Page 131 - DSOC201_SOCIAL_STRUCTURE_AND_SOCIAL_CHANGE_ENGLISH

Social Structure and Social Change

Notes 3. In marriage, there is not only the rule of clan exogamy but also of family exchange of daughters.
Thus, a man belonging to family ‘B’ of clan ‘B’ will seek daughter only from families A and C of
1 1
clans ‘A’ and ‘C’ and from clans ‘D’ and ‘E’. This rule makes the field of selection limited.
Marital Obligation (in Class B)
Family A 1 Family B 1 Family C 1

Da So Da So So Da So Da

4. Because of the marriage rule of exchange of daughters, many kinship terms are common. For
example the term used for nanad (HuSi) is also used for bhabhi (BrWi); the term used for sala
(WiBr) is also used for bahnoi (SiHu); the term used for sasur (HuFa) is also used for bhabhi’s
father (BrWiFa).
5. Marriage between maternal parallel cousins, that is, between children of two sisters, is not permissible.
6. Sororate marriage (that is, marriage with wife’s younger sister) is practised. Also, two sisters can
marry two brothers in one family.
7. There is a system of preferential mating in the south. In a large number of castes, the first preference
is given to elder sister’s daughter, second preference to father’s sister’s daughter, and third
preference to mother’s brother’s daughter. This is shown in the diagram below:
Hu + Wi

So + Wi Da + Hu

So Da So

Da

However, today cross-cousin marriage and specially the uncleneice marriage is beginning to be
considered as outmoded and a thing to be ashamed of among those groups which have come in
contact with the northern Indians on with western culture.
8. The taboos prescribed for marriage are: a man cannot marry his younger sister’s daughter; a
widow cannot marry her husband’s elder or younger brother (that is, levirate is a taboo); and a
man cannot marry his mother’s sister’s daughter.
9. Marriage is dependent on the chronological age differences rather than the principle of generational
divisions as in the north. One example is that the marriage of grandfather and granddaughter is
possible in south as shown in the following example:

Brother
Veena Ram
Marriage (SiDa)
Beena Shyam
Marriage
Teena

Meena

In the above diagram, Meena is a great granddaughter of Veena and also of Ram. Meena marries
Shyam who will be her great grandfather’s son, that is, grandfather. This is how marriage between
grandfather and granddaughter is possible.

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