Rationale D1: Exogamic Rules - Exchange & Marriage (DEM26)

Goal

These questions target different types of exogamic rules. All marriage systems have rules of exogamy, which specify the categories of individuals with whom marriage and sexual partnership are forbidden. Typically, exogamy rules are intertwined with incest taboos in that they universally forbid marriage between parents and children as well as between brothers and sisters. In addition to these basic exogamic categories, most societies extend marriage taboos to other close relatives (e.g. cousins). Exogamic rules that are broader in scope are also attested. In these cases, the outmarriage group is defined on the basis of the descent group, clan, moiety, or language group an individual belongs to.

Definitions

Marriage systems around the world have rules and tendencies of exogamy, which specify the categories of individuals with whom marriage and sexual partnership are forbidden. Typically, exogamy rules are intertwined with incest taboos in that they universally forbid marriage between parents and children as well as between brothers and sisters. In addition to these basic exogamic categories, most societies extend marriage taboos to other close relatives (e.g. cousins). Exogamic rules that are broader in scope are also attested. In these cases, the outmarriage group is usually defined on the basis of the descent group, clan, moiety, or language group an individual belongs to.

The options listed in the question correspond to the following types of exogamic rules:

  • Village or other kind of local community: A level of organisation that is closest to the household environment, but outside the realm of family and kin, e.g. village, neighbourhood, band. Marriage partners must come from different local communities/residential areas. Corresponds to phenomena such as "village exogamy"
  • Descent group or clan: Any emically defined ways of grouping people by shared ancestry and kin. Ideally a group larger than that of immediate family. The descent may be traced in anyway, e.g. patrilineally, matrilineally. Publications may refer to these groups variously as clans, kinship groups, descent groups, house systems, moiety. Corresponds to phenomena known as descent group exogamy,clan exogamy.
  • Designated marriage group such as a moiety: A moiety is a group of individuals which coexists with another group and have complementary functions in the wider social context to which both groups belong. Moieties can for instance define the different groupings of people from which marriage patterns must come. For the purposes of this questionnaire, we are interested to know whether there are any such groups that determine marriageability pools.
  • Hierarchical social group such as class or caste: Any group that is in a hierarchical relationship with one another.
  • Linguistic exogamy: Marriage partners must come from different language groups, which may or may not be affinally related with each other (for instance, via cross-cousin marriage patterns). In communities practising linguistic exogamy, language identification is based on unilineal (patrilineal vs. matrilineal) descent.

Examples

  • Descent group exogamy: Marriage partners must come from different descent groups, which are defined patrilineally or matrilineally.
  • Clan exogamy: Marriage partners must come from different clans. Clans can be defined as larger corporations of descent groups claiming common ancestry. The Sui people are a southwest Chinese community organised in several patrilineal clans each consisting of hundreds or thousands people claiming shared descent. Marriage is only permitted across clans. Sui women are expected to remain faithful to the dialectal features of their clan of descent. Loyalty to the patrilect equals loyal to the descent group (Stanford 2007; 2009b; 2010). This is an example of clan exogamy.
  • Moiety exogamy: Marriage partners must come from different moieties. A moiety is a group of individuals which coexists with another group and have complementary functions in the wider social context to which both groups belong. Moieties can for instance define the different groupings of people from which marriage patterns must come. Shared descent is not a defining characteristic of moieties. The Canela community (South America) has four dual moiety configurations: one which is meant to regulate marriage across groups, and three others for ceremonial purposes. (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica 2016b.) This is an example of moiety exogamy.
  • Linguistic exogamy: Marriage partners must come from different language groups, which may or may not be affinally related with each other (for instance, via cross-cousin marriage patterns). In communities practicing linguistic exogamy, language identification is based on unilineal (patrilineal vs. matrilineal) descent. Eastern Tucanoan groups in Northwestern Amazonia practice linguistic exogamy with patrilineal descent: the individual’s ‘mother tongue’ is the father’s patrilect, while women who marry in speak a different patrilect (Fleming 2016). This is an example of linguistic exogamy with patrilineal descent.
  • Village exogamy: Marriage partners must come from different residential areas (e.g. different villages). Village exogamy is the norm among Munda populations of central India (Sharma 2004: 159).

Theoretical & Empirical Support

Characterizing the rules of exogamy that regulate intermarriage between Focus Group and Neighbour Group helps us understanding population movements between the two groups, and their bearings on language contact. Since, in our research design, Focus Group and Neighbour Group are associated with different languages, rules of exogamy also play a role in determining which of the two languages has the potential of becoming the dominant language of communication between spouses and, ultimately, with their children. Exogamic rules thus contribute to informing systems of descents and patterns of language transmission both at the family level in the larger context of the speech community (cf. also Lansing et al. 2017).

By defining the range of people with whom marriage is forbidden, exogamic rules stipulate the directions towards which alliances between groups can be built through marriage, and contribute to enlarge the circle of contact from kin to wider social groups. (Schwimmer 1995–2003.)

Recent research shows that kinship structures may strongly influence the mapping between languages and population structures. Kinship structures are often defined through marriage patterns. Lansing et al. (2017) find that postmarital residence patterns, which promote movements of individuals between speech communities, also lead to uniparental language transmission. More specifically, languages tend to be transmitted matrilineally in matrilocal societies and patrilineally in patrilocal societies. This is demonstrated by looking at the interaction between molecular anthropological data and data on language transmission. In matrilocal communities, language correlates with genetic similarities between individuals on the maternally inherited mtDNA, whereas in patrilocal communities, language correlates with genetic similarities between individuals on the paternally inherited Y chromosome. The study was based on comparisons of genetic and language phylogenies in 25 villages located on two Eastern Indonesian islands, Sumba and Timor. While Sumba villages are traditionally patrilocal, Timor is characterised by a more varied landscape of postmarital residence types: most villages are traditionally matrilocal, but pockets of patri- and ambi-locality are also found.

    Questions