If societies do not permit certain relations to marry (incest), they also at times have preferential marriages. One such preferential marriage is between cross-cousins; there are some religions (for example, Islam) which permit even parallel cousin marriages—in them, clan does not function as an exogamous unit. In many societies, cousins are lumped together and are regarded as brothers and sisters (siblings), and are hence tabooed from marrying each other—this is an extension of the principle of incest.11 The distinction between cross and parallel cousins is based on a genealogical consideration. Parallel cousins are those whose parents, through whom they are related, are of the same sex. Others are called cross cousins ‘because the parents through whom they are related are of the opposite sex; there is a crossing over from one sex to the other in the genealogy of relationship’. Cross cousins are, thus, not regarded as belonging to the same kinship group. It is interesting that both are ‘equally close in genetic kinship’, but culturally they are regarded as distant. The Muslim case is somewhat complicated because that religion permits both parallel and cross-cousin marriages. The following diagram illustrates the genetic linkage and cultural difference between the two sets of cousins.
Figure 10.7 Genealogical Separation of Cross (×) and Parallel (II) Cousins
Marriage of cross-cousins is by no means a freak occurrence. It is the preferred union, a must among virtually all the tribes of North and Central Australia and a large part of Melanesia. Many people of Asia marry in accordance with its dictates, as did even those of ancient China. The Negroes of Africa follow the practice (except for the Sudanese)…. In aboriginal America cross-cousin marriage occurs in California, the Great Basin, and sporadically among Algonquians of the Northeast (Hoebel, 1958: 298).
Amongst preferential marriages, we have already taken note of endogamy. It is usually described as a defining characteristic of caste—particularly the Hindu caste—but as an analytical concept this is applicable to several other groupings. A tribe, for example, is an endogamous group because its members marry only within this group, with the exception of some cases of marriage with strangers. The essence of endogamy is the provision for marriage within; thus, it does not rule out marriages in other groups. Where no outside marriages are permitted, the group is to be regarded as isogamous.
Endogamy is also practised by the Christians. Christianity is divided into several branches: Protestant, Catholic, Seventh Day Adventist, etc., and each of these branches is basically endogamous. Even among them, the preferences may further be limited to nationality. Italians residing in the city of Chicago have shown preferences for Italians belonging to the same religious sect. American whites and Blacks may have same religious affiliation, and yet the Blacks marry Blacks and the Whites the White. Even within the same endogamous group, other than preferential marriage between cross-cousins, one finds in many regions of South India a preference for marriage between MoBr and SiSo—a system that in Andhra is called Menarikkam.
There is another category of Affinal Marriages. By this is meant marriage to relatives through marriage. Such marriages are basically secondary marriages, because usually it is a second marriage, say after the death of the first spouse; or acquiring a second spouse where polygamy is permitted. When the second spouse is an affinal relative—an in-law—it is named an affinal marriage. These are also known in sociological literature as substitution or continuation marriages. Here are the following main subtypes of this form of marriage:
Levirate: The Latin word Levir stands for Husband’s Brother (HuBr). Usually, upon the death of her husband, the widow is married to her Husband’s Brother, more commonly the younger brother, but also it can be solemnized with the elder brother of the husband. In the former case, it is called Junior Levirate, and in the latter, Senior Levirate. There is another variation of this practice which is termed Anticipatory Levirate. Found amongst the Comanche and Hekandika Shoshones, Hoebel explains this arrangement thus:
With the thought in mind that each may some day inherit the other’s wife, a married man was wont to extend the sexual favours of his wife to an unmarried younger brother. And he expected reciprocity when his brother had a wife to share. A man always calls his brother’s wife ‘wife’, and again the implications of the kinship term are taken seriously. By this arrangement a brother simply enjoys the privileges of the levirate while his married brother is still living. A sort of attenuated fraternal polyandry results (Hoebel, 1958: 296).
Sororate: This is opposite of levirate in the sense that the man marries his deceased wife’s sister. It should, however be differentiated from sororal polygyny, which implies having the wife’s sister as the second wife—thus having two or more wives simultaneously. Sororate implies substitution, sororal polygyny suggests an addition. Sororate makes the second wife the step mother of the children of her deceased sister. Such a nuclear family will thus potentially have two sets of children. But if the first sister died without progeny, then the sororate relationship will be no different from a monogamous union resulting in a simple nuclear family.
It should also be noted that variations exist in the ways of acquiring a mate. In India, the system of arranged marriage is still in vogue, though love marriages (where the boy and the girl choose their life partners) are also increasing in number.12 Even when the mate selection is done by the would-be spouses, the families of the two parties are taken into confidence and the rest of the ceremonies follow the traditional pattern in a modified form. Use of matrimonial columns, or of agencies set up to find suitable matches, are innovations that have now entered the cultural complex. A new phenomenon of ‘Internet marriages’ deserves to be noted. In primitive societies, a mate is acquired through elopement, marriage by capture, inheritance of wives (levirate), fictive marriage (as among the Garos of Assam, where the husband of the youngest daughter marries his widowed mother-in-law [WiMo]), suitor service, and marriage through contest (for example, Swayamvar).
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