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