MARRIAGE & AFFINITY

Course No. SOC-C-102 Lesson No. 6

Semester-I Marriage : Meaning and Evolution Unit-II
Structure
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Objectives
6.3 Meaning of Marriage
6.4 Rules of Marriage
6.5 Forms of Marriage
6.6 Evolution of Marriage
6.7 Conclusion
6.8 Functions of Marriage
6.9 References
6.1 Introduction
All societies impose limitation and restriction on sexual activities as it is allowed
in certain clearly defined directions. Marriage is a social institution, a machinery by
which society enables people to satisfy their biological needs in an orderly way. It is a
relatively more universal and major social institution because it fulfils the one of the most
important function of the society i.e. reproduction with some degree of social regulation
over sex relationship. In contemporary world, it is impossible to find out any society in
which marriage, in any form be entirely absent.

6.2 Objectives
The main objective of this unit is to equip you with :
— The idea of marriage.
— Various rules of marriage.

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 — Different forms of marriage.
— Evolution of institution of marriage.
6.3 Meaning of Marriage
Marriage is a ritual union between a man and woman such that the children born
to the women are the legitimate offspring of both the partens.
Westermarck (1925) defines it as a relation of one or more men to one or
more women which is recognised by custom or law and involves certain rights and
duties both in case of parties entering the union and in the case of children born of it.
According to Rivers (1914), “marriage is a union between two opposite sex
for regulating their sexual relationship. It is an organised institution for regulating sex
relationships.”
D.N. Majumdar and T.N. Madan (1955) defines, “it involves the social
sanction generally in the form of civil and/or religious ceremony authorising two persons
of opposite sexes to engage in sexual and other subsequent and correlated socio-
economic relations with one another.”
According to Malinowski, “marriage is the licensing of parenthood.”
Edmund Leach argues that a universal definition of marriage is not possible and
it is futile to discuss the matter. According to him, the institutions commonly classed as
marriage are concerned with the allocation of a number of distinguishable classes of
rights, and hence, a marriage may serve to do any or some or all of the following :
1. to establish the legal father of a woman’s children;
2. to establish the legal mother of a man’s children;
3. to give the husband monopoly of wife’s sexuality;
4. to give the wife monopoly of the husband’s sexuality;
5. to give the husband partial or monopolistic rights to the wife’s domestic and
other labour services;
6. to give the wife partial or monopolistic rights to the husband’s labour services;
7. to give the husband partial or total rights over property belonging or potentially
according to the wife;
8. to give the wife partial or total rights over property belonging or potentially
accruing to the husband;
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 9. to establish a joint fund of property - a partenership for the benefit of children
of the marriage.
10. to establish a socially significant relationship of affinity between the husband and
wife’s brothers.
From the above definitions, it is found that marriage is a socially sanctioned
union of two or more opposite sexes and it involves all the institutional demand of
marital rights and duties. Marriage creates a new social relationship and reciprocal
rights between each and the kin of the other, and establishes what will the rights and
status of the children when they are born. It is primarily a means of regularising sex
relations and the children born to them are cared and reared by the parents for the
stability of the human social group. Children born to the married women are legitimate.
6.4 Rules of Marriage
In no culture and in no society marriage is a matter of entirely free choice
because the institution of marriage is socially derived and socially sanctioned. Every
society places certain limitations on the range of persons from among whom spouses
may be chosen. There are two major rules of marriage that are almost always present
in all societies. They are exogamy and endogamy.
Exogamy : Hoebel (1958) defined it as “the social rule that requires an
individual to marry outside of a culturally defined group of which he is a member.”
The universal nuclear family is always exogamous. Exogamy, it is said sometimes,
results from the effect of incest taboo. The social gap. beyond which is marriage is
required to take place be a lineage, or a clan, or a phratry or a moiety. Hindus marry
outside their gotra, so they practise gotra exogamy. Almost all tribes of India
practise lineage and clan exogamy. Many tribes like Garo, Munda, Waga practise
village exogamy. Actually, in exogamy near relatives are not supposed to marry
among themselves. However, the degree of nearness varies from community to community.
Endogamy : Hoebel defined it as “the social rule that requires a person to
marry within a culturally defined group of which he is a member.” Endogamy can take
various forms like caste endogamy, subcaste endogamy, class endogamy, tribal endogamy
etc. In India, caste is an endogamous group in Hindu society. Besides the above
forms village endogamy is found in America and some parts of Asia. Every tribe in
India is endogamous.

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 The endogamous marriage may occur due to racial, cultural, religious or
geographical differences between various groups. The reasons of endogamy varies from
one society to another depending upon the context of social group. To a large extent,
endogamy tends to maintain unity and purity in the group.
6.5 Forms of Marriage
1. Monogamy : Monogamy means marriage of one man with another woman at
a time. This form of marriage is found in most of the advanced industrial
societies alongwith some traditional societies. Sexual intercourse? is
instutitionalized only between husband and wife. However, sexual relations
between other categories of individuals occur, but generally they are considered
wrong. The tribes like Didayi, Koya, Khasis etc. practise monogamy.
D=O
2. Polygamy : It is a form of marriage in which one man marries more than one
woman at a given time and has socially approved sex relations with all of them.
O=D=O
It is of two types :
(i) Sororal Polygamy : Here, wives are invariably the sisters.
(ii) Non-Sororal Polygamy : Here, wives are not related as sisters.
Polygamy is found in Eskimo tribes, Crow Indians, the Nagas, Gonds etc. It is
also prevalent among muslims.
3. Polyandry : Polyandry is the marriage of one woman with several men. In
India, tribes such as Tiyan, the Kota, the Toda, the Khasa and Ladakhi Pota
are polyandrous groups.
D=O=D
Polyandry is of two types :
(i) Fraternal or adelphic polyandry : Here, several brothers have the
same wife.
(ii) Non-fraternal or Non-adelphic polyandry : Here, the woman’s husbands
are not related as brothers.
4. Group Marriage : It means the marriage of two or more men with two or
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 more women. Here, husbands are common husbands and wives are common
wives. Children are regarded as the children of entire group, as a whole.
However, there is no evidence to substantiate the group marriage as it has not
been found in any of the traditional simplest cultures.
Among Todas of India, Lowie (1920) points out that group marriage seems to
have developed by the combinations of polygamy and polyandry practice.

The Levirate and Sororate marriages : Levirate marriage : This marriage is

also known as Devar Vivah. Here, the widows marries the younger brother of the husband
after his death. In many patrilineal societies, a man’s heir is his next brother who succeeds
to his responsibilities as well as inheriting his possessions. The survivor of a man’s widow
are retained within the domestic unit by having her marry one of his brothers. Since, the
marriage involves exchange of rights and duties and obligations, the family of the wife
can be assured that she will be cared even if her husband dies. The cultural rule oblige
a man to marry his brother’s widows. In India, this type of marriage is found in tribes
like Munda, Oraon, Hond, Santhal etc.
_________
| |
D = O = D
Sororate Marriage : In this type of marriage, a man marries his wife’s younger
sister after her death. It is the converse of levirate. It should not be confused with sorocal
polygamy in which the husband does not wait for the death of his wife to marry her
younger sister. It is found in tribes like Kolha, Lodha, Kawar etc.
In tribal India, the father of the daughter feels his responsibility to fill the gap
created by the death of his daughter in his son-in-law house. The cultural rules oblige
a woman to marry her deceased sister’s husband.
_________
| |
O = D = O
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 5. Cross-Cousin and Parallel Cousin marriages
Parallel Cousin Marriage : Marriage with mother’s sister’s or father’s brother’s
child is Parallel Cousin marriage. It is found in Arabic muslims and Muslims of India and
Pakistan.

Cross Cousin Marriage : Marriage with father’s sister’s or mother’s brother’s

child is called cross-cousin marriage. The cross-cousin type of marriage is found among
tribes like Oran, Koya, Didayi, Kuki, Gonds etc.

6. Hypergamy and Hypogamy

When a man of higher caste marries a woman of lower caste it is called
Anuloma marriage or Hypergamy.
When a woman of higher caste marries a man of lower caste, it is called
Hypogamy or Pratiloma marriage.
6.6 Evolution of Marriage :

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 Classical evolutionists have attempted to show the development of institution of
marriage in sequences. Taylor, Morgan, Maine, McLennan etc. have shown that the
institution of marriage has passed through the stages of promiscuity group marriage,
polyandrous marriage, polygynous marriage and monogamous marriage. According to
Morgan, in the beginning there was no marriage institution among human beings. There
was a complete sexual promiscuity among human beings. There was no restriction
among the members in the society regarding sexual relationship. An unregulated animal
like sexual anarchy existed during that period. However, there is no substantial evidence
to prove it because even the most primitive tribes of India, Australia and Africa don’t have
complete promiscuity in sex relationships. But despite lack of evidence it is believed to
be so. The unregulated animal like sexual anarchy was however checked to some extent
by group marriage in which all males of a group marry all females of another group.
According to Morgan, it was the first stage of institution of marriage. Presently group
marriage is not found in India but among tribes of Australia, group marriage is still existing.
The group marriage was progressively reduced by customary restrictions by which
polyandry form of marriage developed gradually where only one woman was shared by
a no. of men. Next came polygyny where a man had more than one wife. Monogamy
was attained as the latest form of marriage in which one husband and one wife constitute
family.
Morgan has identified five main stages of marriage as under :–
(i) Consanguine marriage : This stage had sexual promiscuity and marriage
between blood relations was not forbidden.
(ii) Punaluant marriage : Group marriage was prevalent in this stage and all
brothers of a group married all sisters of another group.
(iii) Syndasmian marriage : In this stage, one man married one woman, but he was
free to establish sex relations with other woman married in the family.
(iv) Patriarchal marriage : In this stage man’s ascendancy and dominance in the
family had fully been achieved. He could marry many women and had sex
relations with them.
(v) Monogamous marriage : This is the present stage of marriage in which one

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 man can marry one woman and vice-versa.
6.7 Conclusion
We thus found that marriage is the union between man and woman such that
the children born to the woman are the legitimate offspring of both the parents. The
various rules of marriage includes the rule of endogamy and exogamy whereas its forms
includes. Monogamy, polygamy, sororal polygamy, polyandry, fraternal polyandry, group
marriage, cross-cousin and parallel cousin and hypergamy. Regarding the evolution of
marriage, it has started with consanguine and followed by punaluant, Syndasmian,
Patriarchal and Monogamous marriage.

6.8 Functions of Marriage

1. Social Recognition: Marriage gives social recognition to all sexual relationships,
which otherwise would have many social problems. Marriage alone makes
the society accept the relationship of boy and girl, as husband and wife.
2. Procreation of Children: Then another function of the marriage is to have
legitimate children; The children born as a result of socially recognized marriage
are accepted by the society as legitimate and legal heirs to the property and
other assets of the family.
3. Sense of Sympathy: After the marriage alone the husband and wife and their
children develop a sense of sympathy for each other and they begin to share
each other’s joys and sorrows. They sacrifice for the sake of each other.
4. Basis of Family: Then another function of marriage is that it is the basis of
family life. As we all know that after marriage family comes into being and with
that the virtues of all the family life emerge in the society.
5. Stability in Relationship: After marriage alone relationships come into being
e.g. the relationship of husband and wife. son or daughter, father in law and
mother in law or that of grand-father and grand-mother etc. these relations get
stabilized with the passage of time but only after marriage but not before
marriage.
6. Perpetuation of Lineage: It is after marriage that there is desire to perpetuate
the name of the family. The children perpetuate the names of their parents and

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 then come grand children. great grand children etc. After some time then there
is a desire to perpetuate the lineage of the family and it at any stage in the
family there are no offshoots, then every effort is made to have then, so that
the name of the family continues.
6.9 References
Dash, K.N; 2004, Invitation to Social and Cultural Anthropology, Atlantic
Publisher, Delhi;
Mair, L. 1965; An Introduction to Social Anthropology, Oxford Delhi, Majumdars
Madan, 1985, An Introduction to Social Authropology, Mayor Paperback,
Noida.

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