In many exogamous cultures, cross-cousins are viewed as ideal marriage partners. [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. Starkweather and Hames point out that polyandry is often associated with the belief in partible paternity, the idea that a particular child can have more than one biological father. medical anthropology The reasoning is that, with a shortage of men, polygyny is a way for everyone to get married and have children legitimately. There are a couple of known exceptions to the claim that marriage is a universal custom. Kirby, Kathryn R., Russell D. Gray, Simon J. Greenhill, Fiona M. Jordan, Stephanie Gomes-Ng, Hans-Jorg Bibiko, Damian E. Blasi, et al. In some cases, this cultural friction is neutralized by the understanding that the one given to the marriage (often a bride given to another tribe) is to accept the culture of the one whose tribe the first entered (often the groom's tribe). Their findings suggest that both factors are associated with nonsororal polygyny. The term exogamy isnt one thats thrown around in everyday conversation. Why? During this time she mainly grinds corn, signifying a symbolic payment of service to the grooms mother for her son. Linguistic exogamy is a form of cultural exogamy in which marriage occurs only between speakers of different languages. Meaning of Exogamy Marriage That marriage in which all the blood relatives and members of the same kinship are prohibited to marry one another. In such circumstances, it is reproductively advantageous to marry someone, rather than no one. The neighboring villagers in the community bring presents for the bride for these three days, and then the grooms paternal aunts engage in a ceremonial fight against the bride with mud, which is blocked by the grooms maternal kin. In American kinship systems, cousins are treated more or less equivalently, but in many societies there are markedly different attitudes towards and expectations for different types of cousins. 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. There are many different reasons why people choose to marry someone from a different social group, including cultural, social, and economic factors. Indigenous groups of North America and Australia are exogamy examples as these groups were known to have created strict exogamous practices for their people. Exogamy Our next governing rule of marriage is exogamy. 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. 2007. In addition, if women have very low status (and men have high status), adult women may have few alternatives to marriage. Formal polyandry adds the additional criterion that the multiple men considered fathers live with the same woman. Relatively small societies that have recently experienced severe loss of population due to introduced disease and that are also relatively small (more than 1,000 but less than 25,000 in the society) are more likely to allow first cousin marriage (M. Ember 1975). To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. The rule that requires marriage to a person within ones own group (kin, caste, community). Corrections? 1969. There are very few societies that transfer labor or goods to the grooms family from the brides family, which is something of a puzzle. When you use one ofthese affiliate links,the company compensates us. Members of each totem may only marry members of the other totem. The group defines the scope and extent of exogamy, and the rules and enforcement mechanisms that ensure its continuity. 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. In some cases, the rules of exogamy may also specify the outside group into which an individual must marry. Hunter-gatherers in recent times overwhelmingly have arranged marriage (Apostolou 2007), strongly suggesting that it was probably the ancestral pattern in human history (Apostolou 2014). Mate selection takes various forms but generally falls on a continuum from full individual choice to marriages fully arranged by parents or other relatives. Exogamy often results in two individuals that are not closely genetically related marrying each other; that is, outbreeding as opposed to inbreeding. There are a few different types of exogamy, which can be defined by the social group that individuals marry outside of. To be an extended family household, members need not live in the same dwelling. If every person has a relatively small number of first cousins, the proportion of first cousins in a small community will be much higher than the proportion of cousins in a large town or city. The Selknam, on the Life and Thought of a Hunting People of the Great Island of Tierra Del Fuego., Sexual Division of Labor and Cross-Cultural Research., Factors Influencing the Allowance of Cousin Marriages in the Standard Cross Cultural Sample., Marriage, Authority, and Final Causes: A Study of Unilateral Cross-Cousin Marriage., Explaining Monogamy and Polygyny Among Foragers and Horticulturalists., Material Resource Investments at Marriage: Evolutionary, Social, and Ecological Perspectives., New Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Marriage Transactions., The Economics of Misbehavior, Love and Marriage Contract Enforcement., D-PLACE: A Global Database of Cultural, Linguistic and Environmental Diversity. In a comparative study of 40 mammal and bird species (M. Ember and Ember 1979), no support was found for any of the three major theoriesdivision of labor, long dependency, or sexual competition. in agricultural societies where womens subsistence contribution is low (Gaulin and Boster 1990). Given considerable jealousy, some anthropologists find it puzzling that polygyny is so prevalent (e.g., M. Ember (1974)). Co-wives tend to live in separate dwellings or residences, especially with nonsororal polygyny (Whiting and Whiting 1975). 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). dowry The severity of enforcement of exogamous restrictions varies greatly across cultures and may range from death to mild disapproval. The belief that a child can have more than one biological father. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Exogamy is also practiced for practical reasons. Members of each half of the moiety may only marry someone from the other half of the moiety. Many anthropological accounts report jealousy among co-wives. brideservice Omissions? Edvard Westermarck said an aversion to marriage between blood relatives or near kin emerged with a parental deterrence of incest. If a father can stay with them, or take turns with the mother, survival chances improve greatly. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Nimkoff, M. F., and Russell Middleton. Endogamy: It is a rule of marriage in which the life-partners are to be selected within the group. The custom is common among indigenous groups in the northwest Amazon, such as the Tucano tribes. Obviously, we cannot talk about marriage in other species, but we can look at species with some stability in male-female mating and compare them with species lacking any stability. Marriage outside this group is exogamy. pattern of marital residence in which couples typically live with or near the husbands parents. Is a marriage within one's own group? 1974. First, the relationship between female subsistence contribution and polygyny appears to be mostly applicable to nonsororal polygyny (Heath 1958; Korotayev and Cardinale 2003). Does this theory suggest any advantage for a woman to marry polygynously? Some common examples of social groups which practice endogamy are people of the same religion, individuals with the same nationality, people of the same class, and related individuals who wish to keep power in the family. Divorce, or the severing of marital ties, is found in the vast majority of societies in the anthropological record. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. It maintains healthy levels of diversity in the genetic pool. Australian Aboriginal people live in family or kin groups. What predicts variation in family household form? To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. Females, by having multiple male partners, may buffer themselves against resource scarcity especially if close kin are not nearby. While first cousin marriage may have higher risk of offspring carrying harmful double recessive genes, severe population loss makes it more difficult to find eligible mates in societies that are already relatively small. Create an account to start this course today. some social stratification but generally less than three levels of classes or castes. It is a common practice in many societies around the world, and has been for centuries. Sellen, Daniel W., and Daniel J. Hruschka. Exogamy is the social norm of marrying outside one's social group. In some cases, the rules of exogamy may also specify the outside group into which an individual must marry. 1980. Regions with high incidence of endemic pathogen stress are more likely to have cousin marriage (Hoben, Buunk, and Fisher 2016). non-classical polyandry tends to be found in small scale egalitarian societies that practice food collection and horticulture. While almost all cultures we know of have had the custom of marriage and all have families, there is tremendous cross-cultural variability in customs surrounding these aspects of social and cultural life. Little non-human primate babies can cling to a mothers fur as she moves about to eat, but for human primates bipedalism and the loss of hair made this difficult. Ancient Rome 1972. 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. Very small populations under 1,000 already have very limited mate choices and may need to allow some cousin marriage regardless of depopulation. Morgan[10] maintains that exogamy was introduced to prevent marriage between blood relations, especially between brother and sister, which had been common in an earlier state of promiscuity. Cultural exogamy is marrying outside a specific cultural group; the opposite being endogamy, marriage within a social group. 2016. Polyandry has two variations: formal and informal. [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. Why? 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). Rainfall variability is likely to produce uneven productivity between communities and exogamy provides more opportunities for movement to even out resources. Marriage outside this group is exogamy. Societies with extended family households are less likely to allow individual choice in choosing a mate (Stephens 1963; Lee and Stone 1980), less likely to think romantic love should be the basis of marriage (de Munck and McGreevey 2016), and not surprisingly, less likely to have close relationships between husbands and wives, and more likely to have more divorce. The Komachi, pastoral nomads of southern Iran, preferred marriage with kin who were no more distant than second cousins and about 70% were with first cousins (Bradburd 1990, 115). If the answer is no, then male-female bonding was predicted; if the answer was yes, then female-male bonding was unlikely. In fact, most of the time you'll find the word you are looking for after typing only one or two letters. What is a Exogamous relationship? The minority of societies have independent family households. Hence, it is more efficient and economical for the man and woman who share the child (or children) to cooperate. Extended families may provide alternative caretakersgrandparental caretaking in particular is associated with higher warmth towards children. It is most common among groups that reckon descent through either the father (patrilineality) or the mother (matrilineality) alone. Higher pathogen load predicts a higher likelihood of nonsororal polygyny (Low 1990), but not sororal polygyny (M. Ember, Ember, and Low 2007). This was in answer to the following question: Can a new mother feed herself and her baby at more-or-less the same time? Men were obliged to seek wives from other groups, including marriage by capture, and exogamy developed as a cultural custom. However, this overall finding comes with some qualifications. Of those societies allowing cross-cousin marriage, symmetrical cross-cousin marriage (with both sets of cross-cousins) is much more common than asymmetrical cross-cousin marriage (one side of the family). more alloparental care (childcare provided by someone who is not a parent) (Quinlan and Quinlan 2007). Interracial marriage: a marriage between two people of different races. 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. The alloparenting explanation may also help us understand Minturn, Grosse, and Haider (1969) s earlier finding that divorce is more readily obtained in societies with extended family households inasmuch as such families undoubtedly have more people to help with childcare. A Historical-Anthropological Look at Some Socio-Political Problems of Second and Third World Countries., Male-Female Relationships in Cross-Cultural Perspective: A Study of Sex and Intimacy., Cross-cultural codes on husband-wife relationships., The Plow, Female Contribution to Agricultural Subsistance and Polygyny: A Log Linear Analysis., Terminological Correlates of Cross-Cousin Marriage., Cross-cultural patterns of marriage and inheritance: A phylogenetic approach., The Economics of Exogamous Marriage in Smallscale Societies., On the Origin and Extension of the Incest Taboo., Male-Female Bonding: A Cross-Species Study of Mammals and Birds., Resource distribution, social competition, and mating patterns in human societies., Bridewealth and Dowry in Africa and Eurasia., The Fireland Indians: Vol. Such transactions, such as bride price or dowry, reflect higher involvement in the establishment of a marriage. Many cultures have practiced exogamous marriage practices over the years. In fact, there are strong taboos against incestuous relationships in many cultures. From a genetic point of view, aversion to breeding with close relatives results in fewer congenital diseases. Women are limited in the number of children they can have throughout their reproductive careers, so obviously they cannot increase their number of children by marrying polygynously. Endogamy and exogamy are the two main rules that condition marital choice. Of the 148 societies in the Standard Cross Cultural Sample which Broude and Green coded 31.1% have full individual choice, 17.6% have individual choice that requires parental approval, 3.4% have individual choice that also require parental arrangement, 18.2% have either individual choice or arranged marriage, 16.9% have arranged marriage, but individuals have the ability to object, and 12.8% have fully arranged marriage., The figures in this paragraph and in the Figure are based on data from the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (Murdock and White 1969); these data on polygyny were retrieved from D-PLACE variable SCCS211. Few different types of exogamy, and has been for centuries within social... Aversion to marriage between two people of different languages ( 1974 ) ) improve greatly the! Even out resources endogamy, marriage within a social group that individuals marry outside of norm marrying... Claim that marriage is a rule of marriage is a common practice in many around... 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You use one ofthese affiliate links, the rules and enforcement mechanisms that ensure its.. Few different types of exogamy, and Fisher 2016 ) incestuous relationships in many societies around the,.

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