BY: Vaidehi Patel, Jasmin Lee, Cindy Okrah, and Alaa

Madwar

Chapter 7: Forms of Marriage

and Divorce

Monogamy is the form of marriage north Americans are most familiar with Among the Kapauku of western New Guinea, the ideal is to have as many wives

as possible Among the Turkana, the number of animals at a family’s disposal is directly

related to the number of adult women available to care for them In cultures practicing wealth-generating polygyny, most men and women do

enter into polygynous marriages, although some can do this earlier in life than others.

Another reason for a man to take a secondary wife is to demonstrate his high position.

Forms of Marriage

When he does, it is usually of the sororal type, with the co-wives being sisters.

Equestrian hunters, such as the Blackfoot, were able to kill many bison in a short period of time,

Polygyny on the plains was viewed as an economic feature of production, rather than a social construct.

Polyandry, the marriage of one woman to two or more men simultaneously, is known in only a few societies perhaps in part because men’s life were shorter.

The eastern Inuit, Marquensan islanders of Polynesia, and Tibetans.

Unlike, monogamy is also retrains population growth, thereby avoiding increased pressures on resources.

Group marriage, in which several man and women have sexual access to one another, also occurs rarely.

If a husband dies, leaving a wife and children, it is often the custom that the wife marries one of the brothers of the dead man. This custom called the levirate.

When a man marries the sister of his dead wife, it is called the sororate.

The relationship between the two families is maintained even after a spouse’s death.

To confirm that there are brothers and sisters available to get married after one’s death, “cousins’ are classified as brothers and sisters.

The Levirate and the Sororate

Serial monogamy is a marriage form in which a man or woman marries or lives with a series of partners in succession

It is increasingly common in the North American society and middle-class people because of:

the increasing necessity for women to seek work outside the home

rising divorce rates Women begin to bear children by men who are not married to them To support herself and her children, a woman must look for work outside

the household

Serial Monogamy

She must seek help from other kin, most commonly her mother

Households are frequently headed by women (about 32% are so headed in the West Indies)

Under poverty conditions, women are driven to seek male support

owing to the difficulties of supporting themselves and their children while fulfilling their domestic obligations

The standard of living for women drops dramatically, whereas that of men increases

One solution for unmarried women is to marry, or remarry, to get the assistance of another adult

The Western egalitarian ideal that an individual should be free to marry whomever he or she chooses has contributed to the apparent instability of marital relationships

Part of the problem is the emphasis placed on the importance of youth and glamour, especially of women and romantic love

Female youth and beauty are glaringly exploited by women’s fashion, cosmetics, movies, recorded-music as well as advertisements for cigarettes and automobiles

not all North Americans are taken in by this, but it does influence marriage decisions

The most serious matter of marriage is the making of allies of two families through the marriage bond

Choice of Spouse

Marriages tend to be arranged for the economic and political advantage of the family unit because:

marriage involves the transfer of rights between families, including:

rights to property rights over the children sexual rights

Arranged marriages still occur among first-generation immigrants and ethnic immigrants who serve to preserve traditional values that they fear might be lost

ex. India Among families of wealth and power, marriages may be arranged by

segregating their children in private schools to carefully steer them toward “proper” marriages

Patrilateral parallel cousin marriage is a marriage of those in which a man marries his father’s brother’s daughter or of a women to her father’s brother’s son

All these societies are hierarchical in nature; some people have more property than others, and property of interest to men is inherited by daughters as well as sons

When patrilateral parallel cousin marriage occurs, property is retained within the male line of descent

The greater the property, the more this form of parallel-cousin marriage is apt to occur

Cousin Marriage

Matrilateral cross-cousin marriage is the marriage of a woman to her father’s sister’s son or of a man to his mother’s brother’s daughter (a cross cousin is the child of a mother’s brother or a father’s sister)

ex. Preferred among Australian Aborigines, the Haida of Canada’s Queen Charlotte Islands and various people of South India

These marriages help establish and maintain ties of solidarity between social groups

Patrilateral cross-cousin marriage is the marriage of a man to his father’s sister’s daughter

ex. The young men of the Columbia and southwestern Alaska prefer this marriage

Marriage to a close relative keeps wealth within the family and enables individuals to marry someone of equal rank

When a couple decides to get married, they sit in public on the man’s veranda

Groom’s father and mother’s brother collect valuables to give to the wife’s maternal kin and father

After first year of marriage, the bride’s mother provides the meals

This gift giving between families is to bind the family’s together so that people respect/ honour the marriage and for the woman’s kin to take care of her husband in the future

Marriages are formalized by an economic exchange (gift giving)

Trobrianders

Marriages are formalized by economic exchanges such as a bride price (bride wealth) which is giving money or other valuables to a bride’s parents.

Another form of compensation is “my son will marry your daughter if your son will marry my daughter” (exchange of women between families) or bride service, when the groom works for the bride’s family

In many cultures where economy is based on intensive agriculture, women bring a dowry with them at marriage

Dowry: Payment of woman’s inheritance at the time of her marriage, either by her or her husband

Dowry can ensure that a woman is supported should she ever become a widow or divorced

Dowry also shows the economic status of the women in societies where the differences in wealth are important

Marriage is a form of economic exchange, creating alliances between two families as it helps each kin group’s chance of survival and creates a support network between the families

Not Just the Trobrianders

Divorce in non-Western cultures is a concerning matter and can be done for a variety of reasons ex. #1Gusii of Kenya: Being sterile/impotent = divorce ex. #2 Chenchu of Hyderabad and First nations of northern Canada: divorce is discouraged and the couple is encouraged to work out their problems ex. #3 In Contrast, a Hopi woman of the United States can divorce her husband by putting his stuff outside, meaning that he’s not welcome ex. #4 Yahgan of South America: divorce is common and was justified if the husband was cruel or did not provide properly

Divorce

Divorce rates are high in the West North American marriage is supposed

to be enduring, supportive, full of love/ affection but in societies where people only seek their personal gains at someone else’s expense, marriage does not always live up to that ideal

Harsh treatment / neglect of spouses (towards wives) is not rare and people are more tolerant of violence towards spouses and kids than of violence against outsiders

People are no longer willing to “stick it out at all costs”

Divorce is increasingly practiced towards marriages that do not work