MARRIAGE

SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS

 Marriage, kinship, family, economic, educational,

political, educational institutions
DEFINITION
 Socially acknowledged
 Legally ratified union between adult male and female
CHARACTERISTICS
 Universal
 Legitimisation of children
HISTORY OR ORIGIN OF MARRIAGE

MORGAN
 Sex unregulated
 Group marriages, polygamy
 Monogamy
WESTERMARK
 Began with monogamy
 Male possessive nature
BRIFFAULT
 Initial stage, mother, her supreme authority
 FUNCTIONS OF MARRIAGE
BIOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS
 Regulate sexual relations
 Reproduction
 Perpetuation of race of society
SOCIAL FUNCTIONS
 To acquire new kinsmen
 Women get security
EDUCATIONAL FUNCTIONS
 Parents to educate young ones
 Through enculturation
TYPES OF MARRIAGE – EXOGAMY,
ENDOGAMY
EXOGAMY
 Marriage outside the group
 Gothra, Sapinda exogamies
INCEST TABOO
 Brother – sister prohibited
 Incest – offences
ENDOGAMY
 Marriage within group
 Caste – endogamous
MATING RULES OF EXOGAMY AND
ENDOGAMY
CROSS COUSIN MARRIAGE
 To marry mother’s brother’s daughter, or father’s sister’s
daughter
PARALLEL COUSIN MARRIAGE
 To marry mother’s sister’s daughter or father’s brother’s
daughter
LEVIRATE
 Marrying deceased husband’s brother
SORRORATE
 Marrying deceased wife’s sister
MONOGAMY
One man marrying one woman

SERIAL MONOGAMY
 Individual will have life ate one after the other
NON – SERIAL MONOGAMY
 Individual lives only with one life mate until death

POLYGAMY
One man has two or more wives at a time
SORRORATE POLYGAMY
 All the wives of the man are sisters
NON SORRORATE POLYGAME
 The wives of the man are not sisters
POLYANDRY
Woman marries more than one man at a given time

FRATERNAL POLYANDRY
 Woman marries all the brothers of her husband
NON FRATERNAL POLYANDRY
 One woman has many husbands who are not brothers
OTHER TYPES OF MARRIAGES
 Promiscuity – No regulation of sex relationship
 Concubinage – Living together as husband and wife without
marriage
 Hyper gamy – Marriage of daughter in the superior and noble
family