CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

DRAFT
OF

SOCIOLOGY

ON
TRADITIONAL FORM OF MARRIAGES AND THEIR
DYNAMICS

SUBMITTED TO SUBMITTED BY
Dr. Shakil Ahmed SHASHI BHUSHAN
B.A.LL.B.(HONS.)
(FACULTY OF SOCIOLOGY) Roll No. - 2158

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TABLE OF CONTENT

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 DECLARATION

I Shashi Bhushan, hereby declare that, the project work entitled,

‘Traditional forms of marriages and Their Dynamics’ submitted to C.N.L.U.,
Patna is record of an original work done by me under the guidance of, Faculty
Member, C.N.L.U., Patna.

Shashi Bhushan
Roll No. – 2158
Semester – I
B.A.LL.B.(HON.)

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First & foremost, I would like to thank my Sociology teacher Prof. Dr. Shakil Ahmed
for giving me opportunity to work on this project named “Traditional Forms of
Marriages and Their Dynamics”. His guidance and support has been instrumental while
making my project on this important issue.
I would also like to thank all authors, writers, columnists and social thinkers whose
ideas and works have been made use of in my Project.
My heartfelt gratitude also goes to all staff and administration of CNLUfor the
infrastructure in the form of our library and IT lab that was a great source of help in the
completion of this Project. I also thank my friends for their precious inputs which have
been very useful in the completion of this Project.
I would also like to thank my parents, my seniors, dear colleagues and friends in the
University, who have helped me with ideas about this work.
I hope you will appreciate my true work which is indeed a hard work and a result of my
true research work.

Shashi Bhushan
Roll no. - 2158
Semester- I
B.A. LL.B. (Hons.)

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 INTRODUCTION

Marriage is one of the universal social institutions. It is established by the human society to
control and regulate the sex life of man. It is closely connected with the institution of family.
In fact, family and marriage are complementary top each other. Marriage is a socially
approved way of establishing a family of procreation1 . As Westermarck has remarked,
“Marriage is rooted in the family rather than the family in the marriage”. Marriage is an
institution of society which can have very different implications in different cultures. In
purposes, functions and forms may differ from society to society, but it is present
everywhere as an institution. Marriage (also called matrimony or wedlock) is a socially or
ritually recognized union or legal contract between spouses that establishes rights and
obligations between them, between them and their children, and between them and their in-
laws2. The definition of marriage varies according to different cultures, but it is principally
an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually sexual, are acknowledged. In
some cultures, marriage is recommended or considered to be compulsory before pursuing
any sexual activity. When defined broadly, marriage is considered a cultural universal.
Marriage can be recognized by a state, an organization, a religious authority, a tribal group,
a local community or peers. It is often viewed as a contract. Civil marriage is a marriage
without religious content carried out by a government institution in accordance with
marriage laws of the jurisdiction, and recognised as creating the rights and obligations
intrinsic to matrimony. Marriages can be performed in a secular civil ceremony or in a
religious setting via a wedding ceremony. The act of marriage usually creates normative or
legal obligations between the individuals involved, and any offspring they may produce. In
terms of legal recognition, most sovereign states and other jurisdictions limit marriage to
opposite-sex couples and a diminishing number of these permit polygyny, child marriages,
and forced marriages. Over the twentieth century, a growing number of countries and other
jurisdictions have lifted bans on and have established legal recognition for interracial
marriage, interfaith marriage and most lately, same-sex marriage. Some cultures allow the
dissolution of marriage through divorce or annulment. In some areas, child marriages and

1 Gillin and Gillin

2 Haviland, William A.; Prins, Harald E. L.; McBride, Bunny; Walrath, Dana
(2011). Cultural Anthropology: The Human Challenge (13th ed.). Cengage
Learning. ISBN 978-0-495-81178-7. "A nonethnocentric definition of marriage is
a culturally sanctioned union between two or more people that establishes
certain rights and obligations between the people, between them and their
children, and between them and their in-laws.

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polygamy may occur in spite of national laws against the practice.

Since the late twentieth century, major social changes in Western countries have led to
changes in the demographics of marriage, with the age of first marriage increasing,
fewer people marrying, and more couples choosing to cohabit rather than marry.
For example, the number of marriages in Europe decreased by 30% from 1975 to 2005.[4]

Historically, in most cultures, married women had very few rights of their own, being
considered, along with the family's children, the property of the husband; as such, they
could not own or inherit property, or represent themselves legally (see for example
coverture). In Europe, the United States, and other places in the developed world, beginning
in the late 19th century and lasting through the 21st century, marriage has undergone gradual
legal changes, aimed at improving the rights of the wife. These changes included giving
wives legal identities of their own, abolishing the right of husbands to physically discipline
their wives, giving wives property rights, liberalizing divorce laws, providing wives with
reproductive rights of their own, and requiring a wife's consent when sexual relations occur.
These changes have occurred primarily in Western countries. In the 21st century, there
continue to be controversies regarding the legal status of married women, legal acceptance
or leniency towards violence within marriage (especially sexual violence), traditional
marriage customs such as dowry and bride price, forced marriage, marriageable age, and
criminalization of consensual behaviors such as premarital and extramarital sex.

CHARACTERISTICS OF MARRIAGES:
 Universality: Marriage is more or less a universal institution. It is found among the
preliterate as well as literate people. It is enforced as a social rule in some of the
societies. Examples: In Japan, celibacy is publicly condemned. In Korea, unmarried
individuals are called ‘half’ persons. Among the Hindus, marriage is a sacrament
which is regarded as more or less obligatory. The Todas of Nilgiris refuse to perform
funeral rites for a girl if she dies before her marriage. But they do perform it after
completing some sort of marriage ceremony for the corpse. According to the Chinese
philosopher Confucius, an individual who remains unmarried throughout his life
commits a great crime. As Levi-Strauss, has observed that the unmarried primitives
of Central Brazil are made to lead a miserable life.
 Relationship Between Man and Woman: Marriage is a union of man and woman. It

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indicates relationship between one or more men to one or more women. Who should
marry whom? One should marry how many? - are the questions which represent
social rules regarding marriage which differ significantly.
 Marriage Bond is Enduring: marriage is a long lasting bond between the husband
and wife. Hence it is not coextensive with sex life. It excludes relationships with
prostitutes or any other sexual relationship which is viewed as casual and not
sanctioned by custom, law or church. Marital relationship between man and woman
lasts even after the sexual satisfaction is obtained. The Hindus, for example, believe
that marriage is a sacred bond between the husband and wife which even the death
cannot break.
 Marriage requires Social Approval: a union of man and woman becomes a marital
bond only when the society gives its approval. When marriage is given the hallmark
of social approval, it becomes a legal contract.
 Marriage is Associated With Some Civil or Religious Ceremony: Marriage gets its
social recognition through ceremony. This ceremony may have its own rites, rituals,
customs ,formalities, etc. it means marriage has to be concluded in a public and
solemn manner. Sometimes it receives as a sacrament the blessings of religion.
Marriage among Hindus, for example, is regarded as a sacrament. It is connected
with rituals such as- Homa, Saptapadi, Panigrahana, Mangalya-Dharana, etc.

 Marriage Creates Mutual Obligation: Marriage imposed certain rights and duties
on both the husband and wife. Both are required to support each other and their
children.

IMPORTANCE OF MARRIAGE:

a) Regulation of Sex Life: Marriage is the powerful instrument of regulating the sex
life of man. Sexual impulse is powerful in man. He is exposed to its influence
throughout his life. It is an urgent and an irresistible need of man. It has to be
controlled and regulated in a proper m,anner to avoid chaos and confusion in society.
Marriage has come to be such a regulative means.

b)Marriage Leads to Establishment of Family: Sexual satisfaction offered by

marriage results in self perpetuation. It means marriage insists on the couple to

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establish a family of procreation. It is here that the children are born and bred up. It
is the marriage which determines the descent of the new born individual. Inheritance
and succession follow the rule of descent.

c)Provides for Economic Cooperation: marriage makes division of labous possible on

the basis of sex. Partners of marriage distribute and divide work among themselves
and perform them. In some of the primitive tribes we find a clear cut division of
work between the husband and wife. Even in the modern industrial societies,
we find husband and wife working outside the family to get more income to elevate their
economic status.
d) Marriage Contributes to Emotional and Intellectual Interstimulation of the
Partners: marriage brings life partners together and helps them to develop intense
love and affection towards each other. It deepens the emotions and strengthens the
companionship between the two. It also helps them to develop intellectual
cooperation between them.

e)Marriage aims at Social Solidarity: Marriage not only brings two individuals of the
opposite sex together but also their respective families, groups and kindreds.
Friendship between the groups is reinforced through marriage. It is often suggested
that by encouraging marriages between different castes, creeds, races, classes,
religious and linguistic communities, it is possible to minimise the social distance
between groups and strengthens their solidarity.

The traditional forms of marriages are :

a) Monogamy
b) Polyandry
c ) Polygyny
d) Group or plural marriages
e)Child marriage

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 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

I To discuss and analyse the various aspects of a few traditional forms of

marriages in general without being religion specific

II To discuss about their historical background and the societies they are
prevalent in.
III To discuss about their advantages or disadvantages and their implications on
the society.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Nature of Research
This research work is descriptive and analytical in nature. It describes the traditional forms
of marriages and their dynamics. My research isn’t specific religion based. However, I have
cited traditional forms of Hindu marriage to exemplify a particular form of marriage. My
entire research is quite general in method.

Sources of Data

This study is done with the help of secondary data. This secondary information has been
obtained from published sources such as books, journals, websites, doctrines, research
works etc.

Mode of Citation

A uniform mode of citation has been adopted and followed consistently throughout this
paper.

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 MONOGAMY

Monogamy is a form of relationship in which an individual has only one partner during their
lifetime or at any one time (serial monogamy). This is the most widespread type of
marriage found among the primitives as well as the civilised people. If it was very popular5
during the early times, it has almost become a universal practise at present. It is practised
among the tribals such as Kadars, Santals, the Khasis, the Canella, the Hopi, the Iroquois,
the Andaman Islanders, the Veddas of Ceylon, the Sevangas of Malaya and others.
Monogamy has a long history of its own. Westermarck is of the opinion that monogamy is
as old as humanity. Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle had recommended only
monogamous marriage. Ancient Romans and Spartans also had given recognition to it.
Ancient Jews, Christians and Indians had given importance to it. Ancient Hindus regarded
monogamy as the most ideal form of marriage.
Marital monogamy may be further distinguished between:
 marriage once in a lifetime;
 marriage with only one person at a time, in contrast to bigamy or polygamy.
 serial monogamy (remarriage after death or divorce)

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF MONOGAMY:

Biological Arguments:
Monogamy, does exist in many societies around the world 3, and it is important to understand
how these marriage systems might have evolved. In humans, the main theoretical sources of
monogamy are paternal care and extreme ecological stresses4 . Paternal care should be
particularly important in humans due to the extra nutritional requirement of having larger
brains and the lengthier developmental period. Therefore, the evolution of monogamy could
be a reflection of this increased need for bi-parental care. Similarly, monogamy should
evolve in areas of ecological stress because male reproductive success should be higher if
their resources are focused on ensuring offspring survival rather than searching for other
mates.[2] However, the evidence does not support these claims. Due to the extreme sociality
and increased intelligence of humans, Homo Sapiens have solved many problems that
generally lead to monogamy, such as those mentioned above. For example, monogamy is
certainly correlated with paternal care, but not caused by it because humans diminish the

3 Murdock GP (1981) Atlas of world cultures, University of Pittsburgh Press,

Pittsburgh.
4 Reichard, Ulrich H. (2003). "Monogamy: past and present”

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need for bi-parental care through the aid of siblings and other family members in rearing the
offspring 5 . Furthermore, human intelligence and material culture allows for better adaptation
to different and rougher ecological areas, thus reducing the causation and even correlation of
monogamous marriage and extreme climates.

Paleoanthropology and genetic studies offer two perspectives on when monogamy evolved
in the human species: paleoanthropologists offer tentative evidence that monogamy may
have evolved very early in human history 6 whereas genetic studies show that monogamy
evolved much more recently, less than 10 to 20,000 years ago.

The genetic evidence for the evolution of monogamy in humans is more complex but much
more straightforward. While female effective population size (the number of individuals
successfully producing offspring thus contributing to the gene pool), as indicated by
mitochondrial-DNA evidence, increased around the time of human (not hominid) expansion
out of Africa about 80,000–100,000 years ago, male effective population size, as indicated
by Y-chromosome evidence, did not increase until the advent of agriculture 18,000 years
ago. This means that before 18 000 years ago, many females would be reproducing with the
same few males.

Cultural Arguments:
Despite the human ability to avoid sexual and genetic monogamy, social monogamy still
forms under many different conditions, but most of those conditions are consequences of
cultural processes. These cultural processes may have nothing to do with relative
reproductive success. Monogamy is part of a cultural complex found in the broad swath of
Eurasian societies from Japan to Ireland that practice social monogamy, sexual monogamy
and dowry (i.e. "diverging devolution", that allow property to be inherited by children of
both sexes). In plough agriculture farming is largely men's work and is associated with
private property; marriage tends to be monogamous to keep the property within the nuclear
family. Close family (endogamy) are the preferred marriage partners to keep property within
the group 7 . A molecular genetic study of global human genetic diversity argued that sexual
polygyny was typical of human reproductive patterns until the shift to sedentary farming
communities approximately 10,000 to 5,000 years ago in Europe and Asia, and more
recently in Africa and the Americas 8 . A further study drawing on the Ethnographic Atlas
showed a statistical correlation between increasing size of the society, the belief in "high
gods" to support human morality, and monogamy. A survey of other cross-cultural samples
has confirmed that the absence of the plough was the only predictor of polygamy, although
other factors such as high male mortality in warfare (in non-state societies) and pathogen
stress (in state societies) had some impact.

5 Low B.S. (2003) Ecological and social complexities in human monogamy.

6 Reno PL, Meindl RS, McCollum MA, Lovejoy CO (2003). "Sexual dimorphism in
Australopithecus afarensis was similar to that of modern humans"
7 Goody, Jack (1976). Production and Reproduction: A Comparative Study of the
Domestic Domain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
8 Dupanloup I, Pereira L, Bertorelle G, Calafell F, Prata MJ, Amorim A, Barbujani
G (2003). "A recent shift from polygyny to monogamy in humans is suggested
by the analysis of worldwide Y-chromosome diversity".

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culture/society can also be a source of social monogamy by enforcing it through rules and
laws set by third-party actors, usually in order to protect the wealth or power of the elite. For
example, Augustus Caesar encouraged marriage and reproduction to force the aristocracy to
divide their wealth and power among multiple heirs, but the aristocrats kept their socially
monogamous, legitimate children to a minimum to ensure their legacy while having many
extra-pair copulations9. Similarly—according to Betzig—the Christian Church enforced
monogamy because wealth passed to the closest living, legitimate male relative, often
resulting in the wealthy oldest brother being without a male heir. Thus, the wealth and
power of the family would pass to the “celibate” younger brother of the church 10 . In both of
these instances, the rule-making elite used cultural processes to ensure greater reproductive
fitness for themselves and their offspring, leading to a larger genetic influence in future
generations. Furthermore, the laws of the Christian Church, in particular, were important in
the evolution of social monogamy in humans. They allowed, even encouraged, poor men to
marry and produce offspring which reduced the gap in reproductive success between the
rich and poor, thus resulting in the quick spread of monogamous marriage systems in the
western world.

Other theorists use cultural factors influencing reproductive success to explain monogamy.
During times of major economic / demographic transitions, investing more in a fewer
offspring (social monogamy not polygyny) increases reproductive success by ensuring the
offspring themselves have enough initial wealth to be successful 11 . This is seen in both
England and Sweden during the industrial revolution[2] and is currently being seen in the
modernization of rural Ethiopia.[49] Similarly, in modern industrialized societies, fewer yet
better-invested offspring, i.e. social monogamy, can provide a reproductive advantage over
social polygyny, but this still allows for serial monogamy and extra-pair copulations.

9 Betzig L. (1992). "Roman Monogamy".

10 Betzig L. (1995). "Medieval Monogamy"
11 Low B.S. (2003) Ecological and Social Complexities in Human Monogamy.

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