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MARRIAGE SYSTEMS
From Japanese wedding designer Yumi Katsura’s2006 Collection; Credit: english.peopledaily.com.cn
Definitions
Marriage is an economic and sexual union, usually between a man and a woman
Sami couple with their daughter
Who is a Father?
Establishes legal parentage of children Genitor – biological father of a child Pater – socially recognized father of a child
• We know the biological mother, but the father is sometimes unknown...
MARRIAGE Exceptions
The Nayar & The Na of SW ChinaRare Types of Marriage
BerdachesChristian NunsMale-Male/Female-Female
marriage
Berdache “Two-spirits”
WHY IS MARRIAGE UNIVERSAL?
GENDER DIVISION OF LABORPROLONGED INFANT DEPENDENCYSEXUAL COMPETITIONPOSTPARTUM PROBLEMS
Incest and Exogamy
Forces people to create and maintain a wide social network
Incest – sexual relations with a close relative The incest taboo is a cultural universal What constitutes incest varies widely from
culture to culture
• Exogamy – practice of seeking a spouse outside one’s own group
–Cross cultural finding show rules of incest avoidance shaped by kinship structures
Explaining the Taboo
No universally accepted explanation for fact that all cultures ban incest
RESTRICTIONS ON MARRIAGE, Including incest Taboo
Instinctive Horror Theory Childhood-Familiarity Theory Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory Family-Disruption Theory Cooperation Theory Inbreeding Theory (Biological
Degeneration Theory)
–This theory has been refuted
•Specific kin types included within the incest taboo have a cultural rather than a biological basis
Instinctive Horror Theory
Homo sapiens are genetically programmed to avoid incest
–Decline in fertility and survival accompanies brother-sister mating across several generations–Human marriage patterns based on specific cultural beliefs rather than universal concerns about biological degeneration several generations in the future
Biological Degeneration Theory
• Incest taboo developed in response to abnormal offspring born from incestuous unions
• Malinowski (and Freud) argued incest taboo originated to direct sexual feelings away from one’s family to avoid disrupting the family structure and relations
Attempt and Contempt
Opposite theory argues that people are less likely to be sexually attracted to those with whom they have grown up
Explaining the Taboo
More accepted argument is that taboo originated to ensure exogamy
Incest taboos force people to create and maintain wide social networks
Incest taboos are seen as an adaptively advantageous cultural construct
• Marry Out or Die Out
Royal Incest
Royal families in widely diverse cultures engaged in what would be called incest, even in their own cultures
–Manifest function – reason given for a custom by its natives–Latent function – effect custom was not explicitly recognized by the natives
–Royal incest, generally, had latent economic function
WHO ONE MARRIES Arranged Marriages
vs. Love Marriages Exogamy &
Endogamy Cousin Marriages
Cross-cousins Parallel cousins
Levirate & Sororate
Parallel and Cross Cousins and Patrilineal Moiety Organization
Sororate and Levirate
Divorce
Marriages that are political alliances between groups harder to break up than marriages that are more individual affairs
Bridewealth discourages divorce Divorce is more common in matrilineal
societies as well as societies in which postmarital residence is matrilocal
• Divorce found in many different societies
HOW DOES ONE MARRY?
Bridewealth (Bride price, progeny price)
Bride Service Exchange of
Females Gift Exchange Dowry Indirect Dowry
Marriage Arrangements
Ember & Ember “Cultural Anthropology” 2006
HOW MANY DOES ONE MARRY? MONOGAMY POLYGYNY
Sororal Nonsororal
POLYANDRY Fraternal Nonfraternal
Shah family (polygyny) - PhotoBy J. Fortier
Plural Marriages
Even in cultures that approve of polygamy, monogamy tends to be the norm
Polygyny more common than polyandry because, where sex ratios are not equal, there tend to be more women than menMultiple wives tend to be associated with
wealth and prestige
• Polygyny
Plural Marriages
Polyandry rare, but practiced almost exclusively in South AsiaPolyandry usually practiced in response to
specific circumstances, and in conjunction with other marriage formats
Among Paharis of India, polyandry associated with relatively low female population, due to covert female infanticide
In other cultures, polyandry resulted from the fact that men traveled a great deal
• Polyandry
THE FAMILY
Variation in Family FormMatrifocalNuclearExtended
Karki Family - Matrifocal - Photo by J. Fortier
Percentage of Societies in the Ethnographic Record with Various Marital Residence Patterns
Post-Marital Residence Patterns
Main Predictors of Marital Residence Patterns