We may now explicate the rules of exogamy (Gr. exo= outside + gamos marriage) and endogamy (Gr. endo = within + gamos marriage).
Exogamy implies marriage outside the group, while endogamy signifies rules permitting marriage within the group. The two concepts are not contradictory. An in-marrying group is called an endogamous group, and this group is divided into several exogamous groups. In simpler societies, one can mention families as exogamous and the entire tribe as endogamous. The extreme case of endogamy is termed Isogamy, where no marriage outside the group is permitted. In the case of endogamous groups, there is less rigidity in the sense that the group defines the boundary of marriage—marriages in it can occur, and do occur, but it allows people to also marry outside the group; of course, such instances are very limited in number.
In this context, it is important to discuss the groups/categories larger than the family that are exogamous or endogamous.
The groups or categories of relatives who form exogamous entities are the Lineage/Sib, Clan, Phratry and Moiety.
Lineage: As we have seen, a family is a residential kin group, consisting of both selected affinal and consanguineal kins. But people associate themselves with larger con-sanguineal kins—from the father’s side in patrilineal societies, and from the mother’s side in matrilineal societies. Persons linked to the ego from either side constitute a lineage—a vertical line joining six to seven generations; it can be longer, but generally human memory takes one only that far. In any case, since human life is short, one cannot find many members in the lineage above the age of80.8 Since a lineage consists of genealogically related blood relatives, it is a cluster of exogamous families. A larger lineage group is called a Sib. However, this usage is being abandoned.
Clan: This is a larger category with a common name combining several lineages who trace their connection through a common ancestor—real or imagined. The Gotra in Hindu castes is an equivalent term for clan, differentiating it from lineage, which may be called Vansha. There are additional features of the Gotra in the Hindu social structure, to which we shall return later when we discuss family in India.
Phratry: ‘Occasionally two or more sibs recognise a purely conventional unilinear bond of kinship, more tenuous than that which unites a sib but nevertheless sufficient to distinguish the constellation of sibs from others of its kind. A consanguineal kin group of this higher order is called a Phratry.’ When there are only two such phratries—that is, when the society is divided into two phratries—each phratry having several sibs/lineages into it—then the two bigger groups are called moieties (moiety literally means half; so a society is divided into two halves).
Like sib/lineage, phratry and moiety are also exogamous groups. People of a phratry not only do not intermarry within the same lineage, but also avoid marrying within the same phratry/moiety. The concept of brotherhood ingrained in these categories is extended to include those residing in the same village or the same contiguous region comprising of several villages. The frequently reported instances of ‘Gotra9 marriages’ in Haryana among the Jats are cases of violation of exogamy rules at these higher levels.
The word Khap is etymologically derived from the Sanskrit word Kshatrap—Kshetra in Sanskrit represents an area; therefore, Kshatrap or its corrupt version Khap stands for a group of villages which are bound together through kinship ties. It is the council of people of a given area and not a sub-caste. In Haryana and its adjoining regions in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, there is a significance of brotherhood—and it is observed at the level of the village, of a clan or gotra, and a group of interconnected villages. That is the reason why village, clan and Khap are treated as exogamous. People of different gotras living in the same village, or in the same Khap region, are regarded as sociological kin, and are therefore forbidden to marry within.10 When marriages take place within these units, they are treated as violations of the exogamy norm.
Box 10.1
In July 2009, the Punjab and Haryana High Court ordered the Haryana government to protect Ravinder Gahlot and his family, who had been threatened and forced to leave their village after Gahlot’s marriage with one Shilpa Kadyan. According to the caste panchayat, Gahlots and Kadyans cannot marry each other because they share the same gotra.
This is a misuse ofthe concept ofthe term gotra, because there are two gotra names—Gahlot and Kadyan. Marriage between the two is tabooed because they hail from the same area and are thus covered by village exogamy or area exogamy—which means that people belonging to the same area cannot marry among themselves because of fictitious kinship. In this case, these two persons belonged to the same Khap but to two different gotras. They observed gotra exogamy in this case, but violated the Khap exogamy norm. This practice of Khap exogamy or village/area exogamy is prevalent in other parts of northern India, but not strictly adhered to.
The distinction between lineage and other groups (clan, phratry and moiety) is that while lineage is a category and includes only one set of relatives—either matrilineal or patrilineal—clan and other entities are groups in the sense that they consist not only of the consanguineal relatives, but also of their spouses who assume membership of the group upon their marriage into it. Similarly, daughters in patrilineal societies lose their clan membership upon their marriage as they get inducted into their husbands’ clans. Clans generally have names which are used as a suffix in individual names. Married women in India, for example, use the clan name of their husbands, signifying their transfer from one clan to the other.
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