Marriage

A Society without Marriage: The Na (Mosuo) of China The Na do not practice marriage, or even have a word for it. (However, élites have adopted marriage.) In Na partnership men pass nights in a lover’s household and return to their families in the morning. These trysts are often miscalled walking marriages.

The Na of China

The Na of China All sexual activity takes place during this concealed visit. As lovers their relationship involves affection, respect, and intimacy, but not fidelity, permanence, or responsibility for children. Children are raised by the mother’s family.

The Na of China Concealment is necessary because of a taboo forbidding a household’s male members to hear or see any sexual talk or activities involving household females. Both women and men have multiple partners, no records are kept to determine paternity, and the Na have no word for incest, illegitimate child, infidelity, or promiscuity.

The Khasi of NE India The Khasi have a similar tradition. Showing how cultural elements are interconnected, both cultures are strongly matrilocal and matrilineal. Khasi man

Functions of Marriage Regulates sexual access. Creates a family. Expands social group.

Marriage Customs, rules, and obligations for relationships between: A sexually cohabiting man and woman or a same-sex couple. Parents and children Families of the couple

Regulate Sexual Access Marriage Limits sexual competition. Provides stability for children. Allows for stable economic exchange.

Marriage There is no single definition of marriage or family that is adequate to account for all of the diversity found in marriages cross-culturally. A socially recognized, stable, and enduring union between two adults that publicly acknowledges their rights and obligations and forms a new alliance between kin groups.

Marriage The heterosexual, monogamous marriage dominant in the United States is only one type of marriage. Marriages built around plural spouses or same-sex relationships also fulfill the functions of marriage.

Edmond Leach on Marriage Rights allocated by marriage: establish the legal father (pater) and mother (mater). give one or both spouses a monopoly in the sexuality of the other. give one or both spouses rights to the labor and property of the other. establish a joint fund of property for the benefit of the children. establish a socially significant relationship of affinity between spouses and their relatives.

Same-sex Marriage In some societies (e.g., Nuer of S. Sudan), female-female marriages may be occur, with one female transformed into a legal ‘husband’, and thus the social father (pater) of the children produced by the ‘wife’ and a male not of her lineage.

Same-sex Marriage: Two-spirits Two-spirits (or berdaches): marriages among some Native American societies that allowed two males or two females to marry and have all the rights and responsibilities of a heterosexual married couple. Contemporary Two-spirits

Same-sex Marriage Advocates of marriage equality for same-sex couples argue that such couples share resources, make joint decisions, may raise children, etc., and thus need access to the same rights and privileges accorded to heterosexual couples.

Leach on Same-sex Marriage Based on the data, many anthropologists believe that same-sex marriages are legitimate unions between two individuals because, like other kinds of marriage, same-sex marriage can allocate all of the rights discussed by Leach.

Marriage Rules Every society has culturally defined rules concerning sexual relations and marriage. Marriage rules may determine: How many people one can marry. How marriages may be dissolved. The rituals that legitimate marriage. The rights established by marriage.

Preferential Marriage Rules: Cousins Rules in unilineal descent societies about the preferred categories of relatives for marriage partners: Cross cousins The children of a parent’s siblings of the opposite sex, who are not in the same kin group. Parallel cousins The children of a parent’s same-sex siblings, who are in the same kin group.

Parallel vs. Cross Cousins

Incest Taboos Prohibits certain individuals from having sex with each other. The most widespread taboo is mating between mother and son, father and daughter, and sister and brother.

Incest Taboos Because sexual access is a basic right conferred by marriage, incest taboos effectively prohibit marriage among certain kin. The incest taboo is generally considered a cultural universal (though the Na are a counterexample). What constitutes incest varies widely from culture to culture.

Reasons for Incest Taboo Avoids inbreeding. Prevents disruption in the nuclear family. Directs sexual desires outside the family. Forces people to marry outside the family and create a larger social community.

Explaining the Taboo: Instinctive Horror Weaknesses: If it were genetic, a taboo would be unnecessary. Cannot explain why many societies allow cross cousins to marry.

Explaining the Taboo: Biological Degeneration Strengths: A decline in fertility does accompany sibling mating over several generations. Increases a group’s genetic diversity. Weakness: Does not explain cross cousins marriages but the taboo against parallel cousins.

Explaining the Taboo: Attempt It directs sexual feelings away from one’s family to avoid disrupting the family (attempt). Strength: Explains the parent-child taboo. Weakness: Does not explain the universal sibling taboo.

Explaining the Taboo: Contempt People are less likely to be attracted to those with whom they grew up (familiarity breeds contempt). Strength: Explains the parent-child and sibling taboos. Weakness: Does not explain cross cousin marriages.

Explaining the Taboo: Marry Out or Die Out Leads to joining families into a larger social community. Since such alliances are adaptive, the alliance theory can also account for the extension of the incest taboo to groups other than the nuclear family. This is the strongest hypothesis to explain the incest taboo.

Egyptian Royal Incest Manifest (emic) function: royalty passed through women. Latent (etic) functions: maintained the ruling ideology and consolidated royal wealth. Akhenaten (ruled c. 1353-1336 BCE) married his sister.

Exogamy Rules specifying that a person must marry outside a particular group. Almost universal within the primary family group. Leads to alliances between different families and groups.

Exogamy This practice forces people to create and maintain a wide social network by turning potential enemies (strangers) into affinal kin and allies. This wider social network nurtures, helps, and protects one's group during times of need.

Endogamy Other examples? Rules that marriage must be within a particular group. Functions to express and maintain social difference. Caste (Hindu); religion (Old Order Amish, Islam- esp. women, Jehovah’s Witness, Mormon); ethnicity (Jews). Other examples?

Homogamy The practice of marrying someone similar to you in terms of background, social status, aspirations, and interests. Examples?

Preferential Marriage Rules: Levirate and Sororate Levirate - A man marries the widow of a deceased brother. Ghost Marriage- A Nuer widow marries her dead husband’s brother; the kids are considered the children of the dead husband. Sororate - When a man’s wife dies, her sister is given to him as a wife.

Number of Spouses All societies have rules about how many spouses a person can have at one time. Monogamy is the ideal norm in Europe and many of its ex-colonies. Despite the ideal, the real norm is increasingly serial monogamy.

Polygamy A rule allowing more than one spouse. Not everyone in such cultures has multiple spouses.

Polygyny A man may have multiple wives. Typically associated with patrifocality and male prestige (e.g., Igbo). Sometimes a survival strategy (e.g., a Tiwi man may have a dozen wives who forage so they can all eat.) A polygynous Igbo family

Polyandry A woman may have multiple husbands. Associated with matrifocality and is rare and decreasing. In ancient Marquesan (French Polynesian ) society, élite women could have two non-fraternal husbands. Contemporary Marquesan man

Polyandry In most cases, (e.g., the Toda of S. India and several Tibetan and Nepali ethnic groups), fraternal polyandry is associated with men traveling often. Nepali fraternal polyandrous family

Choosing a Mate In most societies, marriage is important because it links kin groups of the married couple. This accounts for the practice of arranged marriages. “Love marriage” v. arranged marriage & social change.

Exchange of Goods in Marriage Three kinds of exchanges made in connection with marriage are: Bride service Bridewealth Dowry Typical in descent-based societies, where marriages create alliances. Stabilize marriage by acting as pressure against divorce.

Exchange in Marriage and Gender Bride service and bridewealth are often associated with higher women’s status. Dowry is often associated with lower women’s status.

Bride Service The husband must work for a specified period of time for his wife’s family in exchange for his marital rights. Occurs mainly in egalitarian foraging societies, where accumulating material goods for an exchange at marriage is difficult. Among the Ju/’hoansi a man may work for his wife’s family until the birth of the third child.

Bridewealth The most common form of marriage exchange. Cash or goods are given by the groom’s kin to the bride’s kin to seal a marriage. Legitimates the new reproductive and socioeconomic unit created by the marriage. Bridewealth paid at marriage is returned if a marriage is terminated. When done as way to recompensate bride’s family for their loss of her and her labor, it is associated with high status of women.

Dowry Less common than other forms of exchange at marriage. Dowry has different meanings and functions in different societies. In some cases it represents a woman’s share of her family inheritance. In other cases it is a payment transferred from the bride’s family to the groom’s family, in which case it’s associated with low status of women.

Bridewealth in New Guinea. Dowry in India

Marriage as a Rite of Passage Arranged Marriages: common where alliance is important. Courtship: common in societies without arranged marriages. Among foragers and pastoralists/horticulturalists, wedding are often simple ceremonies Among agriculturalists (chiefdoms & states), they tend to be extravagant affairs, often with feasting.

Rules of Residence Neolocal residence - A couple establishes an independent household after marriage. Commonly associated with industrial and postindustrial societies. Advantages are mobility and independence. Disadvantage is socio-economic isolation.

Rules of Residence Patrilocal/virilocal residence - A woman lives with her husband’s family after marriage. Commonly associated with patrifocality and internal warfare. Matrilocal/uxorilocal residence - A man lives in the household of his wife’s family. Commonly associated with matrifocality and external warfare.

Rules of Residence Avunculocal residence - A married couple is expected to live with the husband’s mother’s brother. Associated with matrilineality, but men get wealth and status from their maternal uncles. If a couple can choose between living with either spouse’s family, the pattern is called bilocal residence and is very adaptively flexible.

Divorce Marriages that are political alliances are harder to break up than marriages that are more individual affairs. Bridewealth and dowry discourage divorce. Divorce is more common in matrilineal and/or matrilocal societies. Divorce is harder in patrilocal societies as the woman may be less inclined to leave her children who, as members of their father’s lineage, would stay with him.

Divorce among Foragers Forces act to both promote divorce: Marriages tend to be individual affairs without alliance concerns. They have few material possessions. Forces act to discourage divorce: The family unit is primary and labor is divided by gender. A sparse population means few alternative spouses.

Divorce in Nation-states The U.S. has one of the world’s highest divorce rates and a very large percentage of gainfully employed women. Americans value independence. Protestantism tends to be less strict about divorce. Many religions, such as Roman Catholicism, Islam, and Orthodox Judaism have strict rules.