Chapter Info (Click Here)
Book No. – 17 (Sociology)
Book Name – Sociology (Yogesh Atal)
What’s Inside the Chapter? (After Subscription)
1. A NOTE ON INCEST TABOO
1.1. EXOGAMY AND ENDOGAMY
1.2. PREFERRED MARRIAGE
2. THE FAMILY IN THE PHILIPPINES, THAILAND AND JAPAN
2.1. THE PHILIPPINES
2.2. JAPAN
2.3. THAILAND
Note: The first chapter of every book is free.
Access this chapter with any subscription below:
- Half Yearly Plan (All Subject)
- Annual Plan (All Subject)
- Sociology (Single Subject)
- CUET PG + Sociology
LANGUAGE
Prelude to Family: Marriage
Yogesh Atal
Chapter – 10
Table of Contents
- Four important milestones in an individual’s life cycle: birth, initiation, marriage, and death, with rites associated with each.
- Birth is the principal source of recruitment and replacement of society members.
- Marriage socially recognizes the sexual union between individuals of opposite sexes, acknowledging parenthood of children born out of this union.
- Marriage is an institution comprising a mating relationship, but differs from mating, which is simply the sexual act.
- Mating occurs biologically between individuals, while marriage is socially approved and controlled by norms, defining relations of a mated pair to each other, their kinsmen, offspring, and society.
- Mating can occur without marriage, and marriage can exist without mating (e.g., Banaro tribe in New Guinea, Eastern Europe practices).
- The Ghotul system among the Gonds of Bastar served as a dormitory for unmarried boys and girls, engaging in premarital sex.
- In some societies, a child widow is not allowed to remarry, even when marriage was not consummated (e.g., Zulu society).
- In certain cases, one of the kin of the dead husband may produce a child on behalf of the deceased (Zulu society).
- Instances of extramarital sex and wife swapping in modern societies do not qualify as marital acts (e.g., live-inarrangements).
- Gay marriages are increasingly legally recognized in many countries, but some view them as unnatural sex, changing the traditional concept of marriage.
- Chastity is not universally a virtue; premarital sex is allowed in many societies without social disapproval (e.g., Trobriand Islanders).
- Malinowski observed that chastity was an unknown virtue among Trobriand Islanders, who practiced free love.
- Murdock’s study of 250 societies found that 65 societies allowed unmarried persons sexual freedom, and 20 gave qualified consent.
- Some societies, like Samoa, restricted sexual freedom for royal princesses, with severe consequences for losing virginity.
- Marriage is a socially defined and approved sex relationship.
- Murdock concluded that sex alone does not sustain marital relationships, highlighting the importance of economic cooperation and a division of labor by sex.
- Sexual relations outside of marriage are common, but marriage exists when economic cooperation and sexual relations are united in one relationship.
- Marriage always involves residential cohabitation, forming the basis of the nuclear family.