TYPES AND FORMS OF MARRIAGE
Depending on the number of spouses, marriage system is classified into the following forms... —
- Monogamy: Monogamy is the marriage of one man to one women at a time.
- Polygamy / plural marriage:- It can be any of the following types :
a) Polygyny: The marriage of one man to two or more women at a time.
b) Polyandry: The marriage of one woman to two or more men at a time.
c) Group marriage: The marriage of two or more women to two or more men at a time.
MONOGAMY:
- Anthropologists who took an evolutionary approach to the study of culture once believed ' that monogamy, like monotheism and industrialism, to be a sign of progress and civilization.
- Which is in no way related to that society's level of civilization
- Monogamy occurs world wide.
- Economic and population factors in the society tend to limit the number of spouses. In most of the cases, only the most powerful and wealthy men can afford to have more than one wife.
- In some cases there simply are not enough women to allow for two or more wives to every man.
- The form of monogamy characterizing the Western society is termed as serial monogamy. This consists of a pattern of marriage, divorce and another marriage. one person at a time
- Preferential or prescribed forms of mating limit the number of possible marital linkages, for example Khasi, Santhal and Radars.
- There are instances of high rate of bride price which limits the number of spouses or forces only monogamy.
POLYGAMY:-
- it is fairly widespread all over the world. Even in tribal India polygamy is wide spread. Polygamy is of two types - Polygyny and Polyandry.
- Polygyny and polyandry are referred commonly as polygamy. Polygyny ex- Baiga, Nagas, Gonds, and Todas
- Polyandry is comparatively restricted in its distribution. Ex - Todas, the Kota, the Khasaand the Ladakhi bota from Kashmir to Assam including nepal, among the Indo-Aryansand also the Mongoloid people.
- ln India polyandry of two types,
When several brothers share the same wife, as among Khasa and Toda, have Adelphic/ Fraternal polyandry. It prevents the division of limited agri land in mountains and assets, the women who gets married is economically very sound as 2-3, husbands working for her, but immature treatment of youngest husband by wife and getting attracted to him more later is seen, but the younger brother also wishes to get a similar aged woman instead of an older woman.
- But major drawback is of unmarried woman who become servants in households or start their own, get no patrilineal possessions, limited economic or educational opportunities, in early tibet they were generally sent to cities in young age as servant. They though were not excluded from reproduction, many unmarried had children as single mother, they could become budhist nuns. Tibetan women get property if she has no brother and can start a marriage life.
- Early reasons were given that high female infanticide led to polyandry, it got proved wrong as tibet had no institutionalised infanticide.
- Other reason that if property gets divided they will have to beg is also a question because , it was observed in land owning community, not first in poor people, and also if poor they never starved because of low population and high demand for labor.
- Another reason is family fission, but brothers with their wives can also live in joint family, not necessary to break. But in joint family competion for resources occur as woman with more sons can demand more compared to woman with only daughters. It makes inheriting property unstable.
- +ve - economic advantages for males is higher as they can work together and prevent split/ family fission, woman who gets married also has many advantages. Another aspect is it reduces population growth as only 1 woman can conceive at a time.
Divorce was easy just by leaving the house and can start his own and marry someone else, even if he had fathered a child of ex wife.
- The chinese have not tolerated it and is not practiced now (mostly) in tibet and china. In ladakh and India polyandry was ended in 1941 with the budhist polyandrous marriage act. Though can be seen still practiced in rural areas ,tribes ,etc.
- Primogeniture in europe - the eldest son inherits family estate by permitting only 1 heir per generation. The brothers often had to start their own family or prefer army or clergy.
Non Adelphic Polyandry wife goes to spend some time with each husband. So long as the women live with one of her husbands, the others have no claim over her. Eg Todas and Nayar polyandry is considered to be of this type. (todas practice both fraternal and non fraternal polyandry).
- Familial/ biogenerational polyandry- father and son share a wife eg- Tibetans, very rare though.
Hypergamy: act of marrying a person of superior caste or class. caste in India, gives rise to restrictions/limits beyond which a man and a woman cannot go in the choice of a spouse, of course, he or she must invariably marry outside his or her own clan.
- if a high caste woman marries a low caste man she loses her caste status which is indicative of a degree of ritual purity. Until marriage a daughter shares her father's caste status and after the marriage her husband's. But a man does not loose his caste status or the ritual purity by marrying a low caste woman, though his offspring would suffer from a partial lowering from their father's caste status. Therefore, to prevent a woman from losing Her caste and becoming impure, Manu and other ancient law givers prescribed hypergamous marriage{anuloma) under which a man can marry from his own caste or from those below, but a woman can marry only in her caste or above.
Hypogamy (pratiloma) - act of marrying a person of a lower caste/class. Marriage of a woman to a man from a lower caste is not permitted. The social consequences of such a system is not only obvious but also is explained in the historical facts. Thus in the last century, Brahmin girls had either to hold out thе temptation of huge dowries or choose between polygyny or spinsterhood (older unmarried woman above prescribed marrying age ). Among the Kulin Brahmins of West Bengal, young men took to marrying several wives and would visit them at the latter’s houses; otherwise in the absence of financial solvency, which would solve the problem, spinsterhood was the only other alternative. Because of this reason, the Brahmins have traditionally despised female children and a daughter has become a synonym for a curse and the cause of her parents' discomfort and humility.
Among the Sudras, the males, as a consequence of hypogamy, have to pay a high bride price or to choose between polyandry and bachelorhood. This might have inspired the evolution of a system of marriage by capture in the lower castes.
Outcome of hyper/hypogamy -
- Untouchables- chandala, nishadar
- Mixed castes- diversity.
Group Marriages: Group marriage is a type of marriage in which sets of males and sets of females share equal rights over each other, as for example the Marquesans of Polynesia.
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