Marriage
An anthropological perspective
Universality
• All societies recognize
families and marriages
• The details of what this
looks like varies from
culture to culture.
• In Indonesia, people
typically ask, “Are you
married, or not yet?”
Family
• A social unit characterized by the following
– economic cooperation
– the management of reproduction and child
rearing
– common residence.
– socially approved sexual relations
– Recognition of rights and responsibilities
Traditional View of Marriage
• Marriage is a union
between a man and
woman such that the
children born to the
woman are recognized
as legitimate offspring
of both partners.
Royal Anthropological
Institute, 1951.
Non-ethnocentric view
• A relationship between one or more men (male
or female) and one or more women (female or
male) who are recognized by society as having
a continuing claim to the right of sexual access
to one another.
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This recognizes that gender is culturally defined
Not all married couple live together
Multiple spouses are accepted in many societies
In no society do all marriages endure until death
Functions
• Stable relationships to regulate sexual
mating and reproduction
• Regulates sexual division of labor.
Provides socially sanctioned rules for
economic rights and obligations
• Provides relationships to provide for the
material, educational, and emotional
needs of children
Mate Selection- Don’t Marry
• Incest: prohibitions relating to mating with relatives is universal but
the precise rules vary. Many rules of incest apply to the choice of
spouse for marriage
– Iranian loss of virginity with young boys by male relatives
– No nuclear family. However, brothers and sisters of Egyptian, Inca and
Hawaiin royalty frequently married
– First cousin? Cross cousin? Parallel cousin?
• 24 states forbid first cousin marriage
• Yanomami consider cross cousins proper, but not parallel cousins
– Why?
• Natural aversion? Found to be found in Jewish Kibbutz. Yet 10-15% of
people experience incest
• Prevent inbreeding? Mating with first cousins doesn’t significantly increase
the risk of birth defects
• Family disruption? Too much competition
• Expanding social alliances? Allows families to create wider social ties
Mate selection- Who to Marry
• Exogamy: Marriage outside of a group
• Endogamy: Marriage within a group
– Indian caste
– Race, class, ethnicity, religion
• Arranged marriages
– Japanese Omiai or India
• Cross cousin: mother’s brother’s children or father’s sister’s
children- solidifies family ties
• Parallel cousin: found in Middle East and North Africa as way to
prevent fragmentation of family property.
• Levirate (marry brother or close male relative of dead husband)looks after wife in patrilineal society and maintains connections
between the family
• Sororate- other way around. In a matrilineal and matrilocal society,
a husband can stay with the family. It also allows the bride’s family
to keep the bridewealth.
Arranged Marriage
• In 1996, a recent Iraqi refugee living in Nebraska
arranged a double marriage for his two
daughters. It was an occasion for a big party.
• The problem was that his daughters were 13
and 14 and the men were 28 and 34.
• Marriage in traditional Iraqi society is viewed a
union between two large families. Moreover, by
marrying young, a woman is protected from the
shame of being dishonored by premarital sex
• Should American law take into account cultural
considerations?
Number of Spouses
•
Monogamy- one spouse at a time
– Lifelong partnerships are
circumvented by discreet
extramarital affairs or serial
monogamy
•
Polygany
– 7/10 world cultures permit or
prefer
– In 2005, it is estimated that 30,000
people practice polygany
– Where women are seen as
economic assets, like in Africa,
rates are high, while the converse
is true
• In the Solomon Islands, women
farm and raise pigs
– Ratio is possible if males killed in
war, male infanticide, male
capture, or if older men marry
younger women
Utah polygamist Tom Green with his
family of five wives and some of his 29
children
Polyandry
• Practice of one woman
marrying more than one man
– Found in 1% of the worldNepal, Tibet, India
– Fraternal or non-fraternal
– Advantages: Shortage of
women, conserve
economic resources,
prevent primogeniture
– Used when shortage of
women or for the
preservation of family
resources
Polyandry
YUSHU COUNTY, CHINA - JULY 18: (L-R) La Wen, Cai Zhuo, Gama Sangding and their
child Gelai Bajiu pose for a photo in their house located at the downtown area on July 18,
2007 in Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, northwest China. The
40-year-old Tibetan woman Cai Zhuo has two husbands who are brothers, 44-year-old
La Wen and 41-year-old Gama Sangding.
Economic considerations
• Bridewealth:
– Compensation given by family of groom to the family of the
bride-- 46%
– Compensates the bride’s group for the loss of companionship
and labor
• Bride service
– Providing of labor rather than goods
• Dowry
– Compensation from bride to groom. It is meant to compensate
the husbands for the added responsibility of taking care of a
woman
– Found in India, where sati and dowry murders exist
• Woman exchange
• Reciprocal exchange: 6%
Modern Thai Bride Wealth
•
Modern Bride Wealth in
Thailand: Following the initial
greetings to her family we
presented the bride wealth to
Pook’s mom. The bride wealth
consisted of 100,000 Baht in
cash (approximately $2500
USD) and two solid gold
necklaces. Pook’s mom gave
the necklaces back to us and
we put them on and wore them
for the remainder of the
ceremony. (While the bride
wealth price was 100,000 Baht,
Pook's mom did what many
Thai parents do these days and
she gave back most of it,
keeping only 30,000 Baht.)
Nuer Bride Wealth
Primary Family of
the Bride (20)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
father of the bride
8 head:
3 cows and their 3 calves
2 oxen
brother of another mother
2 cows
brother of the same
mother
7 head:
2 oxen
3 cows
1 cow and its 1 calf
mother
1 cow and its 1 calf
1 heifer
Siblings of bride’s mother- 10
Siblings of bride’s father- 10
Divorce
• Rules and availability of
divorce vary around world
• In places where love
marriages are valued,
divorce rates are
generally higher.
Patterns of residence
• Patrilocal: with or near husband’s father
(46%)
• Matrilocal: With or near relatives of wife
(13%)
• Avunculocal: With or near husband’s
mother’s brother (4%)
• Ambilocal: choice of wife or husband’s
relatives (9%)
• Neolocal: independent residence (5%)
Who lives in the family
• Nuclear: based on
marital ties
• Extended: based
on blood ties
among 3 or more
generations
Bush Extended family
Same Sex Marriage
On 4/7/09, the Vermont legislature passed a law which overrode
Governor Douglas’ veto permitting same sex marriage
Readings
• Read intro from Cultural Anthropology
– What is a working definition of marriage?
– What are the functions of marriage?
• Read excerpts on same sex marriages from
Anthropology by Haviland and Anthropology by
Kottack.
– According to Haviland, what are the main reasons
people cite for opposing gay marriage? What is
Haviland’s response to these concerns? Do you
agree?
– According to Kottack, how would same sex marriage
accomplish the 6 goals of marriage? Do you agree?
Research
• Read Governor Douglas reasons for vetoing the same sex marriage
bill along with congressman who opposed the bill.
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/assets/pdf/BT13226
146.PDF
• Read the arguments of those who supported it, such as
congressmen and the Freedom to Marry task group
• http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20090407/NE
WS03/90407016
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20090407/NE
WS03/90407009/1095/news03
• Summarize the main arguments on both sides
• Prepare a 2-3 minute radio editorial in which you use
anthropological concepts to support or oppose the same sex
marriage bill.