This is our report for Anthropology 1 and our Topic was Marriage Marriage: definition, Types of marriage (how does one marry), economic aspects of marriage, theories on incest tabboo, Whom Should One marry?, Family

1. What is Marriage?
A socially approved sexual and economic
union, usually between a woman and a man

2. Marriage…
Is presumed to be more or less permanent (Stephens,
1963)
Unites the economic and the social (Murdock, 1949)
Is universal
Varies from society to society

3. Functions of Marriage:
 Marriage regulates sexual behavior.
 Marriage fulfills the economic needs of marriage partners.
 Marriage perpetuates kinship groups.
 Marriage provides institution for the care and enculturation of
children.

4. Nayar of Southern India
There were two kinds of marriage:
talikettu kalyanam
(necklet-tying ceremony); and
sambandham
(the customary nuptials of a man and woman)

5. Nayar of Southern India

6. Nayar of Southern India

7. Bontoc Tribe of the Philippines
They practice trial marriage wherein the
girl at puberty lives in a house called ulog
where probable husbands can come and
have sex with her; if she gets pregnant,
they get married.

8. Bontoc Tribe of the Philippines

9. Why is marriage UNIVERSAL?
• 1. Gender division of Labor
– Males and females of every society perform
different economic activities
– Marriage becomes a mechanism with which
women and men share the products of their labor

10. 2. Prolonged infant dependency
-humans exhibits te longest infant dependencyamong
primates
- this gives the woman, the main child caregiver,
additional burden and may limit the work that she does and may
need the man to do other work such as hunting which is not
compatible with child care; this prolonged child dependency may
have lead to the institution of marriage

11. 3. Sexual Competition
-unlike most female primates, the human female
may engage in intercourse any time of the year; this
continuous female sexuality may have posed problems
in sexual competitions among males for females
- in order to solve this sexual competition,
marriage was instituted

12. • Many societies exhibit different practices
on marking the onset of marriage
• The marriage ceremony is manifested by
feasting among many societies thus publicly
announcing the union
Swedish royal wedding
clothes from
1766, Livrustkammaren
in Stockholm
Nepali wedding party in
traditional dress
A Muslim couple being wed
alongside the Tungabhadra
River at Hampi, India.
Hindu marriage ceremony
from a Rajput wedding.
o How Does One Marry

13. Marriage ceremonies examples
The Taramiut Inuit
– bethrothal arranged by parents
before children reach puberty
– when youth is ready, he moves in
with his bethrothed’s family for
the trial period
– if the girl gives birth within a year,
then they are considered married
– The wife will go with her husband
to his camp
This Inuit wedding party poses outside of Saint
Michael's Church in Alaska.

14. Marriage ceremonies examples
• The Trobriand couples
– Advertise their desire to marry by regularly sleeping together, showing themselves in
public, and by remaining with each other for long periods of time
– When a girl accepts gift from a boy, it means that her parent approves of the match
– She moves to the boy’s house and partakes with their meal from then on
– Word is passed around that the couple are married

15. Marriage ceremonies examples
• The Kwoma of New Guinea
– Trial marriage followed by ceremony declaring the couple
husband and wife
– The girl lives with the boy’s family for a while
– When the mother and the boy is satisfied with the match, the
mother lets the girl prepare food while the boy is away
– When he comes back, he is given soup and told that the girl
cooked it for him. By custom, the boy is to spit the soup and
curse its terrible taste
– The ceremony will then follow declaring them married

16. Types of Marriage
 Monogamy – marriage involving one man and one woman at a time
 Serial monogamy - multiple partners in lifetime but never at the same
time
Plural Marriage – any marriage with more than two spouses
 Polygamy – Plural Marriage
 Polygyny – marriage involving a man and several women
 Polyandry – marriage involving a woman and several men
 Group Marriage – more than one man is married to more than one
woman at the same time—this type is rare and doesn’t last long
 Same-Sex Marriage

17. Monogamy - an individual has only one spouse
during their lifetime or at any one time (serial
monogamy).
• In the countries which do not
permit polygamy, a person
who marries in one of those
countries a person while still
being lawfully married to
another commits the crime of
bigamy. In all cases, the
second marriage is
considered legally null and
void. A couple following their
marriage in the Manti
Utah Temple
Newlywed couples
visit Tamerlane's statues to receive
wedding blessings in Uzbekistan

18. Serial Monogamy – only one legal spouse at
a time
• average 3 times remarry
• Divorce and remarriage can thus result in "serial monogamy",
i.e. multiple marriages but only one legal spouse at a time.
• creates a new kind of relative, the "ex-". The "ex-wife", for
example, remains an active part of her "ex-husband's" life, as
they may be tied together by transfers of resources (alimony,
child support), or shared child custody

19. Polygyny: one man marries two or more women
• This is found among societies with
intensive female labor: horticulturists,
pastoralists (top)
• Extra hands are always welcome,
mitigating co-wife jealousy.
• This is often found in societies with
wealthy men
• It is often a potential source of division
between the sons of co-wives; notice the
“fault lines” between sons of different co-
wives (bottom diagram)
• Large herds are usually reduced by such
division

20. Polyandry: one woman marries two or more men
• Found in fewer than a dozen societies, including
Tibet (upper left), Nepal, and northern India
• Fraternal polyandry is practiced in Tibet,
involving marriage of one woman to two or
more men who are brothers to each other
• There is only one child bearer, (lower left) so
there is no division between the men.
• In mountainous regions, arable land is scarce,
so it helps to maintain land as one parcel
• Polyandry also controls population growth

21. Group marriage is a marriage-like arrangement between more than two
people. Usually consisting of three to six adults, all partners live together,
share finances, children, and household responsibilities.
Examples:
• Among the Kurnai of Australia,
"unmarried men have access to
their brothers' wives.“
• Among the Ancient Hawaiians,
the relationship
of punalua involved "the fact that
two or more brothers with their
wives, or two or more sisters with
their husbands, were inclined to
possess each other in common".
Group Marriage

22. Same-Sex Marriage
• A.k.a. ‘gay marriage’
• Marriage between people of the
same sex, either as a secular civil
ceremony or in a religious setting
A same-sex couple exchanging
wedding vows in a Unitarian
Universalist Fellowship
LGBT rainbow flag

23. ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF MARRIAGE
1. BRIDE PRICE/ BRIDE WEALTH
2. BRIDE SERVICE
3. EXCHANGE OF FEMALES
4. GIFT EXCHANGE
5. DOWRY
6. INDIRECT DOWRY

24. also known as bride wealth, is
anamount of money, property or
other form of wealth paid by
a groom or his family to the parents
of the woman he has
just married or is just about to
marry.
*livestock and food are among the
most common
BRIDE PRICE/ BRIDE WEALTH

25. Nandi
5-7 cattle
1 or 2 sheep & goats
Cowrie shells &
money equivalent to
one cow

26. Subanon
(South Philippines)
Several times
higher the annual
income of the
groom plus 5 years
of bride service.

27. Manus (New
Guinea)

28. BRIDE SERVICE
is when a groom works
for the family of the
bride in exchange for
the right to marry her.
These vary in lengths
of time, others may
take several years.

29. North Alaskan Eskimo
(Inuit)

30. North and South American

31. EXCHANGE OF FEMALES
In which the family of the groom trades
one of his sister/ female relative for the
bride. These societies are horticultural and
egalitarian wherein women play very
substantial roles in primary subsistence.

32. TIV of West American

33. Yanomani of Venezuela-Brazil

34. GIFT EXCHANGE
when the families of
the bride and groom
exchange gifts of
equal value.

35. Andaman Islanders

36. DOWRY
Is practiced in cultures where women's roles are
less valued than men. This practice requires the
transfer of goods from the bride's family to the
groom to compensate for acceptance of the
responsibility of her support.
Size of dowry often determined the
desirability of daughter.

37. These societies are often.
1. Those women who often contribute
little to primary subsistence
2. Those with high degree of social
stratification
3. Those where a man is not allowed to
marry more than one woman
simultaneously

38. The dowry is intended to guarantee future support for a woman and
children even though she will not do much primary subsistence work
The dowry is intended to attract the best bridegroom for a daughter in
monogamous societies with a high degree of social inequality

39. INDIA

40. “DOWRY”
• D- Donkeys
• O- Of the first order
• W- Who cant stand on their own feet
• R- Rely on their wives riches
• Y- Yet Shameless

41. INDIRECT DOWRY
This will come from the groom’s
family as a gift to the father of the
bride who in turn gives back to the
bride

42. INCEST TABOO

43. INCEST
- Sexual intercourse between people who are very
closely related that they are forbidden by law to marry
TABOO
- A rule against doing or saying something in a particular
culture or religion
- Something that is not acceptable to talk about or do

46. THE INCEST TABOO
- A norm that prohibits sexual intercourse and marriage between
some categories of kin
- The most universal aspect is the prohibition of sexual intercourse
between parents and children of the opposite sex as well as
brothers and sisters
BUT.......
- Royal families of the past were permitted incestuous relationships in
order to maintain their status

47. Examples of Incest Taboos:
1. Royal Incest
- it allows royal brother-sister marriages.
• Manifest and Latent Functions of Behavior:
Reasons mentioned
by natives is an effect the custom has
on the society that the
native people wasn’t
able to recognize

48. 2. Caste system
• CASTE is a division of society based upon
differences of wealth, rank, or occupation.
• Are stratified groups in which membership is
ascribed at birth and is lifelong
o is an example of endogamy
Example of Caste system:
Indian Castes

49. Theories on Incest Taboo:
1. Childhood Familiarity Theory (Edward Westermarck)
- persons who have been closely associated with each
other since earliest childhood are not sexually
attracted to each other and therefore would avoid
marriage with each other
 CRITICISM: the theory does not explain why incest
taboo is not extended to first cousin marriages many
of whom grew up together

50. 2. Psychoanalytic Theory (Sigmund Freud)
- Incest taboo is a reaction to against unconscious,
unacceptable desires
- Suggested that the son is attracted to the mother
which will result in jealousy and hostility toward the
father; in order to for conflict to be avoided, the son
must renounce and repress the feelings
 CRITICISM: this theory does not explain brother-sister
incest taboo

51. 3. Family Disruption Theory (Bronislaw Malinowski)
- Sexual competition among the family members
would create so much rivalry and tension that the
family could not function as an effective unit.
 CRITICISM: how would brother-sister
relationship be disruptive of parental authority?

52. Biological Degeneration
- Another theory is that taboo emerged because early Homo
noticed that the abnormal offspring were born from
incestuous union (Morgan 1877/1963)
o Evidence: laboratory experiments with animals that
reproduce faster than humans do have been used to
investigate the effects of inbreeding
 BUT: despite the potentially harmful biological results of
systematic inbreeding, human marriage patterns are based on
specific cultural beliefs

53. 4. Cooperation Theory (Edward Tylor, Leslie
White, Claude Levi Strauss)
- incest taboo was instituted to ensure that
individuals would marry members of other
families to break down suspicion and hostility
between family groups and make such
cooperation possible.

54. 5. Inbreeding Theory
- focuses on the potentially damaging
consequences of inbreeding or marrying
within the family.
-people of the same family carry with
them the same harmful recessive genes
thus amplifying its harm to the offspring.

55. Whom should one marry?
1. Arranged marriages – joining together of two
kin groups to form new social and economic
ties.
2. Exogamy and Endogamy
Exogamy- marriage to someone outside one’s
own kin group or community.
Endogamy- marriage to someone within some
group.

56. 3. Cousin Marriage
- cross cousins
- parallel cousins
Cross cousins - children of siblings of the
opposite sex

57. Parallel cousins – children of siblings of the same sex

58. 4. Levirate and Sororate
Levirate - a custom in which a man is
obliged to marry his brother’s widow.
Sororate - obliges a woman to marry
her deceased sister’s husband.

59. The Family
-a social and economic unit consisting minimally
of one or more parents and their children
- The members always have certain reciprocal
rights and obligations
- Usually live in one household tho this is not
defining feature of a family

60. Variations of Family Form
1. Nuclear
– Composed of one or two parents and their
children
2. Extended
-composed of one or two more parents, theor
children and some other relatives

61. Reasons for extended families
1. Economic
-extended families are usually found among
sedentary agricultural economies
2. Incompatible Activity Requirements
- Requirements that cannot be met by a mother and
a father in a one-family household