Almost all societies also have the custom of marriage, so a marriage partner is usually part of the basic family unit. Societies with the highest degree of social stratification have less polygyny (Minocher, Duda, and Jaeggi 2019), which is contrary to the idea that male inequality generally will favor polygyny. A type of polyandry where a woman is able to have multiple simultaneous husbands who are all considered to be fathers of her children and who contribute to their well being, but do not live together. Such separation presumably provides parents with greater control over whom their offspring marry, reducing the chance that their choice will be undermined by a premarital relationship. Community exogamy/endogamy. Divorce, or the severing of marital ties, is found in the vast majority of societies in the anthropological record. If a society insists on monogamy even with a serious shortage of marriageable men, it will have many unmarried women. my ek-sg--m plural exogamies 1 : marriage outside of a specific group especially as required by custom or law 2 : sexual reproduction between individuals (as of a particular species) that are not closely related exogamous ek-sg--ms adjective or exogamic ek-s-gam-ik More from Merriam-Webster on exogamy Why? Sex ratios favoring females (M. Ember 1974; Barber 2008). The Nayar were a subcaste in India. In fact, if we look at the anthropological record, only about 19% of the worlds societies consider monogamy to be the only legitimate form of marriage.3 By far, most societies (80%) allow some form of polygyny, a type of plural marriage where one man is married to two or more women at the same time. Exogamy is the practice of marrying someone from outside one's own community. 2007. 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. 2016. Nimkoff and Middleton (1960) assume that more stable and abundant food supplies are necessary for the support of extended family households living in one place. Omissions? extended families and/or unilineal descent groups (Stephens 1963; Lee and Stone 1980). anthropology dictionary is associated with higher female contribution to subsistence (Schlegel and Eloul 1988). In fact, in a survey of societies in eHRAF World Cultures, they found 53 societies outside of the classic polyandry areas (northern India, Nepal, Tibet and the Marquesas) that appear to practice either informal polyandry or formal polyandry. Rosenblatt, Paul C., and Walter J. Hillabrant. [citation needed], Last edited on 27 February 2023, at 09:11, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "An association between the kinship and fertility of human couples", "Comment on "An association between the kinship and fertility of human couples", "Population admixture, biological invasions and the balance between local adaptation and inbreeding depression", "The effect of inbreeding on early childhood mortality: twelve generations of an Amish settlement", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Exogamy&oldid=1141878744, This page was last edited on 27 February 2023, at 09:11. It is often called out-marriage due to the importance of looking outside one's group. Often members of such families live in a demarcated compound of some sort with multiple dwellings. Continue with Recommended Cookies. Note that bride price transfers wealth horizontally within the parental generation. So, in a patrilineal society, children will be in the same kin group as their father, their fathers brother, and their fathers brothers children. However, in modern times it has become more common for people of different religions to marry one another. Why? Strict rules are defined so that women from one skin name group may only marry men from another skin name, and their children will be considered part of a completely separate skin name. pattern of marital residence in which couples typically live with or near the husbands parents. (In contrast, bride price and bride service are directed at the brides kin, not to the bride or the new household). Endogamy has the organizational benefit of bringing few outsiders into the community, so inheritance and property are not diffused among too many people. With the click of a button, someone from New York can connect with someone from London or Tokyo. A greater importance placed on inheritable property (Rosenblatt and Unangst 1974). Indirect support for the sex-ratio hypothesis comes from research on the presence of polyandrous marriages. In other cultures, social recognition of marriage is dependent on a successful trial period. Why? 2004. 1962. Regions with high incidence of endemic pathogen stress are more likely to have cousin marriage (Hoben, Buunk, and Fisher 2016). 1990. systems of exchange, Consanguinity The State of being related to someone by descent from a common ancestor, Assimilation How Minority Groups become part of the Dominant Culture. Manage Settings Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. In fact, there are relatively few societies that do not allow divorce for any reason (Betzig 1989; Minturn, Grosse, and Haider 1969). Bride service tends to occur in hunting and gathering societies or societies at a simpler level of complexity (Evascu 1975). type of marriage limited to only one spouse at any given time. It is one of the most common marriage practices in the world, and it has been observed in societies all over the globe 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. 2) Subsiding of romantic love. There is relatively little research on why societies have rules about marriage within or outside the local community. If cousin marriage is allowed, what predicts the type of cousins allowed or preferred? Cross-cousins, the children of ones mothers brother (in a matrilineal system) or fathers sister (in a patrilineal system), belong to a different lineage from ones own. It can be matrilineal or patrilineal. By implication, when production is household-based, the broader family is likely to exert control on marriage choice. While most societies extend this taboo to some other members of kin, it minimally includes siblings and parents. Obviously, women can have children without being married, but unmarried women generally face greater economic difficulties when trying to raise children. Such transactions, such as bride price or dowry, reflect higher involvement in the establishment of a marriage. It is most common among groups that reckon descent through either the father (patrilineality) or the mother (matrilineality) alone. The children of siblings of the opposite gender (i.e., the children of a woman and her brother are cross-cousins to each other). Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Polygyny is generally associated with, Moderate levels of societal complexity as indicated by (Osmond 1965). Why? It is important to note that the inability to have a child is often a function of a particular couples inability to have a child as a couple, not necessarily the inherent inability of a particular spouse to have a child. type of polygyny in which a man is married to two or more women who are not sisters. Exogamy Our next governing rule of marriage is exogamy. A strict taboo on premarital sex for women (Kitahara 1974). Affiliations: Structural Determinants of Differential Divorce Rates., Sexual Selection Under Parental Choice: The Role of Parents in the Evolution of Human Mating., Sexual Selection Under Parental Choice: A Revision to the Model., Individual Mate Choice in an Arranged Marriage Context: Evidence from the Standard Cross-cultural Sample., Bride Theft and Raiding for Wives in Cross-Cultural Perspective., Explaining Cross-National Differences in Polygyny Intensity., Solidarity, Stratification and Sentiment: The Unilateral Cross-Cousin Marriage According to the Theories of Levi-Strauss, Leach, and Homans and Schneider., Causes of Conjugal Dissolution: A Cross-cultural Study., Societal Complexity and Familial Complexity: Evidence for the Curvilinear Hypothesis., Nuclear Vs. Extended Family, Monogamy Vs. Polygyny: Democracy Vs. Non-Democracy? A substantial transfer of goods or money from the brides family to the bride, the groom, or to the couple. One example of exogamy can be found in the Hindu caste system in India. A type of polygyny where only a limited number of men, usually those of greater wealth or social status, have multiple wives simultaneously. In such a situation it becomes interesting to differentiate between the close kin and the descent or lineage. Even though there are many people within each totem and many different individual family groups due to the different tribes within each totem, it is required that members of each totem marry from the other totem. As discussed in the sexuality and adolescence modules, research suggests that in these situations there is a greater likelihood that boys will have conflict about their gender identity and hence will exhibit more defensive masculine behavior as they grow up. Men were obliged to seek wives from other groups, including marriage by capture, and exogamy developed as a cultural custom. Huber, Brad R., William F. Danaher, and William L. Breedlove. 2000. As long as families have daughters and the daughters marry, every family will receive bride price and pay out bride price when their sons marry. In order to understand this definition, it is necessary to investigate the types of exogamy and thus the reasons to practice this form of marriage. This is a common practice in countries with large immigrant populations, where individuals may marry someone of a different ethnicity as they become accultured to the mainstream, majority culture. The custom is common among indigenous groups in the northwest Amazon, such as the Tucano tribes. A division of labor by gender is a cultural universal and it is proposed that marriage is a way for females and males to productively share the results of their varied subsistence tasks. Outbreeding favours the condition of heterozygosity, that is having two nonidentical copies of a given gene. During this time she mainly grinds corn, signifying a symbolic payment of service to the grooms mother for her son. Trust: Trust is the foundation of any healthy relationship. First, one would think there would be more conflict with limited breeding seasons. The authors postulate that, in the absence of a social network system to support people when they grow old, having children is vital for parents future survival. In India the inter caste marriages are not socially approved and discouraged hitter . (Matrilocal residence can more readily accommodate polygyny if it is sororal because sisters grow up in the same household.). Why? Korotayev, Andrey V., and Dmitri Bondarenko. Marriage outside this group is exogamy. In societies in which the large, or extended, family remains the basic unit, marriages are usually arranged by the family. Cultural exogamy is marrying outside a specific cultural group; the opposite being endogamy, marriage within a social group. But recognition does not necessarily mean an elaborate ceremony. One form of exogamy is dual exogamy, in which two groups continually intermarry with each other. In other words, exogamy helps to keep the gene pool fresh. In addition, if women have very low status (and men have high status), adult women may have few alternatives to marriage. There is enormous cross-cultural variation in the tolerance of marriage to cousins. 1975. Why? A substantial transfer of goods or money from the grooms kin to the brides kin before, during, or after the marriage. Polygyny is one of the most widely researched topics in cross-cultural research. 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). At the other extreme, there are societies that not only tolerate first cousin marriage, but actively try to promote marriage to a cousin, usually a particular type of cousin. Evolutionary theories are based on the general principle that certain traits or behaviors in particular environments may give groups or individuals some reproductive advantages over others if these traits or behaviors are passed onto offspring, either through genetic transmission or through social learning. Some societies frown on cousin marriage so much that even distant cousins are forbidden. Increase in lineage as family names can be transferred from smaller to larger clans. However, non-native, "invasive" populations that have "not yet established a pattern of local adaptation" may derive some adaptive benefit from admixture. Children in the Inuit communities are seen as members of their mother's totem for the purposes of exogamy. Decrease in hereditary diseases and birth defects due to a highly diverse gene pool. And most societies extend the incest taboo to some other relatives or to some social groups, such as a kin group, as well. White, Douglas R., and Michael L. Burton. Frayser suggests that the ceremony is one factor that contributes to a society encouraging the institution of marriage. Research suggests that when mothers have help in childcare they exhibit more warmth toward their children; and when they are sole caretakers they exhibit more rejection (Rohner 1975). This is still frowned upon in societies that are highly stratified, such as those with rigid caste systems. crime Exogamy, which is the practice of marrying outside of one's own social group or tribe, was also likely practiced by early humans. Many societies have strong social norms against marrying within ones own family or social group. Enrolling in a course lets you earn progress by passing quizzes and exams. 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? Although this finding seems contrary to the principle that high levels of inbreeding are generally deleterious, there are some pathogens for which recessive genes have been shown to lessen the serious consequences of the disease. The Naga tribe of Assam is divided into khels. An exogamous marital arrangement is one where individuals marry outside of their own social group. Extended family households are more likely in societies where. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. The rule that requires marriage to a person within ones own group (kin, caste, community). However, it is important to understand that even where polygyny is generally practiced most men will not have more than one wife at any given point in time. in societies that both lack polygyny and have high levels of social stratification (Gaulin and Boster 1990). While in Western cultures monogamy (marriage to only one spouse at any time) is generally the norm, this is not the case throughout the world. Endogamy: the practice of marrying within ones own social group. Corrections? For example, a moiety might be composed of the totems Raven and Eagle. Explore some texts and do some comparisons using theeHRAF World Culturesdatabase. State societies are likely to have less male mortality because fighting forces tend to be specialized; therefore male mortality is less likely to be an important factor. [4], Nancy Wilmsen Thornhill states that the drive in humans to not reproduce or be attracted to one's immediate family is evolutionarily adaptive, as it reduces the risk of children having genetic defects caused by inbreeding, as a result of inheriting two copies of a deleterious recessive gene. Complex societies tend to ave specialized or standing armies which means that male mortality in war may only be high among men in the armed forces (M. Ember, Ember, and Low 2007). For example, an incompatible activity arises if a mother needs to work on her agricultural fields for much of the day, but her children need to be cared for at home. Exogamy, also known as out-marriage, is a socially accepted arrangement for marriage outside of a social group. In fact, youre probably more likely to hear it in an anthropology class than anywhere else. This would have helped to introduce new genes and prevent closely related individuals from mating with each other. Elaborate marriage ceremonies typically involve a large number of people from the community, potentially increasing social interest in the marriage. religion Before turning to tests of theories about why societies have polygyny rather than monogamy, lets look at some conditions that are generally associated with polygyny. 2005. Social stratification is present (Nimkoff and Middleton 1960). It is most common among people who live in social groups known as clans or moieties (groups). 2019. Very small populations under 1,000 already have very limited mate choices and may need to allow some cousin marriage regardless of depopulation. Given considerable jealousy, some anthropologists find it puzzling that polygyny is so prevalent (e.g., M. Ember (1974)). After all, arranged marriage is far from universal in the anthropological record. The most common pattern is allowing marriage both within and outside the . 1969. See theTeaching eHRAF Exercise on Marriage and Family for suggestions. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. 5) Divorce is more socially acceptable CULTURAL. 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. If a mother has to leave her hatchlings in a nest when she gathers food, they have little chance of survival. Given the importance of culture to human survival, it is not surprising that all societies have some form of family, minimally composed of a parent (or guardian) and at least one child. residence In other words, with dowry there is a downward passage of wealth. However, marriage is far from a necessary solution to the sharing problem. In contrast, in socially simpler societies, the entire population of able-bodied men may be expected to be warriors.6. Finally, the degree to which spouses choose their marriage partners may help us understand divorce rates. 2018). 1979. In fact, most of the time you'll find the word you are looking for after typing only one or two letters. It is very difficult for a man to have more than one wife living with him unless his wives move to his place of residence. Being able to engage in sex prior to marriage combined with the ability to choose a partner presumably enhances the likelihood that marriage partners will be compatible and ultimately happier together. Pasternak, Burton, Carol R. Ember, and Melvin Ember. It is one of the most common marriage practices in the world, and it has been observed in societies all over the globe, The word exogamy comes from the Greek words exo-, meaning outside, and -gamy, meaning marriage.. 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. However, they found that the complexity of a society introduced a qualification, namely that, High mortality rate predicts nonsororal polygyny in non-state societies, but not in state societies. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. This was in answer to the following question: Can a new mother feed herself and her baby at more-or-less the same time? Why? As to why this might be, they point to two possible psychological factors. In this module, we concentrate on marriage and family customs involving at least one man and one woman because although homosexual behavior is not rare, same-sex marriage is rare cross-culturally. Divorce rate? Why? Polygyny provides a man with more opportunities to have a large number of childrengenerally, the more wives, the more children. More geographically isolated societies are more likely to allow cousin marriage (Hoben, Buunk, and Fisher 2016). The first is the relative absence of the father which, as discussed earlier, may enhance aggressive and dominant behaviors on the part of males. Family lineage is the only exception to their contrast. Nimkoff, M. 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