Marriage

Incest Taboos Most widespread is between parent & child or siblings. Effectively prohibits marriage among certain kin. Generally considered a cultural universal (the Na are a rare counterexample), but what constitutes incest varies.

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): royalty through women. Latent (etic): maintained 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 for this. What is the common ideal in the US?

Polygyny Patrifocality, male prestige (e.g., Igbo). Sometimes a survival strategy for foragers (e.g., Tiwi men may have many wives who forage). A polygynous Igbo family

Polyandry Matrifocality; rarer In most cases, (e.g., Toda of S. India & several Tibetan and Nepali groups), fraternal polyandry is associated with male travel. Nepali fraternal polyandrous family

Marriage Exchanges Bride service (Ju/’hoansi of south-central Africa) Bridewealth (E.g., Dani of New Guinea, Igbo) Dowry (less common) sometimes payment, other times female inheritance Stabilizer when marriage is an alliance in descent-based societies.

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.

Marriage as a Rite of Passage Courtship Farmers/states tend to have much more extravagant weddings, often with feasting. Why would that be? How does this work in the US?

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 Bridewealth and dowry discourage divorce. Divorce is usually rarer & harder in patrilineal/ patrilocal ones. Why? Thinking of different groups in the US, what factors… promote marriage? make divorce easier?