Marriage, Family & Kinship

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 Syllabus
2.3 Marriage : Definition and universality; Laws of marriage (endogamy,
exogamy, hypergamy, hypogamy, incest taboo); Type of marriage (monogamy,
polygamy, polyandry, group marriage). Functions of marriage; Marriage
regulations (preferential, prescriptive and proscriptive); Marriage payments (bride
wealth and dowry).
2.4 Family : Definition and universality; Family, household and domestic groups;
functions of family; Types of family (from the perspectives of structure, blood
relation, marriage, residence and succession); Impact of urbanization,
industrialization and feminist movements on family.
2.5 Kinship : Consanguinity and Affinity; Principles and types of descent
(Unilineal, Double, Bilateral Ambilineal); Forms of descent groups (lineage, clan,
phratry, moiety and kindred); Kinship terminology (descriptive and
classificatory); Descent, Filiation and Complementary Filiation;Descent and
Alliance. 2
PYQS

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Q1. “Marriage payments are an example of reciprocity between two social
groups.” Elaborate. (1981)

Q2. Marriage institution is found in all societies and at all times. Discuss. (1982)

Q3. Incest is universally the basis of enduring family. Comment. (1983)

Q4. Endogamy and preferential marriage are characteristic of closed

societies.Discuss. (1983)

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Q5. What are the various forms of preferential mating? Explain with Indian
examples. (1986)

Q6. Define Marriage. Describe its different forms with suitable examples as
prevalent among the tribal people of India. Point out the functions of marriage.
(1989)

Q7. Describe the problems of universal definition of marriage. Describe the

different forms of marriage among the tribal people of India. (1991)

Q8. Write a note on Incest Taboos. (2006)

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Q9. Write a note on ways of acquiring a spouse in simpler societies. (2012)

Q10 Where do you situate ‘live-in relationship’ within the institution of marriage?
(2013)

Q11. Define marriage and describe the various types of marriages in human
societies. (2014)

Q12. Discuss the different forms of preferential marriage with suitable examples
from tribal societies in India. (2017)

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Q13. Write a note on ways of acquiring mate in Tribal Society. (2018)

Q14. Discuss the role of marriage regulations in traditional societies in India for
strengthening social solidarity. (2023)

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Love and marriage,” “marriage and the family”:
“

These familiar phrases show how we link the

romantic love of two individuals to marriage, and
how we link marriage to reproduction and family
creation.

But marriage is an institution with significant roles and functions in addition to

reproduction.

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What is marriage, anyway?

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No definition of marriage is broad enough to apply easily
to all societies and situations

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A commonly quoted definition comes from Notes and Queries on Anthropology:

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
1951, p. 111

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This definition isn’t valid universally for several reasons.
In many societies, marriages unite more than two spouses.
Here we speak of plural marriages, as when a man weds
two (or more) women (polygyny), or a woman weds a
group of brothers—an arrangement called fraternal
polyandry that is characteristic of certain Himalayan
cultures

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The British anthropologist Edmund Leach (1955)

Observed that, depending on the society, several different kinds of rights may
be allocated by marriage. According to Leach, marriage can (but does not
always) accomplish the following:
1. Establish legal parentage.
2. Give either or both spouses a monopoly on the sexuality of the other.
3. Give either or both spouses rights to the labor of the other.
4. Give either or both spouses rights over the other’s property.
5. Establish a joint fund of property—a partnership—for the benefit of the
children.
6. Establish a socially significant “relationship of affinity” between spouses
and their relatives.
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Biologically speaking, procreation creates the family
relationships of an individual: who your parents are
determines your grandparents, your aunts and uncles, your
cousins, and so forth.

Assuming the woman and man are married, marriage and its
resulting family relationships seem pretty basic.

How many ways can people marry and have families?

Quite a few, it turns out. We begin with marriage.

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● Persons with little knowledge of cultural diversity might
say that marriage is a relationship between a woman and a
man involving romantic love, sexual activity, cohabitation,
child rearing, and shared joys and burdens of life.

● People trained in law might also note that marriage has

legal aspects, such as joint property rights and obligations
to share support of children.

● Religious people may want to include their beliefs that

marriage is a relationship sanctioned by God, a relationship
that should last until the parties are separated by death.
Gay, lesbian, and bisexual people will want to add their
own provisions.
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● These provisions are broadly applicable in many
modern nations. However, they obscure the diversity
in marriages that anthropologists have uncovered.

● For example, choosing one’s spouse is not always a

private matter decided by the couple. In many
cultures, marriage is likely to be a public matter that
involves a broad range of relatives who must consent
to or even arrange the marriage

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Further, as often as not, romantic love is not considered
necessary for marriage, and sometimes it is not even relevant
to the relationship. Couples do not marry because they “fall in
love.”

For example, in traditional China, Korea, and Japan, a man

and a woman seldom had a chance to fall in love before they
married because they usually hardly knew each other and
often had not even met. Sometimes boys and girls were
betrothed at birth or as children.

Even when couples married as adults, the marriage was

arranged by their parents with the aid of a matchmaker,
usually a female relative of the groom’s family or a woman
hired by them.
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She tried to find a woman of suitable age, wealth, status, and
disposition to become a wife for the young man.

The matchmaker would “match” not only the couple to each other,
but also the woman to the husband’s parents.

This was important because the new wife would be incorporated

into her husband’s family; her labor would be under the control
of her husband’s parents, especially her mother-in-law; she
would revere and make offerings to the ancestors of her
husband’s family, not those of her own parents; her behavior
would be closely watched lest she disgrace her in-laws; and her
children would become members of her husband’s kin group, not
her own

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Other Western cultural notions of and customs about marriage do
not apply elsewhere. Sex is not always confined to the marriage
bed (or mat). There may or may not be a formal ceremony
(wedding) recognizing or validating a new marriage.

The marital tie may be fragile or temporary, with individuals

expecting to have several spouses during the course of their
lives.
Or the tie may be so strong that even death does not end it. For
example, in parts of old India, there were strict rules against the
remarriage of a higher-caste widow, and such a widow often
followed her husband to the grave by throwing herself onto
his cremation fire (a practice now illegal in India).

Finally, there are culturally legitimate marital relationships

that are not between a man and a woman. 19
Yet in order to cover the extraordinary diversity of mating behavior characteristic of
the human species, the definition of marriage has to be made so broad as to be
confusing.

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 Most anthropologists agree, however, that marriage in most
human societies involves the following:

• A culturally defined (variable) relationship between a man and

a woman from different families, which regulates sexual
intercourse and legitimizes children

• A set of rights the couple and their families obtain over each
other, including rights over children born to the woman
• An assignment of responsibility for nurturing and enculturating
children to the spouses and/or to one or both sets of their
relatives
• A creation of variably important bonds and relationships
between the families of the couple that have social, economic,
political, and sometimes ritual dimensions 21
If we define marriage in this way, do
all societies have some form of
marriage?

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 This question is tricky, and not just because the definition above is problematic.

Case study Musou

Consider the Musuo (also called Na and Naxi) an ethnic group of
Yunnan Province in the south of China.

The Musuo are ethnically distinct from the Han, China’s majority
population. Among Musou, a typical adult woman remains at the home
of her mother and siblings.

Men visit her at night for sexual intercourse, but such visits carry no
commitment or obligation.
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Both people have multiple sexual partners. The man does not
spend the night and seems to have no obligation to his children,
or even to recognize them as his.

Children are raised by their mother and her own family, which
means that Musou have no nuclear families.
Either the woman or her male visitor may initiate the
communication that leads to their sexual relationship, but it is
always the man who visits at night.

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The Musuo lack all four aspects of the definition of
marriage given above.
Therefore, they have no marriage as we define the
term, nor do they have marriage as most people
understand it.
Cai Hua, the Han Chinese ethnographer, says that the
Musuo show that marriage and nuclear families are not
universal human institutions. (Where, we might ask, is
the “backbone” of Mosuo society?

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The Han, who are the majority ethnic group in China,
find Musou so different that many of them visit Yunnan
province to see them. Han people often view Musou
women as promiscuous and the Mosuo people as
matriarchal.
(If this were true, in these two respects, Musou would
contrast strongly with traditional Han practices, which
perhaps is why so many Han are interested.)
The Chinese central government has a policy of helping
the development of the country’s more remote, poorer
regions, including the rural areas of Yunnan province.

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Among the many ingenious attempts to define
marriage as a universally occurring
relationship, the definition proposed by
Kathleen Gough, who has studied among the
Nayar, merits special attention.

Lets understand Marriage through more

case studies 27
According to Gough, for most if not all societies, this definition identifies a
relationship ‘“‘distinguished by the people themselves from all other kinds of
relationships.”

Yet Gough’s definition seems oddly at variance with English dictionary and
native Western notions of marriage.

First of all, it makes no reference to rights and duties of sexual access or to

sexual performance. Moreover, it does not necessarily involve a relationship
between men and women since it merely refers to a woman and “one or
more” other persons of unspecified sex.

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Gough does not mention sexual rights and duties because of the case
of the Nayar.

In order to bear children in a socially acceptable manner, pubescent

Nayar girls had to go through a four-day ceremony that linked them
with a “ritual husband.”

Completion of this ceremony was a necessary prerequisite for the

beginning of a Nayar woman’s sexual and reproductive career.

But what can be the reason for defining marriage as a relationship

between a woman and “persons” rather than between “women
and men’? There are many instances among African societies —the
Dahomey case is best known — in which women “marry” women.
This is accomplished by having a woman, who herself is already
usually married to aman, pay bride-price.

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The female bride-price payer becomes a “‘female husband.”
She starts a family of her
own by letting her ‘wife’ become pregnant through
relationships with designated males.
The offspring of these unions fall under the control of the
“female father” rather than of the biological genitors Wide as
it is, Gough’s definition ignores certain mating relationships
that take place between males.

For example, among the Kwakiutl, a man who desires

to acquire the privileges associated with a particular
chiefcan “marry” the chief’s male heir.
If the chief has no heirs, a man may “marry” the
chief's right or left side, or a leg or an arm.
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In Euramerican culture, enduring mating relationships
between coresident homosexual men or between coresident
homosexual women are also often spoken of as marriage.

It has thus been suggested that all reference to the sex of

the people involved in the relationship should be omitted in
the definition of marriage in order to accommodate such
cases (Dillingham and Isaac 1975).

Yet the task of understanding varieties of domestic

organization is made more difficult when all these different
forms of mating are crammed into the single concept of
marriage.

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Part of the problem is that when matings in Western culture are
denied the designation “marriage,” there is an unjust tendency to
regard them as less honorable or less authentic relationships.

And so anthropologists are reluctant to stigmatize woman woman or

man-man matings, or Nayar or matrifocal visiting mate
arrangements, by saying they are not marriages.

But whatever we call them, it is clear that they cover an enormous

behavioral and mental range.

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Cross-generational Marriage among the Tiwi of Northern
Australia

In most societies, people who marry are comparable in

age. Often the husband is older, sometimes significantly
older. The Tiwi, who traditionally lived on the Bathurst
Islands just off the coast of northern Australia, were
unusual because both sexes frequently married people of
markedly different ages—in fact, most spouses belonged to
different generations.

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 Ethnographer C. W. M. Hart worked among the Tiwi in the late
1920s, and Arnold Pilling worked there in the early 1950s. Jane
Goodall's later work focused on Tiwi women.

Like other aboriginal peoples of Australia, the Tiwi were hunters

and gatherers.

Male elders made most of the important decisions in a band,

including decisions about foraging activities and the distribution of
food.

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Many elderly men were polygynous—that is, they had more
than one wife. Polygynous men had access to lots of food from
their wives’ gathering and fishing, and they could acquire
prestige and allies by distributing the food widely to other
families.

Tiwi prized meat, but as men reached their 50s and 60s, they
were unable to hunt effectively. To hunt meat for food and
distributions, they needed sons, which they generally had, and
sons-in-law, which they could get by marrying off their
daughters.

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Tiwi marriage was unusual because of two rare customs.
First, when a girl was born, she was almost immediately
promised as a wife to some other man. This is “infant
betrothal,” with the girl’s husband selected by her father.

Second, Tiwi norms required that all females be married

virtually all their lives. So after she was betrothed an infant
girl was considered already married. And when a woman’s
husband died, she remarried almost immediately, called
“widow remarriage.”

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An astute Tiwi father did not marry his infant daughter to just
anyone. He used her marriage to win friends and gain allies.
The allies who were most valuable were men of about his own
age, so naturally he tended to marry his daughters to these
men. But the relationship created by one such marriage was
often reciprocated—if you married your daughter to a friend,
you would likely receive his daughter, sooner or later.
So a man might gain a wife in return for a daughter. If a man’s
wives had daughters when he was in his 40s and 50s (which
was common because wives were so young), then he married
some of them to men his own age.
Not all of them, though, because a man also wanted young
sons-in-law to come live in his band and help supply meat.
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 A girl growing into womanhood would already have a
husband, most likely one who was perhaps 20 or 30
years older than herself. Of course, this meant that most
wives outlived their husbands but did have children by
them.

By Tiwi custom, widows had to remarry. But to whom?

Some young men in their 20s had failed to attract the
notice of the elders and therefore had no wives of their
own.

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But they still could be friends and useful allies of the sons of
these widowed women. So at the death of her husband, her sons
(usually with her consent and approval) married their mother to
a man 20 We emphasize again that both the Nayar and the Tiwi
had unusual marriage systems. (Both systems are no longer
operating.)
Of course, neither people viewed their own marriage practices
as “unusual.” It was just what they did. Perhaps they even
thought it was only natural. Maybe they even considered it the
backbone of their societies

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There is no scientific evidence that any one of them is more or less “natural.”
Since the term marriage is too useful to drop altogether, a more narrow definition
seems appropriate
Marriage denotes the behavior, sentiments, and rules concerned with coresident
heterosexual mating
To avoid offending people by using marriage exclusively for coresident
heterosexual domestic mates, a simple expedient is available.
Let such other relationships be designated as “non co resident marriages,”
“man-man marriages,” ‘woman-woman marriages,” or by any other
appropriate specific nomenclature.
It is clear that these matings have different ecological, demographic, economic,
and ideological implications, so nothing is to be gained by arguing about
whether they are “real” marriages.
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"In examining the institution of marriage, anthropologists delve into
its multifaceted roles, from its cultural significance to its
evolutionary underpinnings."

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Now let’s discuss definition of Marriage

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• Edmund Leach (1961), recognizing that marriage
might be defined as ‘a bundle of rights,’ identified the
following different rights: legal fatherhood, legal
motherhood, monopoly of sexual access between married
partners, right to domestic services and other forms of
labor, right over property accruing to one's spouse, rights
to a joint fund of property for the benefit of the children
of marriage, and recognized relations of affinity such as
that between brothers-in-law.

But from this bundle of rights, no single right or set of

rights might be defined as central to the universal
definition of marriage.

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• According to Malinowski, a legal marriage is
one which gives a woman a socially recognized
husband and her children a socially recognized
father.

• Radcliffe-Brown states that Marriage is a

social arrangement by which a child is given a
legitimate position in the society determined by
parent hood in the social sense.

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• According to Westermarck it is a relation of one or
more men to one or more women which is recognized
by custom or law and involves certain rights and duties
both in the case of parties entering the union and in the
case of children born out of this union.

• According to Lundberg, marriage consists of rules

and regulations that define the rights, duties and
privileges of husband and wife with respect to each
other.

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• According to Horton and Hunt marriage is the
approved social pattern whereby two or more persons
establish a family.

• According to John Levy and Ruth Monroe people get

married because of the feeling that being in a family is
the only proper indeed the only possible way to live.

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People do not marry because it is their social duty to perpetuate the
institution of family or because the scriptures recommend matrimony but
because they lived in a family as children and cannot get over the feeling
that being in a family is the only proper way to live in society.

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LEGITIMACY
LEGITIMACY

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The essence of the marital relationship, according to some anthropologists, is

embodied in that portion of Gough’s definition dealing with the assignment of

“birth-status rights” to children.

Children born to a married woman “under circumstances not prohibited by the

rules of

the relationship” (e.g., adultery) are legal or legitimate children.

Children born to unmarried women are illegitimate. As Bronislaw Malinowski

put it:

“Marriage is the licensing of parenthood.”

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But many societies do not distinguish between legitimate or legal child rearing and
illegitimate or illegal child rearing.

It is true that women are universally discouraged from attempting to rear or

dispose of their newborn infants according to their own whim, but many societies
have several different sets of rules defining permissible modes of conception and
child rearing.

Some of these alternatives may be esteemed more highly than others, but the less
esteemed alternatives do not necessarily place children in a status analogous to that
of Western Illegitimacy (Scheffler 1973:754-—755).

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 Case study

For example, among Brazilians living in small towns there are four
kinds
of relationships between a man and a woman, all of which provide
Children with full birth rights: church marriage, civil marriage,
simultaneous church and civil marriage, and consensual marriage.

For a Brazilian woman the most esteemed way to have children is

through simultaneous church and civil marriage.

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This mode legally entitles her to a portion of her husband’s property upon his
death. It also provides the added security of knowing that her husband cannot
desert her and enter into a civil or religious marriage elsewhere.

The least desirable mode is the consensual marriage, because the woman can
make no property claims against her consort, nor can she readily prevent him
from deserting her.

Yet the children of a consensual arrangement can make property claims against
both father and mother while suffering no deprivation of birth rights in the
form of legal disadvantages or social disapproval as long as the father
acknowledges paternity.

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 Case study
Among the Dahomey, Herskovits (1938) reported 13 different kinds of
marriage determined largely by bride-price arrangements. Children
enjoyed different
birth rights depending on the type of marriage.

In some marriages the child was placed under the control of the father’s
domestic group, and in others under the control
of a domestic group headed by a female “father” .

The point is not that a child is legitimate or illegitimate, but rather

that there are specific types of rights, obligate and groupings that
emanate from

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Most of the world’s people are not concerned with the question
of whether a child is legitimate, but with the question of who will
have the right of controlling the child’s destiny.
No society grants women complete “freedom of conception,”
but the restrictions placed on motherhood and the occasions for
punishment and disapproval vary enormously.
Where the domestic scene is dominated by large extended
families and where there are no strong restrictions on premarital
sex, the pregnancy of a young unmarried woman is rarely the
occasion for much concern.

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 Case study
Under certain circumstances, an “unwed mother” may
even be congratulated rather than condemned.
Among the Kadar of northern Nigeria, as reported by
M. G. Smith (1968), most marriages result from
infant betrothals.
These matches are arranged by the fathers of the bride
and groom when the girl is 3 to 6 years old.

Ten years or more may elapse before the bride goes to

live with her betrothed.
During this time, a Kadar girl is not unlikely to
become pregnant. This will disturb no one, even if the
biological father is a man other than her future Kadar of northern
husband: Nigeria

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Edmund Leach argued that the institutions commonly classed as marriage are
concerned with the allocation of a number of distinguishable classes of rights
and hence may serve to do any or some or all of the following.

• To establish the legal father & legal mother of children.

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• To give a husband a monopoly of the wife's sexuality. Vice-versa

• To give the husband partial or monopolistic rights to the wife's domestic and other
labour services.

• To give the wife partial or monopolistic rights to the husband's domestic and other
labour services.

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• To give the husband partial or total rights over property belonging or potentially
accruing to the wife. Vice-versa

• To establish a joint fund of property – partnership for the benefit of the children of the
marriage.

• To establish a socially significant relationship of affinity between the husband and his
wife's brothers.

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 Functions of Marriage
The near-universality of marriage suggests that marriage is important
and useful things for individuals, families, and/or society at large.
Four functions are among the most important.

● Marriage creates the social relationships that provide for the

material needs, social support, and enculturation of children.
● Most cultures recognize that forming a (variably) stable bond
between a woman and her husband is an important reason to
marry.
● In the human species, one reason the tie between mothers and
fathers is more important than in most other animals is the
lengthy dependence of children on adults.

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● Until age 10 or older, children are largely dependent on adults for food, shelter,
protection, and other bodily needs.
● Equally important, children need adults for the social learning that is crucial to
complete their psychological and social development.
● It is theoretically possible that children need only one adult, the mother.
● But generally children benefit from multiple caretakers and supporters, and
marriage helps to create and expand relationships that help children.

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2.

The marriage bond reduces (but does not eliminate) potential conflicts over sexual
access
by defining culturally approved sexual activity and limiting adult sexual access to
certain
individuals (normatively or legally, at any rate Extramarital sex is not, of course,
prohibited to the same degree in all cultures, but limitations are placed on it.

In the vast majority of societies, the nurturing and care of young infants are entrusted
mainly to mothers, so it is beneficial for mothers to receive material and social
support for some period after childbirth by their relatives, usually including their
husbands.
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3.
All known societies divide up work like food getting and household tasks according to age
and gender Men do some kinds of tasks, women other kinds.

Although the work usually overlaps, there is enough differentiation in most communities that
the products and services produced by women must be shared with men, and vice versa.

Marriage helps define these rights and duties and establishes the household within which
family members do things for one another.

The division of labor also means that, most often, mothers need the assistance of some male
to help provide food and other necessities to their children. Most commonly, this male is her
husband.

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4.
Marriage creates new relationships between families and other kinds of kin groups. In a few
societies, nuclear families are physically able to produce what they need to survive with their
own labor and resources.

But the incest taboo forces individuals to marry someone other than their immediate relatives.
Every such marriage creates a potential new set of affinal relationships between the relatives of
the couple.

The importance attached to these relationships varies from people to people. At the very least,
the families of the wife and husband have a common interest in the children.

In addition, a great many societies use the relationships created by intermarriage to establish
important trade relationships or political alliances, as we see later. 63
Because marriage—and the new nuclear family each marriage creates—is useful to
individuals and to societies in these and other ways, a relationship like marriage and a
group like the family are almost universal among the world’s cultures.

However, no particular form of marriage or type of family is universal.

Cultures evolved various marriage and family systems to perform these functions.

To show the diversity of these systems, we now consider two unusual systems

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Variation in Marriage Beliefs and
Practices

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● The marriage relationship varies enormously
among cultures. For one thing, most cultures
allow multiple spouses.

● For another, the nature of the marital

relationship—living arrangements, what wives
and husbands expect from each other, who
decides who marries whom, authority patterns
● how the relatives of the couple relate to one
another, and so forth—differs from people to
people

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Laws of Marriage

• Endogamy
• Exogamy
• Hypergamy
• Hypogamy
• Incest taboo
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68
69
Endogamy

Endogamy: (Endo= within, gamy= marriage)

Endogamy refers to the rule that a man must
marry someone within his own social group
i.e., Caste or Tribe.

The endogamous rule is to maintain marital

alliances between the close blood relations. For
example: Caste, Religion, Tribe.
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• Marriage cannot take place between two
persons if, they do not belong to same caste,
religion and tribe. Hoebel defined endogamy
as, “the social rule that requires an
individual to marry within a culturally
defined group of which he is a member.”

Mostly, this results in conservation of property,

relations, retention of services and avoidance of
external social bonds.

The Urapim, a small tribe of Papua New

Guinea practice strict endogamy

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 Exogamy

• Exogamy: (Exo= outside, gamy= marriage)

Exogamy refers to the rule that a man must marry
someone outside his own group.

The most important reason of these exogamous

rules is to prevent marital alliances between the
close blood relations. For example: clans in tribal
communities and Gotra system in Hindu society.

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• If a man and a woman belong to the same Gotra, they
cannot marry each other. Hoebel defined exogamy as,
“the social rule that requires an individual to marry
outside a culturally defined group of which he is a
member.”

Malinowski assumed that exogamy is the prohibition of

marriage between members of one descent group (clan)
which is explained in incest taboo. Such rule is reported
among Gonds, Baiga, Ho, Oraon, etc.

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Gotra Exogamy: The Hindu practice of one
marrying outside one’s own gotra.

Pravara Exogamy: Those who belong to the

same pravara cannot marry among
themselves.

Village Exogamy: Many Indian tribes like

Naga, Garo, and Munda etc. have the practice
of marrying outside their village.

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Pinda Exogamy: Those who belong to the same
pinda or sapinda (common parentage) cannot
marry within themselves.

• This type of marriage prohibits a person from

marrying within the blood relation so that a
healthy and intelligent progeny is continued
further

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Hypergamy- Anuloma

• Hypergamy is a system of marriage where a

man gets his daughter married to a person of
the same or higher social and economical
status.

This type of system is found in the stratified

societies like Hindus, wherein it is practiced to
retain the social status and prestige of the group.
In Hindu society this is known as Anuloma.
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77
78
79
Hypogamy- Pratiloma
- woman marries man of lower status

Hypergamy

- woman marries man of higher status

- Occurs more frequently in patriarchal
societies where women are evaluated in terms
of their husband's social status rather than their
own.

Therefore, women gain and men do not lose.

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Hypogamy

Hypogamy is just the opposite of Hypergamy. Here, a

man gets his daughter married to a man of either
same or lower social and economical status than his.
In Hindu society this is known as Pratiloma.
Pratiloma/ hypogamy refer to intercaste marriages
which are not approved socially.

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Lets have brief discussion on Marriage Rules

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 Everywhere, norms identify members of some social
groups or categories as potential spouses and specify
members of other groups or categories as not eligible
for marriage. One set of rules is exogamous rules.

Exogamy (“outmarriage”) means that an individual

is prohibited from marrying within her or his own
family or other kin group or, less commonly, village
or settlement.

Because the incest taboo applies to those people

whom the local culture defines as close relatives,
members of one’s own nuclear family and other
close kin are almost everywhere prohibited as
spouses.

Exogamous rules Marriage rules prohibiting

individuals from marrying a member of their own
social group or category.
83
Exogamy—seeking a mate outside one’s own group—links people
into a wider social network that nurtures, helps, and protects them in
times of need.

Incest restrictions (prohibitions on sex with relatives) reinforce

exogamy by pushing people to seek their mates outside the local
group.

Most societies discourage sexual contact involving close relatives,

especially members of the same nuclear family.

84
Relatives of young people) may worry that would-be spouses of
lower-class standing would not fit in with their social circle (to phrase
their objection politely).
Likewise, interracial couples are warned about the social stigma
attached to their relationship and about the “problems” they and their
children will encounter.
Of course, these problems exist largely because some people continue
to think that interracial marriages are problematic.
Racial, ethnic, and even religious barriers to inter marriage are
breaking down in many regions due to improved education and
increased

85
The Lakher of Southeast Asia are strictly patrilineal (Leach 1961). Using the male ego
(the reference point, the person in question) let’s suppose that ego’s father Marriage
30 between peoples due to globalization.

By expanding the range of nationalities people get to know, international and

intercultural marriages are becoming common place.

Globalization is changing popular attitudes and affecting marriage and family in this
obvious way, but also in more subtle ways

86
and mother get divorced.

Each remarries and has a daughter by a second marriage. A Lakher

always belongs to his or her father’s group, all of whose members
(one’s agnates, or patrikin) are considered relatives, because they
belong to the same descent group.

Ego can’t have sex with or marry his father’s daughter by the
second marriage, just as in contemporary North America it’s illegal
for half siblings to have sex and marry.

However, unlike our society, where all half siblings are restricted,
sex between our Lakher ego and his maternal half sister would be
nonincestuous.

She isn’t ego’s relative because she belongs to her own father’s
descent group rather than ego’s. The Lakher illustrate very well that
definitions of relatives, and therefore of incest, vary from culture to
culture.

87
 Endogamous rules Marriage rules requiring individuals to
marry some member of their own social group or category.

Other kinds of marriage rules are endogamous rules. Endogamy

(in marriage) means that an individual must marry someone in his
or her own social group.

The classic example of an endogamous group is the caste in

traditional Hindu India

Other kinds of endogamous categories are found in orthodox

Jews, races in the American South during slavery, and noble
classes in many ancient civilizations and states.

88
 Endogamous rules have the effect of maintaining social barriers
between groups of people defined as having different social
ranks.
Rules of endogamy main tain the exclusiveness of the
endogamous group in two ways. First, they reduce social
contacts and interactions between individuals of different ranks.
Intermarriage creates new relationships between the families of
the wife and husband and potentially is a means of raising the
rank of oneself or one’s offspring.
Endogamy keeps affinal relationships within the caste, class,
ethnic group, race, or whatever. Over generations, this reinforces
ties within the endogamous groups and decreases interactions
between the groups .
89
 Second, endogamy symbolically expresses and strengthens
the exclusiveness of the endogamous group by preventing
its “contamination” by outsiders.

This is most apparent with Indian castes because the

cultural rationale for caste endogamy is to avoid ritual
pollution:

the Hindu religion holds that physical contact with members

of lower castes places high-caste individuals in a state of
spiritual danger, precluding the possibility of marriage
between them.

90
 Technically, the term endogamy applies only to cultural rules (or even
laws) about confining marriage to those within one’s own group.
But it is important to note the existence of de facto endogamy,
meaning that although no formal rules or laws require in marriage,
most people marry people like themselves.
De facto racial and social class endogamy exists in most modern
nations, including North America, partly because opportunities for
members of different classes to get to know one another are often
limited.
For instance, members of different classes often go to different kinds of
schools and hang out with different sets of friends. Such practices
decrease social interactions between classes and thus reduce the
possibility that people of different classes will meet and fall in love.

91
 De facto endogamy also exists because of beliefs
about the dangers of marrying outside one’s own
“kind.” Members of elite classes (and parents and
other

92
● Endogamy The practice of exogamy pushes social organization
outward, establishing and preserving alliances among groups. In
contrast, rules of endogamy dictate mating or marriage Same-Sex
Marriage 307 within a group to which one belongs.

● Endogamic rules are less common but are still familiar to

anthropologists. Indeed, most cultures are endogamous units, although
they usually do not need a formal rule requiring people to marry
someone from their own society.

● In our society, classes and ethnic groups are quasi-endogamous groups.

Members of an ethnic or religious group often want their children to
marry within that group, although many of them do not do so.

● The outmarriage rate varies among such groups, with some more
committed to endogamy than others

93
 Caste
An extreme example of endogamy is India’s caste system, which was
formally abolished in 1949, although its structure and effects linger.
Castes are stratified groups in which membership is ascribed at birth and
is lifelong.
Indian castes are grouped into five major categories, or varna. Each is
ranked relative to the other four, and these categories extend throughout
India.
Each varna includes a large number of minor castes (jati), each of which
includes people within a region who may intermarry.
All the jati in a single varna in a given region are ranked, just as the
varna themselves are ranked. Occupational specialization often sets off
one caste from another. A community may include castes of agricultural
workers, merchants, artisans, priests, and sweepers.

94
The untouchable varna, found throughout India, includes castes
whose ancestry, ritual status, and occupations are considered so
impure that higher-caste people consider even casual contact with
untouchables to be defiling.

The belief that intercaste sexual unions lead to ritual impurity for
the higher-caste partner has been important in maintaining
endogamy.

A man who has sex with a lower-caste woman can restore his
purity with a bath and a prayer. However, a woman who has inter
course with a man of a lower caste has no such recourse.

95
Her defilement cannot be undone. Because the women
have the babies, these differences protect the purity of
the caste line, ensuring the pure ancestry of high-caste
children. Although Indian castes are endogamous
groups, many of them are internally subdivided into
exogamous lineages.

Traditionally this meant that Indians had to marry a

member of another descent group from the same caste.
This shows that rules of exogamy and endogamy can
coexist in the same society

96
 Hypergamy

Hypergamy is a system of marriage

where a man gets his daughter married
to a person of the same or higher social
and economical status. This type of
system is found in the stratified societies
like Hindus, wherein it is practiced to
retain the social status and prestige of the
group. In Hindu society this is known
as Anuloma.

97
Historically, hypergamy has been observed across
various cultures and societies.
In many traditional societies, marriage was not just a
union between individuals but also a means of
solidifying alliances between families or clans.
As a result, considerations such as wealth, social status,
and lineage played crucial roles in determining suitable
marriage partners.

Women, in particular, were often expected to marry "up"

to improve their social standing or secure economic
stability for themselves and their families.

98
In modern contexts, while the explicit practice of
hypergamy may not be as overt or strictly enforced as in
the past, its influence can still be seen in relationship
preferences and mate selection criteria.

Economic factors continue to play a significant role in

shaping partner choices.

Studies have shown that women tend to seek partners

who can provide financial security and resources, which
may be seen as a form of modern-day hypergamy.

99
 Hypogamy

Hypogamy is just the opposite of Hypergamy.

Here, a man gets his daughter married to a
man of either same or lower social and
economical status than his.
In Hindu society this is known as Pratiloma.
Pratiloma/ hypogamy refer to intercaste
marriages which are not approved socially.

100
In traditional societies where social stratification is
significant, hypogamy might be discouraged or
frowned upon due to concerns about maintaining
social status or economic stability.

For instance, in some cultures, there may be

expectations or pressures for individuals to marry
within their own social or economic class, which
could be seen as a form of hypogamy avoidance.

101
In modern contexts, the dynamics of
hypogamy are influenced by various factors
including changing gender roles, economic
opportunities, and cultural norms.

While historically hypogamy might have

been less common due to stricter social
hierarchies, contemporary societies may
exhibit more fluidity in terms of relationship
dynamics and partner selection.

102
Similar to hypergamy, hypogamy can be examined
through the lens of gender dynamics. While both men
and women may engage in hypogamous relationships,
societal expectations and stereotypes often differ.

For example, there may be cultural biases against men

who marry women perceived to be of lower
socioeconomic status, while women who marry men
of lower status may face different societal judgments.

103
Incest taboo- An Anthropological
Significance

104
 Incest taboo

Incest taboo is a universal norm for almost all societies,

which pertains to restrictions in marriage and sexual
relations among certain categories of close relatives
generally related by blood like father and daughter,
mother and son.

105
From an evolutionary standpoint, the incest taboo helps
promote genetic diversity and reduces the risk of
inbreeding depression, where offspring suffer reduced
fitness due to genetic defects.

Avoiding incest also encourages individuals to form

alliances and social bonds outside of immediate family
circles, strengthening community ties.

106
Genetic Concerns: Incestuous relationships increase the
likelihood of genetic disorders and abnormalities due to the
higher chances of inheriting rare recessive genes that can cause
health issues.

Social and Family Dynamics: Incest can disrupt family

relationships and hierarchies, potentially leading to power
imbalances, conflicts, and emotional harm.

Cultural and Moral Considerations: Many cultures view

incest as morally wrong or taboo, often associating it with
notions of purity, sanctity, or societal order.

107
While the incest taboo is widespread, its specifics can vary.

Some societies may have more relaxed attitudes toward

certain degrees of cousin marriage, while others strictly
prohibit any form of sexual or marital relations between even
distant relatives.
Incest laws and taboos also evolve over time, influenced by
changes in cultural norms, legal systems, and scientific
understanding of genetics.

108
In modern times, discussions about the incest taboo
intersect with debates on human rights, sexual
autonomy, and cultural relativism.
There are complex ethical considerations surrounding
cases of consensual adult incest, particularly when it
involves informed consent and does not pose genetic
risks.
These situations challenge societal norms and legal
frameworks, leading to debates about where to draw
the line between individual rights and societal welfare.

109
Type of marriage

110
 Monogamy

Monogamy
• It is a form of marriage when a single man marries a single
woman or vice-versa and they settle down from a family.
“Mono” means single and “Gamous” means marriage. Example
– marriage among Kondh, Santhal, Oraon, etc.
• Practice is to have only one spouse at one time.

111
• Monogamy is a response to balance sex ratio. As it also
favours almost everyone a chance to have at least one
spouse and also it provides effective sexual gratification
for women and men. It also facilitates relatively easy
rules of inheritance, succession and membership in kin
group.
• Monogamy helps to maintain effective child rearing
procedure and augment close emotional ties between
parents and children.

112
Types of Monogamy

Monogamy is further divided in 2 types:

Serial and non-serial.

i)Serial Monogamy: It is a sub-form of monogamy where
a man gets married to another woman only after the death
of the first wife. He can also go for 3rd, 4th, 5th wife if
the previous wives are dead.

113
ii)Non–Serial Monogamy: It is a sub-form of
monogamy where a man gets married to a woman
and stays with each other till he or she dies.
There is no provision for second marriage.

Serial monogamy pertains to a state where a man

has a series of wives one after the other, but only
one wife at any given point of time.

114
Thus, in the United States where divorce rate is high but
only monogamy is legal, serial monogamy is widely
noticed.

In societies like the Hindu society of India monogamy

pertains to non-serial monogamy where a man has a single
wife throughout his life.
In such societies the divorce rate is rare and as such it is
the preferred norm

115
Polygamy
• It is a form of marriage when the
marriage takes place between more than 2
individuals of opposite sex then it is
known as polygamy. “Poly” means many
and “Gamous” means marriage. It is then
further categorized as: Polygyny and
Polyandry

116
117
Polygyny
It is a sub-form of polygamy in which one man
marries more than one woman at a time and
stay together.
Westermarck was of the opinion that there
were certain basic reasons for the origin or
emergence of Polygyny i.e, enforced celibacy,
earlier aging of females, desire for variety, the
desire for more children, social prestige and
economic necessity.

118
 Further, Polygyny is divided into:

Serial/Sororal Polygyny: The co-wives or the multiple wives of the

man are sisters. Example – Gond, Kharia.

119
Non- serial/ Non-Sororal Polygyny: The
co-wives or the multiple wives of the man are not
sisters

120
Polyandry: It is a sub-form of polygamy in which
one woman gets to marry more than one man at
a time and stay together.

Westermarck advocated certain reasons for

establishment of Polyandry i.e, poverty, brideprice,
population control, disparity in numerical strength
and the spirit of joint family.

121
Fraternal/Adelphic Polyandry: The husbands of
one wife are either brothers or related to each other
through blood. Example – Toda, Khasa

122
Non – Fraternal/ Non- Adelphic Polyandry:
The husbands of one wife are not brothers or are
not related to each other through blood.
Example – Nayars

123
Familial Marriage:
It is kind of polyandry practiced by some communities
in Tibet, where, the husbands of one wife are father and
son.

124
Polygamy
Group Marriage: Group marriage also
known as Cenogamy is that type of
marriage in which a group of men marry a
group of women.
Each man of the male group is considered
to be the husband of every woman of the
female group. Similarly, every woman is
the wife of every man of the male group.

125
This form of marriage is found among
some tribes of New Guinea and Africa.
In India, group marriage is practised by
the Toda Tribe of Nilgiri Hills.

Except on an experimental basis it is an

extremely rare occurrence and may never
have existed as a viable form of
for any society in the world.

126
Polygynandry another variety of polygamy pertains to
a marriage where several men are married to several
women or a man has many wives and a woman has
many husbands at any given time.

Such marriages were prevalent among the Marquesans

of Polynesia and also among the Todas of the Nilgiri
hills and the Khasas of Jaunsar Bawar of India.

127
 Marriage Regulations
All societies have preferences, prescriptions and
proscriptions regarding who may or may not marry
whom.

In some societies these restrictions are subtle,

while in some others, individuals who can or
cannot be married are more explicitly and
specifically defined.

Different forms of marriages are based on rules

governing eligibility.

128
 Preferential and Prescriptive Marriages

Rules prohibiting certain persons as spouses may be

accompanied by rules designating others as particularly
appropriate.

If it is the rule – no matter whether it is sometimes broken –

that a man ought to marry a person in a particular category of
person, this is called a preferred or preferential marriage.

For example, one must marry his/her cross cousin and, if one
would like to have the prescription waived in one’s case,
compensation has to be paid to the losing party.

129
There are many societies in which marriage between first cousins is permitted or even
sought, where there is a rule of lineage exogamy they
must of course be cousin belonging to different lineages.

Since a person derives his lineage membership from a parent of one sex, it is usually
the child of his parent’s siblings of the other sex who becomes his mate.

In this relationship the children of the siblings of opposite marriage are Cross-cousin.

Prescribed or prescriptive marriages are usually with the

matrilateral cross-cousin.

130
Prescribed or prescriptive cross-cousin marriage is most
commonly found in patrilineal societies.

Levi-Strauss has said that preferential mating has for its main
purpose the strengthening of solidarity within a
tribe.

They are often designed to promote inter-familial cordiality by

making certain linkages imperative.

The following are the rules that are found under prescribed or
prescriptive marriage.

131
 RULES OF ENDOGAMY AND EXOGAMY

All societies have prescriptions and proscriptions regarding who

may or may not marry whom.
In some societies these restrictions are subtle, while in some
others, individuals who can or cannot be married
are more explicitly and specifically defined.
Different forms of marriages are based on rules governing
eligibility such as endogamy and
exogamy.

132
 Endogamy

In endogamy a member is required to marry within his own group.

Lewis defines endogamy as “The rule that requires a person to
marry
within a specific social group of which he is a member”.
In the Indian context, the caste is defined as an endogamous group
just as the tribe endogamy. The Gond is a tribal group. In caste, for
instance, a Brahmin would not marry a Rajput.

In the same way, a Gond would not marry a

Santhal. However, there are cases of intercaste and inter-tribal
marriages though such marriages are not the rule.
Where the society is stratified on class lines, a member would
marry within his own class. In this sense membership of class is
endogamous.
133
● Eriksens writes: “In a sense, all human groups are both
endogamous and exogamous to
varying degrees .
● One is expected to marry one’s own kind, but not
someone classified as a close relative and who is not is
naturally,
culturally specified, although the people classified as
parents, children
and siblings in Europe are virtually everywhere seen as
close kin”.
● The views that support endogamy are as follows:

134
People prefer their own group as members of a group show more
or less similar physical characteristics.
(b) A group always wants to keep their human resource potential in
original form. So the members do not want to establish marriage
relation with outsiders.
(c) Conception of high and low rank plays among the groups, which
resists a high-rank group to develop relationship with a low-rank
Group.
(d) Dissimilarity in religion gets differences in norms and values,
belief and practices. So people have to select their mates from
own religious group for maintaining good adjustment.
(e) Geographical barriers between two places often discourage the
group to establish marital relationship because of difficulties in
access.

135
EXOGAMY

Exogamy is the general rule of marriage when a person marries

outside a specific social group of which
he is a member.

In other words, a marriage outside the lineage is a descent

group either from the father’s and
mother’s line which traces its origin from
a common ancestor.

In such a situation it becomes interesting to differentiate

between the close kin and the descent on
lineages. Certainly the size of the group of close kin is smaller. Normally, it
consists of father, children and siblings. Beyond this small group there is a
larger group which consists of descent and lineage and descent group.
Marriage outside this group is exogamy.

136
Among the tribals too there are clans. A clan is a lineage-group. A
Gond, for instance, is not allowed to marry his own clan. The Bhils
of western India have about forty clans.

Normally, a tribal village consists of

one or two clans. In this situation all the members of the village are
brothers and sisters.

Because of this there is the practice of village

exogamy according to which a tribal would not prefer to marry
within his
own village.

137
Westermarck has provided yet another interpretation for exogamy
through an anecdote once when his barber had come to his house.
Westermarck enquired from him, “Are you married”? “No” the barber
replied, Westermarck suggested that he could have married in his
village as there were enough girls.
To this the barber commented: “Oh,
the girls of my village are good for nothing.
I knows them all”.

The statement made by barber shows that it is instinct in man to look

for a girl who generates curiosity. Such a man is considered heroic
who brings a girl from great distance. Such kind of male attitudes also
explain
the prevalence of exogamy.

138
Westermarck gives yet another empirical evidence to support
the practice of exogamy.

In London, there are two schools situated on opposite sides of

the road.

One is a co-educational school while the other one is

exclusively for girls .He found that the boys of the
co-education school often went to the girls’ school in search
of
love and romance.

When they were reminded that there were girls in their own
class and they could very well choose one from among them,
the boys replied: “The girls of our school! We know them all;
they are
rotten”, and hence exogamy.

139
In fact, there are some definite reasons for which the practice of
exogamy has got approval
They are:

(a) A conception of blood relation prevails among the members of

a group. Therefore, marriage within the group members is
considered as marriage between a brother and a sister.

(b) Attraction between a male and female gets lost due to close
relationship in a small group.

(c) There is a popular idea that a great increase of energy and

vigour is possible in the progeny if marriage binds two extremely
distant people who possess no kin relation among them.

140
The Hindus do not select their marriage partner having the
same gotra-name. It is believed that ‘gotra’ denotes a large
group where members originated from a common ancestor.

Similarly we find marriage alliances are not permitted inside

a certain group of tribe. For instance, clan is a subgroup of
tribe that corresponds to ‘gotra’ of Hindus.

By nature clan is exogamous. Sometimes exogamy is

maintained in the territorial level also. A man cannot choose
marriage partners from among the known
girls of his village; he has to marry a girl from other village.

141
 PREFERENTIAL MARRIAGES:

Marriages between kinsfolk are common in primitive

societies. In Australia, it is a common practice that a man
must marry a kinswoman since he is related by bond of
kinship. According to their tradition many of the primitive
societies prefer certain relatives who as mates. These
preferential mating may be classified as follows

(1) Cross-cousin marriage.

(2) Parallel-cousin marriage.
(3) Levirate.
(4) Sororate.
(5) Filial inheritance.
142
 CROSS COUSIN MARRIAGE:
It is a kind of marriage which means marriage of a man with either his
mother’s brother’s daughter or his father’s sister’s daughter. This is
popular and orthodox type of marriage among the tribal communities
of India.
But marriage with mother’s brother’s daughter is more common.
This type of marriage is found to be prevalent among most of the
tribes of North-East India such as the Garos, the Khasis, the Kukis, the
Karbis, the Noctes, the Nagas etc.
The Gonds, the Oraons, the Baigas and some other tribes of the rest of
India practise this type of marriage
.
Virtually all the tribes of North and Central Melanesia practise cross-
cousin marriage. It is also practised in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Australia,
Polynesia, South and East Africa, Siberia etc. There are two types of
cross-cousin marriages
(a) Symmetrical and (b) Asymmetrical.

143
● When both mother’s brother’s daughter and father’s sister’s daughter are
acceptable as a mate, it is called a Symmetrical cross-cousin marriage.

It is also termed as bilateral cross-cousin marriage. In Assam

symmetrical cross-cousin marriages are prevalent. Similarly the
Dravidians practise symmetrical cross-cousin marriage.

● Asymmetrical cross-cousin marriage is the one according to which,

marriage is preferred with either mother’s brother’s daughter or father’s
sister’s daughter and not with both.

● That is if one marries mother’s brother’s daughter, he cannot marry father’

sister’s daughter and vice versa.

● Marriage with mother’s brother’s daughter is called Matrilateral

cross-cousin marriage and that with father’s sister’s daughter is termed
as patrilateral cross-cousin marriage.

The Trobriand Islanders of Melanesia permit marriage only with

father’s sister’s daughter.

144
The Margins of Australia and the Miwok of California practise asymmetrical
cross-cousin marriage. Cross-cousin marriage is the only form of exogamy under dual organization of
a society.

Cross-cousin marriages are often devised as a balance against the high bride price, the
bargaining of price is often minimized among the familiar kin.
Moreover, the amount lost in paying bride-price for getting a bride is regained in due course
when a girl from
his family has to be given in marriage to the same family.

145
● The simple implication here is that the bride-price paid for
A’s marriage would be returned to his family when a daughter would
marry her mother’s brother’s son.

The Gonds of Madhya Pradesh express mother’s brother’s daughter as

‘dudhlautawa’, i.e., return of milk.
The rules of prescribed marriage mean that these will be necessarily
followed and these will be adhered to so rigidly that there will be no exception possible.

The more a society developed, the more will be difficult to cope with the system and one
may like to take concession.

146
PARALLEL-COUSIN MARRIAGE:

It means the marriage of man with either his father’s

brother’s daughter or
mother’s sister’s daughter.
It is prevalent among the Semitic Arabs and also found
amongst the Muslim of India.

It is also practised by the Riangs of Tripura. It has been said

that marriages with close
relatives lead to fewer number of issues

That is why marriage of this kind is discarded in many

societies.
parallel-cousin marriage:
147
In our country this type of marriage among the Muslims, women traditionally
inherit the property, perhaps to control the
property devolution, they preferred
parallel-cousin marriage.

Again, among the Bedouins of Arab, this type of marriage

is very popular. The Bedouins is a nomadic people. Such marriages help to keep
their males within the band and so manpower is protected for fighting and
other purpose of defence.

Usually in a community, where cross-cousin marriage is allowed,

parallel-cousin marriage is forbidden. A man maintains formal as well as respect
full relationship with his female parallel-cousin. Joking relationship prevails
only among the cross-cousin.
Significance of joking relationship lies in the possibility of marriage, whereas
respectful
relationship indicates rigidity of the incest taboo. In most of the societies
of the world parallel-cousin marriage is prohibited.

148
LEVIRATE (Latin-Levir means husband’s brother)

When a widow marries her brother-in-law (deceased husband’s

brother) this system of remarriage is known as Levirate. This is practised
by the natives of Australia, the Biblical Hebrews, the Incas, the Muslims
of India, the Kukis, the Lushais, the Nagas, the Karbis, the Vedas etc. In

patrilineal societies, after the death of a man, his heir is his brother who
not only succeeds to his status and responsibilities, also inherits all the
possession of the deceased brother, including his wife or wives. Levirate
consists of two types, Junior Levirate and Senior Levirate.

149
Junior Levirate:

When the younger brother marries the wife of his

deceased elder brother, it is known as junior
levirate.

This is found to have been practised by

Australians; the Biblical Hebrews, the
Incas, the Muslims of India the Kukis, the
Lushais, the Nagas, the Karbis and the
Veddas etc.

150
Senior Levirate:
When marriage takes place between the widow and elder brother
of the deceased husband, it is called
Senior Levirate.

The Bhumijas of Orissa,the Hos, the Panions (south India), the

Kirghiz, the Turks, the Mongoloids etc.
practise this system of marriage.

The custom of Levirate is regarded more as a

duty than as a right.

The nearest relative is obliged to care for the widow left with
children, land and herd. In some
societies the children of the new couple are regarded socially as the
children of the dead man.

151
SORORATE: (Latin, soror means sister)

In sororate a bereaved husband marries his deceased wife’s

sister. That is, a girl marries her deceased sister’s husband. In
some
cases it is mandatory and in others, it is performed on
permissive basis.
Like Levirate, Sororate is also of two types:
(i) Senior sororate and
(ii) Junior sororate.

152
Senior sororate:

When the bereaved

husband marries his deceased wife’s elder
sister, it is called Senior Sororate and it is
very limited in its distribution.

153
Junior sororate:

When the bereaved husband marries his deceased wife’s

younger sister, the system of marriage is
called the Junior Sororate, which is
prevalent in many parts of the world.

Hindus, Muslims, and many tribes of India

are found to practise sororate.
It is practised by virtually every tribe of North America
outside the Pueblo area and is found widely
distributed throughout the world.

154
FILIAL INHERITANCE:
When a brother or a son is
permitted to inherit the secondary
wives of the dead man, it is called
Filial Inheritance.

The Incas are found to have observed this custom.

In case of the son, he generally
inherits the wives of his dead father
other than his uterine mother.

This is practised by the Sema Nagas.

Filial inheritance is possible only where there is polygamous marriage.

It also helps to keep the woman in the family. In this context we should know Sororate is sometimes
mistaken for Sororal Polygyny. Under the true sororate a man is married to one sister at a time.

155
But, in sororal polygyny a man is not required to
wait for the death of his wife to marry her
younger sister.

He asks her hand when she comes of marriageable age.

In this way he can marry several sisters at a time. High rate of
bride price generally leads to difficulties in securing mates,
which results in sororate marriage.

Younger sister of the deceased girl is given to her

husband as a compensation for his loss. Both levirate and
sororate signify interfamilial obligation and cordiality.

156
that, in a few societies son was found to inherit
father’s all wives, except his own mother.

This is known as filial widow inheritance.

Example of this remarriage is found among

the medieval Mongols. The Sema Nagas also
exhibits the same practice.

157
Preferential and prescriptive marriages, as is clear by the title, are
the marriage customs in which some males or females are preferred for
establishing matrimonial relationships.
In such cases the marriage is a means for uniting two families for welfare of both. The
preference is clearly based upon certain advantages concerning new relationship and
adjustment and respect in the new family.

The rules of preferential and prescriptive mating are however customary and not written, it is
obvious that these preferential or prescribed forms of mating limit the number of
possible marital linkages.

Nonetheless, there distribution is universal.

158
Marriage Payments

Bride Wealth And Dowry

Payments made from the bride’s side to the groom's family is known as dowry
and payments from the groom’s parents to the bride’s parents is known as bride
price or bride wealth

• The marriage payments or nature of gifts can be in cash or kind.

159
The general pattern that bride price are more
prevalent in primitive, tribal, and nomadic
societies.

Women generally join the household of their

groom at the time of marriage, bride price is
typically considered to be the payment a husband
owes to a bride’s parents for the right to her
labour and reproductive capabilities.

160
The amount of bride price required has usually been
rather uniform throughout society, where the size is linked
directly to the number of rights which are transferred and
not to the wealth level of the families involved.

• The burden of marriage payments falls primarily on the

groom’s family and bride prices are paid.

161
 Dowry

Dowry is also viewed as a daughter’s inheritance received

at the time of marriage. In stratified societies the wealth of
the couple becomes important and a daughter gets an
inheritance (as dowry) to ensure the status of her
household.
In timing of inheritances, the crucial factor is how the
son’s efforts affect the parental estate.
Making the son the residual claimant on his parents’
property by giving the daughter her inheritance at the time
of marriage reduces the incentive problem.

162
• A dowry gives a woman the security of knowing that after she is married
she can still enjoy her usual lifestyle.

• Usually, in many cases a woman who can afford to pay more dowry is
able to find herself a rich husband, while a woman who cannot give
dowry is able to only find herself a poor husband. In Europe and Asia's
dowry payment is mainly found among agricultural communities, it is also
practised in Africa.

163
• The burden of marriage payments falls primarily on the bride’s
family.

• Harassment, killing of women, female foeticide, infanticide,

less educated women.

• Dowry has become a social evil in India.

164
 Tribal Marriage

1. Marriage by negotiation
2. Marriage by exchange
3. Marriage by service
4. Marriage by probation
5. Marriage by capture
6. Marriage by intrusion
7. Marriage by trial
8. Marriage by Elopement
9. Marriage by mutual consent

165
 Marriage by Negotiation

Found in most of the simple societies like

the Ituri of Congo region in Africa, Siwai
of Solomon Islands, the aboriginals of
Australia, Andamanese of Andaman
Islands and also in complex societies like
the Hindu society of India, China, Japan,
Europe and America.
166
 In such a system either the girl’s family or the boy’s
family as per the custom puts forward a proposal for
marriage through a third party or Mediator.

This third party is generally someone known to

both the would be bride and groom’s family.

In Indian context it is also known as Arranged

marriage.

167
Marriage by exchange

• Herein, such a system the bride price or bride wealth,

whichever is applicable to the society, is waived off by
marriage through exchange.

This happens generally if there are daughters or sisters for

exchange for the grooms. This helps in not only forming an
alliance but also strengthens the bond between groups.

168
• Examples of such exchange is seen is societies
of Australia, Melanesia, Tive of Nigeria and also
in the some of the tribes in India-Muria Gonds,
Baiga of Bustar and the Koya and the Saora of
Andhra Pradesh.

169
Marriage by service

Found among some of the tribes in North East India.

• Some tribals have solved the problem of higher bride price

which the economically weaker tribal youths cannot afford
to.

If the bride groom is unable to pay the bride price, he has

to serve in his would be father-in-law’s house as a servant
and marry the girl after the lapse of specific period.

170
During the period the boy works in the house of the would be father-inlaw
without any payment and equalizes the bride price by providing his free
services.

• Gond and Baiga practice this type of marriage. Among the Naga’s of North
East India the bride wealth forms a part of the marriage negotiation and if the
groom’s party is not able to pay the bride wealth then the compensation is
through service. The boy works for the bride’s family and only when the brides
family is satisfied that the marriage is solemnised.

171
Marriage by probation

The consent of the brides parents along with the girls consent
wherein the groom stays at the brides place on trial basis.
Herein, the groom is allowed to stay with the girl so that they
both get to know each others temperament and if the girl likes
the boy the marriage takes place, else the boy has to pay
compensation in cash to the girl’s family.

• Among the Kukis of Manipur of India such a marriage is

a practised norm
172
Marriage by capture

• The capture can be a physical capture or a ceremonial one.

• Among the tribes of Yanomamo of Venezuela, Northern Brazil and

the Nagas of Nagaland in India during raids the men from one village
capture and take home females of the other village and marry them
as wives. Such a situation is ascribed as physical capture.

173
• In ceremonial capture a boy desiring to marry a girl propositions
her in a community fair or festival and makes his intentions
towards her known by either holding her hand or marking her
with vermillion as in the case of Kharia and the Birhor of Bihar

174
Marriage by intrusion

Reverse way of marriage by capture

This type of marriage wherein a girl forces her way into the boy’s house
and forces him to accept her as his spouse. Such marriages are seen in
Birhor and Ho of Bihar and also among the Kamars of Madhya Pradesh.

175
• Girl forcibly thrusts herself onto him and stays with him, despite the
non-acceptance of the male and his family. In the process she is subjected to
humiliating treatment and refusal of food and often physical torture.

But in spite of such humiliation, disrespect or torture if she sticks to the

marriage and stays there she is accepted and the marriage is performed.
The Juang, Kondh, Bhuiyan practice this types of marriage. But such marriages
are widely reported from the Birhor and Ho tribes of Chhotanagpur region.

176
Marriage by trial

A process in which the groom has to prove his strength and valour while
claiming his bride. In the two great Indian epics Mahabharata and the
Ramayana we have examples of how Draupadi and Sita were claimed by
Arjuna and Lord Rama after they proved their skills in the swayamvar (a
gathering where the eligible males are invited to prove their strength to
claim the bride).

177
Such marriages by trail are still found in many societies in
India and some of the examples are the Bhils of Rajasthan
and the Nagas of Nagaland.

178
Marriage by elopement

• Among many Indian tribes the unmarried boys and girls stay in
dormitory and are often involved in sexual relationship by coming in
contact with each other.

If the parents do not give consent, to the love of the boy and the
girl for marriage, then they flee away to some other place without
any information to the parents.

179
Such delinquent couple may, later on, be received back by their
parents.
• In this type of marriage, bride price is easily avoided. Juang,
Santal, Bhuinya, Kondha and Saora practice this type of marriage

180
Tribal Marriage: DIVORCE

• Divorce or the dissolution of marriage is practiced in the tribal communities.

But one cannot divorce the other whimsically or at will. Some rules and
regulations persist in this regard.

Murdock has mentioned a number of recognized grounds for divorce, such as

incompatibility, adultery, diseases, barrenness or sterility, impotency, sexual
unwillingness, laziness, economic incapacity, quarrelsome, mistreatment, etc.

181
Since the Indian tribes do not consider marriage as a religious sacrament, the
process and procedure of divorce is rather simple. In most of the cases of
marital disaster the separation occurs with the mutual consent of both the
parties.

•By customary practice, the divorce cases are generally decided by the tribal
council and performed in a public place in the presence of elderly villagers

182
Value Addition

183
Marriage among the Tribals in India

Marriage is a social institution and marriage and family are

complementary concepts. As such marriage is found in almost all
societies. Without marriage one cannot think of a family.”Marriage
is,” say Beals and Hoijer, “a set of cultural patterns to sanction
parenthood and to provide a stable background for the care and
rearing of children.”

184
The Tribal Marriages can be classified into the following types:

1. Monogamy:

In this type of marriage one man married to one woman or one

woman marries one man. The husband and wife may or may not be
(usually not) related to each other before marriage, most of the
Indian tribes practise monogamy.

185
2. Polygamy:

It is the marriage of one person with more than one person

of the opposite sex.
It has two subtypes:

(a) Polygyny.
(b) Polyandry.

186
a) Polygyny:

In this type of marriage one man marries to several women.

The husband and wives may or may not be related to each

other before marriage. Wives may be related among
themselves.

187
When the wives are related to each other as sisters it is called
as sororal polygyny. If they are not related as sisters, it is called
non-sororal polygyny.

Polygyny is found among the Naga tribes, the Gond, the

Baiga and the Toda. It is also found among the Lushai,
Juang and the Kondh.

188
Polygyny is practiced among the tribals due to several reasons.
First of all, it is practiced due to the imbalance of the sex ratio,
where women outnumber men.

The second reason is that the practice of polygyny accords

higher status and prestige. This is the reason why the tribal
chiefs keep many wives. Thirdly the tribals like the Lushai or
the Gonds practise polygyny. So that a number of wives and
their children will provide the husband with free and reliable
labour.
189
Merits of Polygyny:

Polygyny has the following merits:

(i) It facilitates better division of labour in the family.

(ii) It ensures the adequate sexual satisfaction of the husband.
(iii) It reproduces a number of strong children born to the
wives of physically strong men.

190
The following are the demerits, of polygyny:
(i) It makes the family a centre of quarrel and spoils family
peace.
(ii) The status of women suffers a serious setback in a
polygynous family due to the presence of a number of wives.
(iii) Children are not properly looked after in the polygynous
family.

191
(iv) It lacks in better understanding, fellow feeling, sympathy, love
and affection among the co-wives.

(v) It is also disadvantageous from the economic point of view.

(vi) It snatches away the conjugal love and psychological satisfaction

from women.

(vii) It causes jealousy and suspicion and family instability due to lack
of proper understanding among spouses and offspring’s.
(b) Polyandry:

In polyandry type of marriage, one woman married to

several men. The wife and the husbands may or may not be
related to each other before marriage. The husbands may be
related among themselves.

If the husbands are all brothers, then this marriages is called

fraternal polyandry.
If the husbands are not related to each other and share the
same wife, it is called non-fraternal polyandry. Polyandry as a
form of marriage is very much restricted and is confined to a
few tribal communities, mostly along the foothills of the
Himalayas.

The Kota, the Khasa, the Toda, the Ladani Bota and the Khasi
practise this type of marriage. There is evidence to establish
the fact that some pre-Dravidian and Dravidin tribes practise
Polyandry.
Fraternal Polyandry (Adelphic):

The Todas of Nilgiri hills and the Khasa practices fraternal

polyandry. The elder brother marries, wife and according
to this practice of Adelphic, she becomes the wife of all the
brothers.

She is shared by all the brothers of a family for satisfaction of

sexual urge. The minor brothers of the family become her
husband after being major. But the elder brother becomes the
father of all her children.
Non-Fraternal Polyandry (Non-Adelphic):

In this form of marriage a woman marries many men

who are not necessarily brothers. She satisfies their
sexual desire. By turn, going from one husband to
another.

The husbands may either live in one place or in different

places.
During her living with one husband, that particular husband
enjoys her exclusively for that particular period and others
do not have their right at that time.

The Nayar women practise non- fraternal polyandry and

constitute matriarchal family.
Polyandry is practiced due to several reasons. The
imbalance in sex ratio, less number of females of
marriageable age is another reason.

The poor practices polyandry whereas the rich can afford to

practise polygyny.
Fraternal polyandry is often preferred to keep the family
property undivided because, it does not allow the brothers to
marry separate wives and live with them in separate
households.

Higher Bride price may be considered as another cause of

polyandry. When the husbands are unable to pay the bride
price individually, they may prefer polyandry to monogamy.
Bigamy:
In Mysore, the Medara and Holiya tribes practise
bigamy type of marriage wherein a male is allowed to
marry two women at a time. The co-wives are related as
sisters.

Preference & Prohibition in Tribal Marriage:

All societies have rule and restrictions about whom one may
or may not marry.
This is referred to as the system of prohibition or
encouragement or preference of the choice of male in
marriage.

Madan & Majumdar write that “All over India, and in

other parts of the world as well, we come across rules
laying down prohibitions, preferences and prescriptions
in deciding the form of marriage.”
There are certain categories of relatives who come
within the prohibitory degree of marital
relationship. There are also some other relatives
with whom sexual relationship is prohibited.

“A Taboo on sexual relationship between closely

related kin like parents and children and between
siblings is universal.
An extension of this “nuclear prohibition” is found
everywhere. Therefore among several tribal communities
we find the practice of marrying outside the family, clan,
village etc. Violation of this restriction is seriously dealt
with.

The practice of marrying outside one’s own family clan,

village or group is called as Exogamy.
Among the Indian tribes we also find another peculiar
practice of marrying within one’s own group. This marriage
within one’s own group is known as Endogamy.

The Victorian Anthropologist MacLennan, had coined these

two terms, which simply meant marrying in and marrying
out.
) Family Exogamy:
Marriage outside the family.

(b) Clan exogamy:

Marriage outside the clan.

(c) Village Exogamy:

Marriage outside the village. The practice of clan exogamy is
widely followed among the Indian tribals like Gond, the Baiga, the
Ho, the Korwa, the Khasi, the Nagadsoon. The Munda tribe of
Chhotanagpur region practise village exogamy.
Tracing the cause of Exogamy, Audrey Richards has pointed
out that “in hunting and food gathering societies, food is
difficult to obtain.

Women and children are generally a burden in such

societies, particularly those which rely more on hunting.
This could have led to female infanticide, which in
consequence, would lead to female scarcity.
This must have led to marriage by capture, and the next
step-since such capture had to be effected from outside the
tribe to exogamy.

Thus food scarcity may be, historically speaking a probable

cause of exogamy.”
This may be explained as the cause of exogamy. According
to Malinowski the strong sense of incestuous feeling and the
very elaborate rules for the prevention of incest may lead to
exogamy.

Endogamy:
Majumdar and Madan say that the practice of marrying
within one’s own tribe or very rarely the clan is called
endogamy.
Thus, mainly, we find two types of endogamy:

(a) Clan endogamy—Marriage within the clan.

(b) Tribe endogamy — Marriage within the tribe.

The Todas of Nilgiri Hills have two main clans such as
Tartharol and the Teivaliol.

These clans are endogamous groups, but their subdivisions

and sibs practise exogamy. Likewise the Bhils have two
endogamous groups such as-the Uyale Bhil and the Mele
Bhil.
Most of the tribes are clan exogamous but phratry and
tribe-endogamous.

However, now-a-days, some sophisticated tribes in India

like the Gond, the Bhil and the Santhal have broken down
the barriers of endogamy and have started marrying with the
lower castes, for their incorporation into the Hindu castes.
A number of causes may be given in support of the
practice of endogamy:

(a) Universal fear of the stronger, unknown and the novel-

Generally the tribals are afraid of the neighbor’s witchcraft
and sorcery. The Korwa tribe practices endogamy
particularly on account of that reason.
(b) Territorial and Linguistic factors-Territorial and
linguistic factors “impose limits on the communication of
thoughts and persons (Spouses) between various groups.”

(c) Desire to preserve the socio-cultural identity-Each tribal

group possesses its own distinctive socio-cultural identity,
sharing enough thought and action pattern. Which they want
to preserve through the practice of endogamy.
Preferential Marriages:

In certain cases there is a prescription expressed for

establishing martial ties with a particular kin or
preferences designed to promote inter-familiar cordiality
by making certain linkages imperative. Such marriages
are known as preferential marriages.
The tribes in India practise the following types of
preferential marriages:

(a) Cousin marriage.

(i) Cross cousin marriage.
(ii) Parallel cousin marriage.

(b) Levirate
(i) Junior Levirate.
(ii) Senior Levirate.
(c) Sororate.
Cousin Marriage:

The Gond, the Kharia, the Oraon, the Khasi, and the Kadar
practise cousin marriage.

The cousin marriages can be sub- divided into:

(i) Cross-cousin marriage and

(ii) parallel cousin marriage.
household”The marriage between mother’s brother’s
(Maternal uncle’s) children and father’s sister’s (paternal
aunt’s) children is called as cross cousin marriage.

Majumdar and Madan hold that “cross-cousin marriage as a

form of exogamy, the only form of exogamy under dual
organisation, is often explained to be a device for avoiding
payment of a high bride price and also for maintaining
property in the .
Cross Cousin marriage is found among different tribes
in southern India. The Gonds of Madhya Pradesh
practise cross-cousin marriage and call it;
‘dudhlautawa’ or the ‘return of milk’.

This is called so because the bride price paid by the

husband for his wife comes back to his own family
through the marriage of his daughter with the son of
his wife’s brother.
Marrying one’s father’s brother’s child or mother’s sister’s
child is called as parallel cousin marriage.

The main purpose of preferential mating, according to

Levi-Strauss is to strengthen the solidarity of a tribal group.
Levirate:
Sometimes, preferential marriages also aim at solidifying
the inter-family unity. If a man dies, his wife is inherited by
the brother of the deceased husband.

This practice of being actual or potential mate to one’s

husbands brother is called levirate.
The custom of Levirate is found among several tribes like
Santal, Ho, Saora, Bhuinya, Munda etc. Marriage of the
widow with the deceased husband’s elder brother is called
senior Levirate.

But when she marries to the younger brother of the dead

husband, it is called as junior Levirate.
Sororate:
The practice of being actual or potential mate to one’s
wife’s sisters is called sororate. Majumdar and Madan holds
that “when several sisters are simultaneously or potentially,
the spouses of the same man the practice is called sororate.

The death of a spouse is compensated by supplying a new

spouse, generally a younger brother of the deceased”.
The custom of Sororate is found among the tribal
communities where the practice of bride-price is prevalent.

Sororate also recognizes marriage as a tie between two

families and lays emphasis on the acceptance of inter-
familiar obligations.
Positive sanction in Tribal Marriage:

The following types of marriage in the tribal societies are

accorded positive sanction:

(a) Tribe endogamy.

(b) Clan exogamy.
(c) Preferential Mating.
The tribe exogamy, clan endogamy (incest) are looked down
upon, pre-marital or post-marital sexual relationship is not
uncommon among tribal societies in India Indulgences in this
kind of sexual activities is possible even without the displeasure
of the society because pre-marital chastity is not stressed in
marriages.

The tribes living in the central India do not view pre-marital

relationship seriously unless that leads to pregnancy. If it results
in pregnancy, the male partner is compelled to marry the
pregnant girl.
In the Bastar district of Madhya Pradesh, the Muria Gonds
allow the bachelors and Maiden to sleep in a common
dormitory. They are free to indulge in pairing off in the
dormitory.

The Oraons, the Khaddi, and the Hos indulge in pairing off
activities on important festivals like Magha-parab, among the
Konyak Nagas a girl may indulge in pre-marital sex till she
becomes a mother. The Khas allow pre- marital sex but strictly
prohibit any extra-marital sexual relationship for the wives.
2. 5 KINSHIP

227
Whom do you consider part of your family? How many mothers do
you have? Could you or would you marry your cousin? Each of these
questions asks us to consider how our societies structure kinship.

Families reflect the social and cultural contexts in which they are
formed.
Kinship can be defined as a network which
encompasses all relations of Consanguinity and
Marriage alliance. Kinship is the social
recognition of the bonds a person share with his
blood relatives and those who are related
through marriage ties. Such related people are
called as ‘kins’.
• A kinship system is the structured system of different
relationships where individuals are bound together by complex
interlocking and ramifying ties.

• Study of kinship is very useful to understand the elements of

social organization.

According to Radcliffe Brown, W.H.R. Rivers, Kroeber; they

mentioned that there is a high correlation between social
organization and kin terminology. Also, according to Raymond
Firth, Kinship is the road on which one learns throughout the
life.
• Significance of Kinship in pre-industrial society is more
pervasive and systematic than in modern industrial society.
Kinsmen play important roles in social, economic and political
spheres.

231
W.H.R. Rivers (1924) defines Kinship as the “social
recognition of biological ties”.

A.R.Radcliffe Brown (1950) defines Kinship as “a social

relationship based on descent”.
Evans-Pritchard, Meyer Fortes, Lucy Mair and several
anthropologists Kinship is defined as a relationship based on
culturally defined principle of consanguinity.

Claude Levi Strauss as well as Louis Dumont defines Kinship as a

totality of relationship governed by the rules of consanguinity and
affinity.
According to Miller, Kinship refers solely on
the relationships based on descent and
marriage.
Howard says that Kinship means “social
relation based on cultural recognition by
descent and marriage.

234
Rlys Williams defines Kinship as “socially defined and
affined relationships that link individual in order to
provide continent between and within generations which
also serve in important ways to regulate and maintain
social order”

235
One of the earliest studies of kinship was
completed by Lewis Henry Morgan
(1818–1881), an amateur American
anthropologist, in the mid-nineteenth century.

Lewis Henry Morgan

236
Intrigued by the cultural diversity of the
Haudenosaunee living in upstate New York,
Morgan began to document differences in
kinship terminology between cultural groups,
based on historical accounts and surveys from
missionaries working in other geographic
locations.

237
In Systems of Consanguinity and
Affinity of the Human Family (1871),
he defined three of the primary kinship
systems that we still recognize today,
identifying each with either descriptive
kinship terms, such as “mother’s
sister’s son,” or classificatory terms,
which group diverse relationships
under a single term, such as “cousin.”
Although Morgan used different names, today
we know these three systems as lineal kinship,
bifurcate merging kinship, and generational
kinship.

The publication of his book marked the

beginning of kinship studies in anthropology.
() Lewis Henry Morgan described the diversity of
kinship structures and terms across cultures.
(right) Bronislaw Malinowski researched the ways
that kinship functions as a social institution.

(credit: (left) “Lewis Henry Morgan” by

Kelson/Rochester Historical Society/Wikimedia
Commons, CC-PD-Mark (right) credit:
“Bronislaw Malinowski” by Library of the
London School of Economics and Political
Science/Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)
After Morgan’s research, anthropologists began a more
methodical examination of kinship. W.H.R. Rivers
(1864–1922) introduced the genealogical method in
fieldwork in a 1910 article, “The Genealogical Method
in Anthropological Query.”
Using a series of basic questions
about parents, grandparents, and
siblings, Rivers approached the study
of kinship as a systematic inquiry into
the social structure of societies,
seeking to understand how different
cultures define family and family
roles.
Although he focused on small-scale
societies, he argued that investigating
kinship was a good way of establishing
rapport with people and opening them up
to sharing more detailed information
about their lives regardless of the size of
the society.
Today, ethnographers continue to use a
form of the genealogical method, through
either face-to-face interviews or surveys,
especially when doing fieldwork in
small-scale societies.

In this way, the ethnographer seeks to

understand the sociocultural relationships
in society and the ways that family affects
those relationships.
In the 1920s, British anthropologists
Bronislaw Malinowski (1884–1942)
and A.R. Radcliffe-Brown
(1881–1955) expanded the
understanding of kinship as a social
institution by studying the ways that
kinship intersected with other
institutions in society, such as
inheritance, education, politics, and
subsistence.
Malinowski did fieldwork in the Trobriand
Islands of Papua New Guinea, a matrilineal
society where descent and inheritance were
traced solely through mothers and
grandmothers.

In his work Argonauts of the Western Pacific

(1922), he examined the functional role of
kinship in Trobriand society, exploring how
it works with other social institutions to
address basic needs.
Expanding kinship exploration beyond its
early beginnings as a study of linguistic
terminology only, Malinowski (1930, 19-20)
says, “Kinship terminologies . . . are the
most active and the most effective
expressions of human relationship,
expressions which start in early childhood,
which accompany human intercourse
throughout life, which embody all the most
personal, passionate, and intimate
sentiments of a man or woman.”
He saw kinship as a driving force connecting
individuals to each other by means of
enduring bonds.

A. R. Radcliffe-Brown also focused on

kinship as a social institution in his study The
Andaman Islanders (1922), but instead of
looking at the function of kinship,
Radcliffe-Brown examined the roles and
statuses created for an individual by the
practice of kinship.
Through these early studies in kinship,
anthropologists began to better
understand the diverse ways that
cultural groups think about things like
family and community.

Kinship relationships determine both

rights and obligations to other people.
These connections contribute to the way a
society functions and resolve problems
associated with everyday life.

In small-scale societies with low

population density, kinship identity plays a
significant role in most of the life choices
an individual will have, while in
larger-scale societies, kinship plays a
smaller and more limited role.
In all societies, however, kinship
provides guidelines on how to
interact with certain other individuals
and the expectations that are
associated with these relationships.

Cultures call attention to kinship

relationships through the way people
speak to and refer to one another.
Anthropologists sort this kinship
terminology into two categories:
terms of reference and terms of
address. `
Terms of reference are the words that are used
to describe the relationship between individuals,
such as “mother,” “grandfather,” or “father’s
brother.”

Terms of address are the terms people use to

speak directly to their kin, such as “Mom,”
“Uncle,” and “Grandpa.”
Sometimes the same word is used as
reference and address: “This is my
father” and “Hello, Father.”

These terms are important because they

designate relationships between
individuals that carry responsibilities and
privileges that structure human societies.
Kinship is a cultural by universal. It is the fundamental
relationship between human beings. Kinship relationships
arise out of two different kinds of bonds that cement people
together.
254
Kinship systems serve several critical functions in society:
1. Social Structure:
○ Kinship determines the social hierarchy and organization within a
community.
○ It defines roles, responsibilities, and expectations for individuals
based on their kin relationships.

2. Identity and Belonging:

○ Kinship provides a sense of identity and belonging, helping
individuals understand their place within the social fabric.
○ It fosters a sense of continuity and connection to past and future
generations.

255
1. Economic Support:
○ Kin groups often share economic resources and provide mutual
support.
○ This includes sharing of food, shelter, and other necessities,
especially in times of need.

2. Cultural Transmission:
○ Kinship is a primary means of transmitting cultural values,
beliefs, and practices from one generation to the next.
○ It plays a crucial role in the socialization process, teaching
individuals about their cultural heritage.

256
Generally associated with the structuralist
anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, the theory argues
that in kinship systems, inheritance and the continuation
of the vertical line (descent) are less important than the
horizontal links (alliances) and relationships of
reciprocity and exchange which are brought about by
marriage between different groups.
ALLIANCE

There is one theory which talks about the general methods

of exchange. This theory is known as the alliance theory
which has its origins in Claude LeviStrauss's Elementary
Structures of Kinship (1949). Incest taboo is one reason
that has given rise to exogamy. Claude Levi-Strauss talked
of mainly two models of marriage exchange i.e. elementary
structure and complex structure.
ALLIANCE THEORY-CLS

Cladeu Levi-Strauss: Earlier society was in disorder &

anarchy. With time it became ordered due to incest taboo,
dualism of mind and then they decided to live at peace with
each other. To ensure peace in the society certain mechanisms
were devised c/a exchange.
CLS said exchange is the 1st principle of alliance. There are 3
basic principle of exchange:

1. Exchange of Goods and Services

2. Exchange of ideas
3. Exchange of men & women.
ALLIANCE

The elementary structure: It talks about the positive

marriage rules that accounts for whom should a person
marry. The marriageable category is defined by the kin
status. The elementary structure talks mainly about two
exchanges:
• Restricted Exchange: This exchange takes place between
two groups for example one group is wife giver; the other is
wifetaker. The exchange of women takes place between
these two groups only.

• Generalized Exchange: It involves various groups and the

exchange takes place in a circular fashion.

270
• Restricted Exchange: This exchange takes place between
two groups for example one group is wife giver; the other is
wifetaker. The exchange of women takes place between
these two groups only.

• Generalized Exchange: It involves various groups and the

exchange takes place in a circular fashion.

271
The complex structure: It talks about the negative
marriage rules. Here the choice of marriage partner is
based on nonkin criteria.

• The positive and negative rules of marriage can be

understood in Indian context.

272
In Northern India the marriage rules can be called as
negative rules, as there is prohibition on marrying cousin up
to several degrees.

One cannot marry a person up to seven degrees on father’s

side and up to five degrees on mother’s side. Clan exogamy
and hypergamy is practised.

One has to avoid his own gotra also while marrying.

• The complex structure: Here the choice of marriage
partner is based on closed kin criteria.

• While in Southern India, the rules of marriage are positive

as one can marry his elder sister’s daughter, he can also
marry his father’s sister’s daughter. Here the family which
takes a daughter returns back a daughter to the former.
Types of Kinship Bonds
Kinship relationships arise from two primary kinds of bonds:
1. Consanguineal (Blood) Bonds:
○ These are biological ties based on shared ancestry.
○ Examples include relationships between parents and children,
siblings, and extended family members like cousins.
○ Consanguineal bonds are crucial for understanding inheritance,
succession, and familial obligations.

275
1. Affinal (Marriage) Bonds:
○ These are ties formed through marriage, creating
connections between families and kin groups.
○ Examples include relationships between spouses,
in-laws, and step-relations.
○ Affinal bonds facilitate alliances, social cohesion, and
the extension of social networks.

276
.

277
Consanguineal kinship (it forms the family of orientation).

278
Affinal kinship (it forms the family of procreation).

279
• Relationships based on the consanguineal bond of birth are
called descent and relationships based on the affinal bond of sex
and marriage is called alliance.

• The mutually conditioned interplay between the two constitutes

kinship.

280
• Lineal kinship or the direct line of consanguinity is the
relationship between persons, one of whom is a descendant of the
other. Examples are like from father to son, grandfather to
grandson etc.

In a patrilineal society, people tend to remember their ancestry for

several generations like in the case of Tallensi of Ghana sometimes
they could trace the lineal descent upto fourteen generations.
Collateral kinship is the relationship between people who
descend from a common ancestor but are not in a direct line.

Examples are the relation between two brothers, sibling’s

children, cousin to cousin etc.
Ego plays a vital role. Ego is the
respondent through whom a
relationship is traced. It can be a
male or a female.

283
Abbreviations used for different relatives studied through genealogy are
as follows:
F: Father
M: Mother
B: Brother
Z: Sister
S: Son
D: Daughter
H: Husband
W: Wife
FB, MB, FZ, MZ, FBS, FBD, MBS, MZS

284
Universal Principles of Kinship:
Robin Fox gave four fundamental principles of
kinship that are applied universally. These principles
are as follows:
1. The women have children.
2. The men impregnate the women.
3. The men usually exercise control over property.
4.Primary kins do not mate with each other i.e. Incest
taboo.

285
Genealogy:
Genealogy can be described as the study of family
and lineages.
With the help of genealogy the ancestors of an
individual can be traced. W.H. Rivers tried to
demonstrate the genealogical method of
anthropological enquiry.
Genealogical studies reveal the principles of social
organization in a community.

286
A kin term or kinship term or relationship term designates a
particular category of kin or relative regarded as a single
semantic unit. It can be conceptualized formally as containing
one or more kin types, though empirically it will be applied to
a number of different individuals occupying different
genealogical positions. These are essentially two different
analytical concepts.
For example, the English kin term 'uncle' designates a
category within the indigenous English kinship terminology,
this category including the kin types FB and MB, and very
often FZH and MZH too.

287
These kin types represent the genealogical specifications that emerge when
the meaning of the indigenous term (here, 'uncle') is analysed, but in
themselves they do not necessarily constitute positions on a true genealogy:
a given real ego may, for example, have more than one FB but no MZH
whom he or she calls 'uncle'.
Only if ego had one and only one each of FB, MB, FZH and MZH would
the two configurations - analytical kin types and real genealogy - actually
coincide.
The whole ensemble of kinship terms is referred to as a kinship
terminology or relationship terminology

288
KINSHIP: The Relevance of Kinship in
Anthropology

• Kinship is an important principle of group formation. In

traditional societies where there is greater
homogenization, resources are scarce; groups are formed
on the basis of kinship in such societies. These
preindustrial societies have been the main focus of the
study of anthropologists since long time.
 In these societies ‘kinship acts as an organizing
principle’. The non-western societies have greater
diversity in kinship structure and the
anthropologists by studying this diversity can arrive
at a comparative account.

• Kinship determines the social status of an

individual in these societies. Groups are related to
each other kinship i.e. one group is wife-giver, the
other is wifetaker and the social position of
wife-giver is always higher.

290
• Kinship also provides a ‘boundary and a bridge
between the human and non-human primate order’.
Thus we see that kinship is very central to the enquiry
of anthropology and an important field of study in
anthropology

1. Group formation.
2. Resources are scarce , groups ,on the basis of kinship.
3. comparative analysis.
4. Social status of an individual
KINSHIP: Importance

1. Transmission of status and property from one

generation to next.

2. Establish and maintain effective social groups,

solidarity.
DEGREE OF KINSHIP

Any relationship between two individuals is based on

the degree of closeness or distance of that
relationship.
DEGREE OF KINSHIP

1.Primary kins: Members of a nuclear

family i.e. father, mother, daughter, son,
husband, wife, brother and sister are
primary kins.

2.Secondary kins: All primary kins of

primary kins are his/her secondary kins.
For example: Brother’s son or
grandparents,father-in-law,brother-in-law
etc.
3.Tertiary kins: All primary kins of
secondary kins are known as tertiary
kins. For example: Brother’s son’s
daughter, great grandparents,
brother-in-law’s son.
 Principle of Descent

The principle of descent in anthropology underscores the evolutionary interconnectedness

of humans and emphasizes the importance of studying human biology and culture within
the broader context of evolutionary theory. Understanding this principle is crucial for
comprehending the diversity and unity of human populations across time and space.

297
Human Evolution: Anthropology studies human evolution by examining
fossil evidence, genetic studies, and comparative anatomy to understand
how modern humans have evolved from earlier ancestors over millions of
years. The principle of descent asserts that all humans share a common
ancestry with other primates and have evolved through a series of
adaptations and changes.

Genetic Evidence: Advances in genetics have provided significant

evidence supporting the principle of descent. Genetic studies analyze
DNA sequences to trace human evolutionary history and to understand
genetic similarities and differences among populations.

298
Variation and Adaptation: The principle of descent helps explain the variation in
physical traits and cultural practices observed among different human populations. It
emphasizes that these variations are the result of evolutionary processes shaped by
natural selection, genetic drift, and other factors over time.
Cultural Evolution: While biological anthropology primarily focuses on human
biological evolution, the principle of descent can also extend to cultural evolution. It
suggests that human cultures may have evolved from common ancestral cultural
practices and have diversified over time in response to environmental, social, and
technological changes.
Implications for Anthropological Research: Anthropologists use the principle of
descent as a framework for conducting research on human origins, migration patterns,
population genetics, and the development of diverse cultural traditions worldwide.

299
KINSHIP: DESCENT

• Refers to a person’s affiliation and association

with his/her kinsman. In a patrilineal society a
person traces his descent through father while in a
matrilineal society descent is traced through the
mother. Rules of descent can be divided into two
distinct types

a. Unilineal

b. Cognatic or NonUnilineal descent.

• Descent : socially recognized link (relationship) between
a person and his /her ancestor.

• flow of rights, lineages from one generation to another

TYPES OF DESCENT
KINSHIP: TYPES OF DESCENT

1. Unilineal Descent: The principle whereby

descent is traced either through paternal or
maternal line.

• Patrilineal Descent (or Agnatic):In this type,

descent from an ancestor down through a series
of male links. For example-through the
ancestor’s son, his son, his son’s son, his son’s
son’s son. Male dominate position, power and
property. Found in East and South Asia and
Middle East
Patrilineal descent or agnatic or male
line

• traces descent through male line , only through

sons -> transfer the rights and obligations,

• daughters trace through their father, their

children's identity -> husband's descent.

• AGNATIC DESCENT: reckoning descent sn

the unilineal principle descent
Examples:

1.Hindu , Islamic societies.

2.Tikopia Islanders in pacific
3.Classical romans
4.The Chinese
5.Nuer tribe (Nile valley)
6.Lambada, Chenchu
• Matrilineal Descent (or uterine): In this type,
descent from an ancestress down through a
series of female links.

• Female line , male members identified from

their mother's family but their children have a
separate line of descent through their own
maternal line.
Examples:
1. Navajo red Indians
2.Trobriand islanders
3. Ashanti tribes of Ghana
4.khasi tribes
5.Australian aborigines
6.Bantu tribes of Central Africa,
7.Akans of Ghana,
8.Nayars of Malabar Coast.
Parallel descent
● Extremely rare, in 1975 reported in Saha of
Caribbean coast of Columbia close to
Venezuelan border.

• Males recognise through male line and females

through female line.
Men trace their ancestry through male lines and women
trace theirs through female lines.
Ambilineal descent

Ambilineal Descent: The principle whereby

descent is reckoned through male or female
links with without order according to one’s
choice.

• Based on person’s choice either patrilineal or

matrilineal.
Individual traces his ancestry through father in one
generation and mother in another generation.

•individuals have option to choose lineage to which

he affiliates.

Necessity- Epidemics, war , resource scarcity.

Ex: Polynesian cultures, Samoan , maori and hawaiians,

Hindu society in the absence of male child (exceptions).
Non –Unilineal or Cognatic

Descent group

Cognatic > kin of both parents

1.Double or bi-lineal descent

2.Bilateral Descent

Cognatic: Descent from an ancestor through a series of links that

can be male or female or any combination of the two.
Forms Characteristics Associated Kin Groups
a)Unilineal through male line (patri) lineages and (patri)
b) Patrilineal through female line clans
c) Matrilineal through either male or female line (matri) lineages and (matri)
d) Cognatic equally through both male and clans
e) Bilateral female lines cognatic descent groups
kindred
BILATERAL DESCENT

Bilateral Descent: The principle whereby

descent is traced through males (i.e., father)
and female (i.e., mother). Found in western
societies

•relates a person to close relatives through both

sexes.
•Theoretically all relatives of mother and father side
are his relatives. But practically restricted to close
relatives called kindred.

•Ego is the focal person from whom the degree of

each relationship is defined.it is fluid and keeps
changing through the life of ego.

• Vague, temporary in nature and hence are weaker

social unit than other descent groups.
 Model of bilateral descent.
Triangles are males, circles are females
 DOUBLE DESCENT

Double Descent: A system whereby two sets of social

groups or categories exists (for different purposes) in the
same society, one based on patrilineal descent and the
other on matrilineal descent. For example- Among Yako of
Nigeria. Descent simultaneously through maternal and
paternal lines. Individuals inherit certain cultural traits from
one line of parentage and others through 2nd line.
Examples:

1.Venda of southern Africa, religious rituals pass

through matriline but productive resources pass
through patriline.

2.Herero of Namibia material property pass through

matri-line, religious functions through patri-line.

3.In Ashanti tribes of Ghana, matrilineage is generally

followed but spiritual principles pass through
patri-line.
KINSHIP:

KINSHIP TERMINOLOGY

• Kin terms are the labels used to refer and address various
kins and affines. Morgan was the first one to observe that
kinship terminology could serve as a basis of
classification. In different systems, the kin terms differ
drastically.
The basic kinship terms are of two types, i.e.

• Term of Reference: It is more formal term used to

denote a person. For example: The term Mother, Father
are term of Reference

• Term of address : This is the term used while talking

to the kin. This differs from place to place. For example:
The terms Maa, Papa are terms of address in Indian
context.
CLASSIFICATION of KINSHIP TERMINOLOGY

• L. H. Morgan (1871) on the basis of his observation in North

American Indian societies established two systems of terminology
such as follows:

1. Classificatory system
2. Descriptive system
Classificatory system: According to this system, single term is used
for calling more than one type of kin. Normally the similarity in age,
group, sex and same generation is the basis for this categorization. In
some societies, those kins who have same status and position are
called out by same kin term.

• The term Uncle, bhaiya, didi, and Aunt are also classificatory
terms.
Descriptive system
• In this system, every kin is designated by a different
kin term. Separate terms are used to refer different
kins. It distinguishes between lineal and collateral
kins.

• For example: pita, chacha, tau, mata. In English

societies the term Brother and sister are descriptive as
they are used to refer to the son and daughter of one’s
parents only. But in North India the term Bhai and Bahen
is used to refer to the son and daughter of one’s parents
and also for cross and parallel cousins.
• There is another classification of kinship terminology given by G.P. Murdock
(1949). Murdock took ego’s generation as the basis of his classification and gave
ethical geographical labels to it. He classified kinship terms in six categories
which are explained as follows:

1.Hawaiian society
3.Sudanese
5.Crow red Indians
2.Eskimos
4.Omaha
6.Iroquois
1.Hawaian society- This distinguishes only between sex and generation. In
this system of terminology siblings and cousins are classified alike by one or
two terms distinguished by sex.

• There is no distinction between direct and collateral relations. The members on

both the father’s and mother’s side are considered more or less equally. It
doesn’t distinguish between cross and parallel relatives.
• Example: It can be observed in Hawaiian Polynesians. In
North India, siblings are denoted as Bhai=brother,
Didi=sister.
• Another example of Hawaiian terminology can be seen in Zeme tribe in
Assam and Manipur where the word Asi is used for sister, brother, all cross
and parallel cousins, sister-in-law and brother-in-law as well. There is no
distinction between genders.
Eskimos- It has both classificatory and descriptive
terms, it provides different terms for nuclear family
members. It also distinguishes between lineal and
collateral relatives. The lineal relatives have descriptive
terms while the collateral kins have classificatory terms.

• It also differentiates between siblings and cousins but

all types of cousins are put together in one category. The
English language kinship term comes under this
category.
• Example: Eskimos terminology is mainly used by Euro americans
as well as by some food foraging societies like Inuits and Eskimos. It
is generally found in bilateral societies where the dominant kin group
is kindred.
Sudanese- This system provides different labels to each genealogical
position. It is descriptive in nature. Siblings are differentiated from
cousins.

Example: In North Indian families, ego’s parental generation has

different name.
• Father’s elder brother = tau; Father’s elder brother’s wife = tai;
Father’s younger brother = chacha; Father’s younger brother’s
wife = chachi; Father’s sister = bhua; Father’s sister husband =
phufa; Mother’s brother = mama; Mother’s brother’s wife =
mami; Mother’s sister = mausi; Mother’s sister’s husband =
mausa
Omaha- This system can be understood as a reverse of crow terminology. Here the
relatives on mother’s side have more classificatory term while on the father’s side
have more descriptive term. In this system members belonging to mother’s
patri-lineage are put under the same kin term.

• Example: Among Sumi Naga tribe of Nagaland the mother’s brother and mother’s
brother’s son are put under the same kin term. (MB=MBS= Ingu).
Crow terminology: In this system relatives on father’s side
have more classificatory terms while on the mother’s side have
more descriptive terms. In this system members belonging to
father’s matri-lineage are put under the same kin term.

Example : Father’s sister and Father’s sister’s daughter are

called by the same term. (FZ =FZD)
6.Iroquois- This was named for Iroquois Indians of
north-eastern North America’s woodlands.

• It distinguishes between cross and parallel relatives. Father and

father’s brother are referred by same term and mother and
mother’s sister are referred by same term. Father’s sisters and
mother’s brothers are given different terms. In one’s generation
the brothers, sisters and parallel cousins (i.e the children of
father’s brothers and mother’s sisters) are placed into same kin
term.
-Examples: It is widespread terminology, used in rural
Chinese societies also. In India, this terminology is used
by Ao Naga tribe of Nagaland where parallel cousins are
called as oti( male), oya(female) and cross cousins are
called as amo(male), oku(female).
Cross cousins are referred by different terms, sometimes
designated as spouses.

• There is another kinship terminology that have been

studied recently i.e. Dravidian kinship terminology. The
Dravidian language has resemblance with Sanskrit language.
Morgan also found resemblance between Dravidian and
Iroquois kinship terminology.
FORMS OF DESCENT GROUP

Descent Group comprises of people having a common ancestor,

the common ancestor can either be a living, non living or
mythical being like an animal, tree, human being, thunder etc.

1. Lineage
2. Clan
3. Phratry
4. Moiety
343
FORMS OF DESCENT GROUP

Descent Group comprises of people

having a common ancestor, the
common ancestor can either be a
living, non living or mythical being
like an animal, tree, human being,
thunder etc.

1. Lineage
2. Clan
3. Phratry
4. Moiety
1. Lineage- A consanguineal kin group
produced by either of unilineal descent is
technically known as lineage.

• It produces only persons who can actually

trace their common relationship their common
relationship through a specific series of
remembered genealogical linkage in the
prevailing line of descent.
• A lineage generally includes
ancestors of five to six generations
in a sequence.

Lineage may be of 2 types-

Patrilineage and Matrilineage.

1. Lineage- Characteristics:

❖ They are named

❖ exogamous
❖ common religious obligation,
❖ units of social control and mutual aid.
•Patrilineal- Red Indians of Amazonia and Red Indians of
California.

Matrilineal - Khasi , Garo of Meghalaya

Ambilineal- Nukorosof Micronesia, Samoans of Polynesia.

2. Clan:

Clan is a unilineal kinship group larger than a lineage. Here

the members are supposed to be descendant from a common
ancestor but the genealogical links are not specified.

• Clans are exogamous in nature.

• Clans can be categorized into several types:

Patrilineal clan, matrilineal clan, Ancestral clan,

totemic clan, territorial can, etc.
2. Clan: characteristics

• Unilineal descent , can't trace their descent .

• a common ancestor who might have lived several generations
back and their presence is rooted in mythology.

• Patriclan or Matriclans.

• Example: Gotra system of hindu society., crow Indians

TOTEMISM:

• Totemism is the belief that people are related to

a particular animal, plant or natural object by
virtue of descent from a common ancestral spirit.
A totemic clan traces their origin to some
particular non human object like the tiger, a
bird, thunder etc.

• Examples of totemic clans are found all over the

world like Africa, Asia, Australia, Eastern Europe,
Western Europe, and the Arctic polar region.
Among the Kimberly tribe of Australian Aborigines
one of the clans traces their origin to the butcher
bird (karadada).
•Mystical relationship of people with plant or
animal or some natural phenomenon.

Characteristics:

• Exogamous Special emotional feelings with totem.

• Death of totem is ceremoniously mourned.

• Members don't kill , eat or destroy a totem.

•Members conduct periodic ceremonies for
perpetuation and increase in the species of
totems..

• Believe in rebirth of totem.

• Ex: Australian Aborigines

Phratry: derived from the greek word Phrater(Greek)
–meaning brother

An interrelation between two or more clans makes

phratry. It is therefore, a larger unilineal descent group
than a clan.

A phratry may or may not be exogamous. For example, 13

clans among Crow Indians are found to be grouped into 6
nameless phratries, 4 of which are not strict in the rules for
the marriage.
Phratry: Characteristics:

Unilineal descent group consisting of two or more clans.

Matri, Patri

May have names or no names..

• May be exogamous or not..

• common religious obligations.

• Found in few societies only: red Indians of USA; Muria Gonds of

Madhya Pradesh
4. Moiety:

• It is the largest unilineal social group, which result from the splitting of a
society into two halves on the basis of descent. The word moiety comes from
the French word meaning “half” Moieties may be exogamous or
endogamous.
4. Moiety: Characteristics:

• Wider occurrence
• Patri or matri
• named or unnamed
• usually exogamous
• Examples: Rengma Nagas and Angami Nagas of Nagaland; Gonds and
korkus of MP; Bondos of Odisha; Todas of Nilgiris
Kindred
A kindred is an ephemeral grouping which is neither permanent nor a continuing one through generations
in any fixed pattern.The reckoning of kindred changes with the individual who reckons his/her circle of
relatives.

This is because the members of any particular kindred do not have nor reckon an ancestor in common to
all of them ;instead what they all have or recognize in common is ego.

Every individual in a society has a kindred and the kindred of each individual will overlap with his/her
next of kin.No kindred is common for any two individuals besides siblings.

A kindred is thus not ancestor-focused but ego-centred.

DESCENT & ALLIANCE

• Alliance is the concept of joining people together

into an activity.

In human societies people are joined together by

means of marriage.

The marriage between two groups is accomplished

by means of exchange of women.

Different societies have different rules of marriage

which are to be followed by its members.

There are several ways of marriage exchanges that

differ from society to society.
FUNCTIONS OF ALLIANCE
• Maintenance of cohesive relation and cooperation between
various kin groups.

• Alliance shows continuity and endurance of society in an

integrated manner.

• Maintains kinship relations & creation of new relations through

exogamy.
• Regulation of marriage.

• Economic and political

cooperation during emergency.

• Neutralization of tension due to

wife exchange.
Filiation & Complementary Filiation

• Filiation: allocation of individuals to a descent

group. This can be through father’s line, mother’s
line or through both.

• It decides line of property inheritance &

succession to political office.
Complementary Filiation: studied by many
anthropologists, prominently by M.Fortes through
Tallensi of Ghana.

• In societies with unilineal descent group, people

recognize kinship lines with relatives who do not
belong to their own descent group.
 E.g: In patrilineal societies, people have
socially defined links with members of their
mother’s family such as maternal uncle or
maternal grandparents.

• Significance of Complementary Filiation

 In lineage based societies it provides an important
residual security or insurance against the
breakdown of filiation relationship.

For e.g: when full brideprice is not paid, rights to

women’s children are not transferred to her husband’s
lineage. Then the children’s relationship with their
mother’s line provides them the access to resources of
her lineage.
Difference between filiation & Complementary Filiation:

• Filiation have political & hierarchical character,

• while complementary filiation is more emotional and more

personal and gives the feelings of individuality & independence.
KINSHIP BEHAVIOUR

• Kinship behaviour: permanent patterns of behaviour between different

members of societies:

Avoidance
Joking Relation
Avanculate
Couvade
Avanculate
Among some matrilineal societies, maternal uncle assumes many of
the duties of father as a matter of convention. His nephew and
niece remain under his authority. They inherit his property also.
Such a relationship exists among the Trobriand islanders of
Melanesia, the Fijians, the African tribes and the Nayars of south
India.
 Amitate

• This kind of usage is more or less similar to the

avanculate and found among the patrilineal people.

Here, father’s sister gets great respect and prime

importance.

She is more than mother to her nephew and exerts her

authority on him in many events of life.
In fact, it is a social mechanism, which
protects father’s sisters from falling into
neglect, especially in situations when they
are driven off from their in-laws house.

Polynesian Tonga, Toda of South India etc.,

communities exhibit this type of kinship usage.
Couvade
This is another strange usage of kinship between
a husband and his wife. Toda and Khasi
community of India can be cited as examples.

Here the husband is compelled to undergo an

austere life whenever his wife gives birth to a
child.
He has to maintain a strict diet and to observe a
number of taboos along with the wife. Anthropologists
regard couvades as a symbolic representation of
establishing paternity on the child.

Some years back, this particular usage was popular

among the Nayyars of South India, Ainus of Japan and
also a few communities of China.
Avoidance
In most of the societies, the usages of
avoidance act as an incest taboo.

A father-in-law avoids his daughter- in –law

according to traditional social norm.
Same relation prevails between a mother in –law
and between husband’s elder brother and
younger brother’s wife.

This is actually a protective measure against

incestuous sexual relation among close
relatives who remain in face to face contact
every day.
Joking Relation

• It is just the opposite type of kinship

usage in contrast to “avoidance”.

This special privileged relationship indulges

in proximity by allowing liberal social
interactions between two kins.
Usually such relationships exist between a man and his
wife’s younger sisters or between a woman and her
husband’s younger brothers, between cross cousins,
between grandparents and grandchildren.

Joking relationships are found in tribal as well as in

Hindu society.
Thank You