Forms of Marriage

Polyandry

One woman with two or more husbands at the same time. It is rare, and recorded in relatively few societies.

Kinds. Fraternal or adelphic polyandry, where the husbands are brothers, the arrangement associated with the Toda of the Nilgiris and with some Himalayan communities; and non-fraternal, where they are not, in which the woman may live separately and the husbands visit.

Causes commonly given. A scarcity of women, whether from female infanticide or from migration; poverty and the wish to avoid dividing a small holding among brothers, which is the explanation most often given for the Himalayan cases; and heavy bride price, which several brothers can meet jointly but none alone.

The problem it creates, and the reason it needs a custom to solve it, is the determination of fatherhood. Societies practising fraternal polyandry commonly assign paternity by a ritual rather than by biology, which is a striking illustration of the point in [Marriage: Meaning and Functions] that legitimacy is a social assignment and not a biological fact.

Group marriage

Several men married to several women simultaneously. Whether it has ever existed as a stable institution is disputed; it is reported for very few societies and some anthropologists doubt the reports. Mention it, and say that its existence as a regular form is doubtful.

Part two: forms by rules of choice

Endogamy

The rule that a person must marry within a specified group. Indian society is the classic instance: caste endogamy is the rule that a person marries within their own caste or sub-caste, and it is the mechanism by which caste reproduces itself, as [Caste] explains.

Endogamy may be by caste, sub-caste, tribe, village in some communities, religion, race or class. Its social function is to preserve the group's purity, property, and identity, and its social cost is the enforcement, which at its most extreme includes violence against those who breach it.

Exogamy

The rule that a person must marry outside a specified group. Its universal core is the incest prohibition, forbidding marriage within close degrees of kinship, which is found in every known society though the degrees differ.

Indian forms include gotra exogamy, forbidding marriage within the same clan; pravara exogamy; sapinda exogamy, forbidding marriage within specified degrees of relationship; and village exogamy in parts of north India.

Why the incest prohibition is universal. Three explanations are usually given, and an answer that gives all three is complete. The biological explanation points to the effects of inbreeding, though societies without genetics arrived at the rule anyway. The psychological explanation, from Westermarck, holds that people raised together develop a sexual indifference towards one another. The sociological explanation, associated with Tylor and developed by Levi-Strauss, is the strongest: prohibiting marriage inside the group compels alliance outside it, so exogamy is what knits separate groups into a wider society. Tylor's formulation, that a group must marry out or be killed out, is worth remembering.

Note the apparent contradiction and resolve it, because examiners like this: Indian marriage rules are simultaneously endogamous and exogamous. One must marry within the caste and outside the gotra. There is no contradiction, because the two rules operate on different groups: endogamy fixes the outer boundary, exogamy the inner one, and a spouse must be found in the space between.

Hypergamy and hypogamy

Hypergamy, in India called anuloma, is the practice by which a woman marries a man of higher status or caste. It was recognised in parts of the country and produced predictable consequences: an acute shortage of grooms of the highest rank, competition for them, and the inflation of dowry, which is one of the standard sociological explanations of the dowry system's persistence.

Hypogamy, called pratiloma, is a woman marrying a man of lower status, and was widely disapproved.

The pair is worth learning because it is short, frequently asked, and directly connected to a live social problem.

The classifications compared

A worked example

A family in a north Indian village looks for a husband for their daughter.

Endogamy sets the outer boundary: the search stays within the caste, and in practice within the sub-caste.

Exogamy sets the inner boundary: the boy must not be of the same gotra, must not fall within the prohibited degrees, and in some communities must not be from the same village or from the villages of the mother's or grandmother's natal families.

Hypergamy sets the direction: a boy of slightly higher standing within the caste is preferred, and because many families prefer the same thing, the supply of such boys is short and the transfer demanded on marriage rises.

The result is a very small eligible set, sometimes a few dozen people across several districts, which explains a great deal that puzzles outsiders: the elaborate networks and intermediaries used to find a match, the distances travelled, and the severity of the reaction when a young person chooses outside the set. Almost every feature of the arrangement follows from the intersection of the rules, and that is what a good answer shows rather than merely listing the forms.

What this does NOT mean

Permitted is not the same as practised. Where polygyny is lawful it is usually a small minority of marriages.

These are forms, not stages. They are not steps in an evolutionary sequence, and the nineteenth century attempt to arrange them as one is not accepted.

Endogamy and exogamy are not opposites in practice. As shown above, the same society applies both to different groups.

Legality is a separate question. This chapter classifies social forms; which are lawful in India is a matter of personal and general law and varies between communities.

Quick revision

1. Two independent bases: number of spouses, and rules of choice.
2. Monogamy: one at a time; serial and strict. The most widespread.
3. Polygyny: one man, several wives; sororal and non-sororal. Commonest form of polygamy; practised by a minority even where lawful.
4. Polyandry: one woman, several husbands; fraternal (adelphic), as among the Toda, and non-fraternal. Causes: shortage of women, poverty and undivided holdings, heavy bride price. It requires a custom for assigning fatherhood.
5. Group marriage: existence as a stable form is doubtful.
6. Endogamy: marry within (caste, tribe, religion). Exogamy: marry outside (gotra, sapinda, prohibited degrees). Indian rules are both at once, on different groups.
7. Incest prohibition is universal; the strongest explanation is sociological: exogamy compels alliance and builds a wider society.
8. Hypergamy = anuloma, woman marries up; hypogamy = pratiloma, woman marries down. Hypergamy is a standard explanation for dowry inflation.

Test yourself

1. Classify the forms of marriage on both bases. By number of spouses: monogamy, one man to one woman at a time, in serial and strict varieties; polygamy, comprising polygyny, one man with several wives, in sororal and non-sororal forms, and polyandry, one woman with several husbands, in fraternal and non-fraternal forms; and group marriage, whose existence as a stable institution is doubtful. By rules of choice: endogamy, marriage within a specified group; exogamy, marriage outside one; and the directional forms hypergamy and hypogamy.

2. What is fraternal polyandry and what explains it? Polyandry in which the husbands are brothers, recorded among the Toda of the Nilgiris and in parts of the Himalaya. The explanations usually given are a scarcity of women, sometimes from female infanticide; poverty combined with the wish to avoid dividing a small holding among several brothers, since one wife for all of them keeps the property and the household intact; and a bride price too heavy for one brother but affordable jointly.

3. Distinguish endogamy from exogamy and show how Indian marriage rules use both. Endogamy requires marriage within a specified group, exogamy outside one. Indian rules apply both to different groups: a person must marry within their caste or sub-caste, which is endogamy, and outside their gotra and the prohibited degrees of relationship, which is exogamy. Endogamy fixes the outer boundary of the eligible set and exogamy the inner one.

4. Why is the incest prohibition universal? Give the three explanations. The biological explanation points to the harmful effects of close inbreeding, though societies arrived at the rule without knowing genetics. The psychological explanation, from Westermarck, is that people raised in close proximity from childhood develop sexual indifference to one another. The sociological explanation, from Tylor and developed by Levi-Strauss, is the strongest: by forbidding marriage inside the group the rule compels alliance outside it, so that separate groups are bound into a wider society. Tylor put it that a group must marry out or be killed out.

5. What are hypergamy and hypogamy, and how does hypergamy connect to dowry? Hypergamy, anuloma, is a woman marrying a man of higher status or caste; hypogamy, pratiloma, is her marrying one of lower status, and was widely disapproved. Hypergamy connects to dowry because if many families seek grooms of higher standing, the supply of such grooms is short relative to demand, and competition among the brides' families for a limited set of desirable matches raises the transfer demanded, which is one of the standard sociological explanations of dowry inflation.