Endogamy

Kindred Endogamy

One form of endogamy is the one taking place within the kindred group(but beyond the boundaries of incest, which may be different for each society). Such a case is preferential marriage, that is, marriage with a close relative, such as between the children of a brother and sister (cross cousins). In practice, this translates to a man marrying his mother's brother's or father's sister's daughter. Such marriages are encountered in Southeast Asia, New Guinea, the Aborigines in Australia, and native South Americans.

Another case of kindred endogamy is the so-called lineage endogamy, that is, the marriage between “relatives” who are beyond the boundaries of kinship (and therefore of incest) set by their society but still maintain a memory of kinship. This is a marriage that, although desirable, is by no means mandatory. Such a marriage is usually performed on a lineagelevel (hence the term lineage endogamy), that is, within the wider group of individuals beyond the family who are interconnected through consanguineal kinship either patrilinealy or matrilinealy and who acknowledge a common ancestor. It may often result in the women having the same family name before and after marriage (patronymic endogamy), since it usually occurs in patrilineal lineages, where their prime constituents (such as the family name) are transmitted via the father. Such marriages are often arranged at the birth of the future spouses and serve to reinforce “family” ties. They are a very common strategy in Mediterranean societies, for example, in rural France, the Mediterranean Arab societies, and certain societies in Greece, such as the Maniates in west Mani and the Arvanites in Ermionida, both in the Peloponnese. The Arvanites are groups spread across Greece and characterized mainly by their language, Arvanitika, an archaic Albanian dialect they speak in parallel with Greek. The figure records a particular case of lineage endogamy from the village of Didima in Ermionida. The predominant explanation for such a marriage is that it allows for the patrimony to remain in the lineage. If the girls married outside of it, a part of the patrimony would leave the lineage in the form of the dowry.

In other societies, the endogamic rule, according to which, following the death of a spouse, the second husband must be a brother of the first (levirate) or the second wife a sister of the first (sororate), is in place. For example, the mosaic law dictates that should the husband die, the wife must marry his brother. The children born from this marriage are considered to be the dead man's children. This ensures the continuation of the dead husband's family.

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