Laws of marriage | Anthropology Optional for UPSC PDF Download

Laws of Marriage 

Marriage is regulated by a set of rules. Broadly, marriage rules are classified into three types

• Proscriptive Rules Which direct whom a person should not marry.
• Prescriptive Rules Which direct whom a person can marry.
• Preferential Rules They define whom an individual can prefer to marry. 

Proscriptive Rules

Proscriptive Rules manifest in the form of incest taboos. Every society has rules -about mating. In all of them, there are some prohibitions on mating between persons in certain relationships or from certain social groups. The most universal prohibition is that on mating amongst certain kinds of kin: mother-son, father-daughter, and sister-brother. The taboos on mating between kin always extend beyond this immediate family group. Sometimes extends to the children of parents' siblings called first cousins; in other up to the fifth generation.
Exception  brother-sister marriage among royalty in ancient Egypt and in traditional Hawaiian society
Four major theories to explain their origin and persistence in human society

1. Inbreeding Avoidance 

• mating between close kin produces deficient, weak children and is genetically harmful to the species. 
• This theory, proposed in the late 19th century, was later rejected for a number of decades on the ground that inbreeding could produce advantages and disadvantages for the group by bringing out recessive genes of both a superior and an inferior character.
• Recent work in population genetics view that inbreeding is usually harmful. The proportion of negative recessive traits to adaptive recessive ones is very high, and in the humans, inbreeding has definite disadvantages.
• Furthermore, these disadvantages are far more likely to appear as a result of the mating of primary-relatives (mother-son, father-daughter, and sister- brother) than of other relatives, even first cousins.
• The adaptive results of incest taboo need not have been consciously recognized in order to persist; rather, groups that had such a taboo would have had more surviving children than groups without the taboo. This reproductive advantage would eventually account for its universality.

2. Familiarity Breeds Avoidance 

• This theory holds that incest taboo is just a formal prohibition for a natural aversion to sexual relations between people who have grown up together. 
•  sources of evidence Israeli kibbutz show that childrens "who see each other naked” have little sexual interest in one another Studies of kibbutz marriage tend to show that mates are almost never chosen from the peer group. (Talmon 1964).
  Some Taiwanese (study of marriage in Taiwan by Arthur Wolf (1968)) practice a form of marriage in which a girl from a poor family may be given away or sold as an infant to a family with a son, with the expectation that she will be his wife. She is brought up with the son as his playmate, and at the proper time they marry. Wolf found that these "daughter-in-law-raised-from-childhood" marriages are much less successful than other marriages. There are more sexual difficulties, fewer children,and a higher rate of extra-marital affairs.
• Criticism  Although the evidence from Israel and Taiwan may show that familiarity can lead to sexual avoidance, theory does not explain why a formal and strongly sanctioned taboo had to arise to prevent what was a natural aversion anyway. it is also contradicted by evidence showing that in fact incest does occur in many parts of the world. The actual occurrence of incest raises questions about whether familiarity does breed sexual aversion.

3. Preventing Disruption of the Family

•  Malinowski and Freud believed that the desire for sexual relations amongst the members within a family is very strong. They suggested that the most important function of incest taboo is in preventing disruption within the nuclear family. 
• Malinowski argued that :- as children grow into adolescents lt would be natural to attempt to satisfy their developing sexual urges within the group of people emotionally close to them, i.e within the family. If this  happen, conflict would occur and the role relationships within the family would be disrupted; fathers and sons and mothers and daughters would compete (sexual rivalry). This would hinder the transmission of cultural values in a harmonious and effective way. 
• However, an alternative to incest taboo could be regulation of sexual competition among the family members. Furthermore, it does not explain the prohibition of sexual relations between brothers and sisters. 
•  Only the familial incest taboo has both advantages prevents disruptions of the family over sexual competition and promotes outbreeding and genetic variability.

4. Forming Wider Alliances 

• Another theory proposed by Claude Levi-Strauss (1969) stresses the importance of cooperation among groups larger than the nuclear family. joining families together into a larger social community. This has undoubtedly contributed to the success of the human species. 
• The alliance theory does not account for the origin of  incest taboo, but alliance between nuclear families certainly seems to be adaptive and can account for the persistence of familial incest taboo and its extension to groups other than the nuclear family
  In summary, then, it does appear that familial incest taboo has a number of advantages for the human species. In other animal species, incest is frequently prevented by expelling junior members from family groups as they reach sexual maturity. Because humans take so long to mature, familial incest taboo Seems to be the most efficient and effective means of promoting genetic variability, familial harmony, and community cooperation these advantages can explain the spread and persistence of this taboo, if not its origins.

Prescriptive Rules

Endogamy refers to the expectation that a marriage partner will be chosen from within the social group of which one is a member.  followed in order to maintain the purity of the group or to prevent intermixture of biological traits which are unknown
Exogamy refers to the expectation that the choice to a marriage partner will be from a social group of which one is not a member.

•  In every society, there are both endogamous and exogamous groups. The Todas in India for example, have a society which is divided into two endogamous moieties, each with separate economic and ritual functions. Each of these endogamous moieties is having a number ofclans which are exogamous. (A woman should marry a man from other clan of the same moiety. )
• It has been theorized that exogamy developed as an extension of incest taboo, covering various relatives.
•  Exogamy advantages  results infringing many families together, brings some kind of group survival,  forced to depend upon each other for continued reproduction, and helps to regulate the relations between these groups. 
• According to Tylor, the Paleolithic hunter gatherers had entered this mode of alliance for maintaining peace with other bands; exogamy is a positive outcome for survival, later passed on as a custom. 
• According to Herbert Risley, the desire to have a variety in life has influenced people to seek ties strangers and this had led to exogamy.
• According to Audrey Richards, there was a constant scarcity of food in the communities of the hunter gatherers, a situation that has compelled them into the practice of female infanticide. This practice led to the scarcity of woman, which in turn led to a practice of getting women from outside the bands through bride capture.

Preferential Rules

Under this rule a person is expected to prefer certain categories of relatives over others for marriage. The best examples of preferential marriages are the cousin marriages, levirate and sororate

• Cousin Marriages
  Cross cousin marriage marriage between the children of a brother and a sister. There are two forms of cross cousin marriage. Matrilineal and patrilineal cross. Discontinuously distributed around world and very common in south India. Ex Bantus (ethnic grp in sub saharan africa)
  bilateral or symmetrical cross cousin marriage person can prefer matrilineal or patrilineal cross cousin.
  Patrilateral cross cousin marriages ex Munda , Kadar (tribe in Cochin - Coimbatore border)
  Matrilateral - kharia (tribe in haryana), Oraon ( large tribe in jharkhand, MP, 36garh, odisha, WB, also in bangladesh, nepal and south india, speak Kurukh lang which is a dravidian lang )
• Parallel cousin marriage marriage between children of two brothers or two sisters. To an individual, his father’s brother's child or Mother’s sister's child is a parallel cousin.  These are rare and among them patrilateral cross cousin marriages are common.
• Levirate the practice of requiring or permitting a man to marry the wife of his deceased brother. In this practice the need for a legal heir for the deceased is the prime concern. They provide for widows the most social and economic support from their near relatives.it ensures continuity of line if man dies childless. It often coincides with polygyny. This is very common in the Middle East. A man's exercise with his levirate duties  establishes his claim on his deceased brother's property. Ex Toda
   If the marriage of the deceased brother's wife is restricted to the younger brother, this practice is called as Junior Levirate.
• Sororate is complementary to the practice of levirate. Here a man marries the sister of his deceased wife. This term also applies to , when a husband of a childless women is given her sister for marriage, in which the children born to the second women are considered as the children of the childless women. It ensures that a man who has handed over bride price is entitled to services of a wife.
• Levirate and sororate  acquirs with polygyny. patrilocal residence and patrilineal descent. Sometimes it is the natural extension of sororal polygny, ex Arapaho and plains of middle east.
  The most elementary form of preferential marriage is Sister Exchange ex Uralis (a language close to kannada, region kerela), Malai pandarams (tribe along pamba river KL). Sister exchange is the reciprocal exchange of spouses b/w 2 groups, ex australian aborigins, american subarctic peoples. Traditionally it was ideal for a brother and sister of 1 family to marry a sister and brother resp from other.

Conclusion

Marriage rules can be broadly classified into three types: proscriptive, prescriptive, and preferential. Proscriptive rules dictate whom a person should not marry, such as incest taboos, which appear to have numerous advantages for human society, including promoting genetic variability, familial harmony, and community cooperation. Prescriptive rules guide a person in choosing a marriage partner from within (endogamy) or outside (exogamy) their social group, resulting in wider alliances and cooperation among groups. Preferential rules define whom an individual can prefer to marry, such as cousin marriages, levirate, and sororate, which often serve to maintain social and economic support within families and ensure the continuity of lineage. Overall, these marriage rules contribute to the stability and survival of human societies by fostering cooperation, alliances, and harmonious relationships among individuals and groups.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for

What are the three types of marriage rules?

The three types of marriage rules are Proscriptive Rules, which direct whom a person should not marry; Prescriptive Rules, which direct whom a person can marry; and Preferential Rules, which define whom an individual can prefer to marry.

What are some theories behind the origin and persistence of incest taboos in human society?

Four major theories include Inbreeding Avoidance, which suggests mating between close kin produces genetically harmful offspring; Familiarity Breeds Avoidance, which posits that growing up together creates a natural aversion to sexual relations; Preventing Disruption of the Family, which states that incest taboos prevent family conflict and competition; and Forming Wider Alliances, which emphasizes the importance of cooperation and alliance-building among larger social groups.

What is the difference between endogamy and exogamy in marriage practices?

Endogamy refers to the expectation that a marriage partner will be chosen from within the social group of which one is a member, often in order to maintain group purity or prevent intermixture of traits. Exogamy refers to the expectation that the choice of a marriage partner will be from a social group of which one is not a member, often as an extension of incest taboo or to form alliances between different groups.

What are some examples of preferential marriage practices?

Examples of preferential marriage practices include cousin marriages (cross cousin and parallel cousin marriages), levirate (a man marrying the wife of his deceased brother), and sororate (a man marrying the sister of his deceased wife). These practices often serve various social, economic, and cultural functions within communities.