Marriage

How do anthropologists define marriage

• Definition offered in 1951: “Marriage is a union between a man and a woman such that the children born to the woman are recognized as legitimate offspring of both partners.” (Royal Anthropological Institute)

• The current definition: Marriage as a domestic
  partnership

Why do people get married?

• romantic love and marriage

  • did romantic love originate in the 11th - 12th century France?

  • How widespread is romantic love?

  • Does romantic love have biological basis?

• practical side of marriage

  • rights conferred to a married couple

  • social functions fulfilled by marriage

Marital rights

Edmund Leach (1955) argued that the rights allocated by marriage include:

• Establishing a legal father and mother

• Giving a monopoly in sexuality of the other

• Giving rights to the labor of the other

• Giving rights over the other’s property

• Establishing a joint fund of property

• Establishing a socially significant “relationship of
  affinity

Social functions of marriage—industrial societies

Although marriage is largely a personal matter in modern industrial societies, it fulfills various social, legal, and economic functions and can be formed out of the considerations of political, economic, religious, or other social reasons

Social functions of marriage—non-industrial societies

In many non-industrial societies, marriage remains the concern of social groups rather than mere individuals. Marriages then often become “strategic marriages/arranged marriage,” that is , a mechanism to create alliances between families/groups

How to maintain a strategic marriage

• marital gifts—insurance against the dissolving of marriage

• continuation of marital alliance when the marital relationship fails

Marital gifts—insurance against the dissolving of marriage

• two types of marital gifts: bride price and dowry

• Both bride price and dowry are often associated with practices and perceptions about women as less privileged members of the society

Bride price

Gift from the husband and his kin to the wife and her 

Dowry

Gift from the wife’s group to the husband’s family (also often in patrilineal societies)

• dowry is not associated with a matrilineal society

Continuation of marital alliance when the marital relationship fails

• continuation of marital alliance when one spouse dies

  • sororate: husband may marry the wife’s sister if the wife dies (in both matrilineal and patrilineal societies)

  • levirate: widow marries the brother of her husband

Monogamy (15% of societies)

The practice of being married to only one person at the same time

• serial monogamy: individuals may have more than one spouse but never, legally, more than one at the same time

Polygamy

The practice of being married to more than one person at the same time. There are two types polygamy—polygyny and polyandry.

• Polygyny (82% of societies): the marriage of one man to more than one women

  • The majority of men in societies practicing polygyny are still monogamous

  • Changing customs as a result of modernization and globalization

• Polyandry (about 6 reported cases): the marriage of one woman to more than one man

  • a cultural adaptation to male mobility or extreme environmental conditions

Same sex marriage—in non-industrial societies

Often to fulfill certain social needs or expectations

• the “female husband” on the Nuer society in south Sudan

Same sex marriage—in industrial societies

Often based on sexual orientations, gender identities, and emotional preferences

• people’s attitudes and laws regarding same-sex marriage are changing

Marriage is regulated through some general rules

• incest is taboo—a cultural universal

• kinship relations

• customs and laws

Incest is taboo—culturally universal

• incest: sexual relations with a close relative

• incest taboo: the universal prohibition against incest with the basic nuclear family

Why do societies discourage incest?

• biological concerns: to avoid producing abnormal offspring

• social concerns: marrying outside one’s kin group can create new social ties and alliances

Beyond the nuclear family, the range of incestuous relatives is culturally defined:

• In the west: changes over time

• In some non-industrial societies:

  • Parallel cousins: children of two brothers in a patrilineal society or two sisters in a matrilineal society

  • Cross-cousins: children of a brother and a sister

Marriage regulation through kinship relations

• Exogamy: the practice of seeking a spouse outside one’s
  own kin group—creating social alliances

• Endogamy: marriage of people from the same social
  group

  • In modern societies: classes and ethnic groups

  • India’s caste system

  • Royal endogamy

Divorce

Cross culturally, high divorce rates correlate with a secure economic position

• more common in matrilineal than in patrilineal societies

• more common in industrial societies (ex. the American society)

  • economic factor—very large percentage of gainfully employed women

  • cultural—Americans value independence

  • religious—protestantism