anthropological record. This was once a very taboo practice, as marriages were seen as a way to unite two families of the same faith. document.getElementById("ak_js_1").setAttribute("value",(new Date()).getTime()); Ancient Maya Bride price involves goods or money given by the grooms family to the brides family; bride service involves labor given to the brides family by the groom or his kin. The marriage would be practiced outside one's group, class or caste. Second, the relationship appears stronger in societies with simpler forms of agriculture (Osmond 1965). As pointed out by Pasternak, Ember, and Ember (1976), the problem with this reasoning is that most hunter-gatherer societies have multi-family bands that cooperate with each other, so clearly they can support multiple families. Consequences of Marriage and Family Forms, C. R. 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