Page 85 - DSOC402_SOCIOLOGY_OF_KINSHIP_ENGLISH

Unit 12: Marriage: Concept, Forms and Significance

7. To produce new rights duties in mother-father and children. Notes
8. To transfer the culture from one generation to other generation.
9. To fulfill the religious, social and cultural aims.
10. To provide social security.
Now it is clear that marriage is not a mean for personal satisfaction, but a social activity by
which the structure of society is strengthened.
In the words of Majumdar and Madaan, “Marriage provides physical (Sexual) and psychologi-
cal (child birth) satisfaction on personal level whereas on vast collective level it helps in main-
taining the existence of community and culture”.

What are the aims of Marriage? Discuss in brief.

Forms of Marriage
There are many types of marriage, if we study the internal culture of marriage practiced in dif-
ferent societies, we will get perception of such rules and regulations which provides priorities,
consent and prohibitions to select and establish the form of a marriage.
Before discussing the different forms of marriage, the discussion for the prohibition in sexual
relation between mother-father and children is inevitable. It is also called prohibition incest.

On some classification of marriage we can make observation in following ways:
(a) On basis of the numbers of life partners marriage are classified as- Monogamy and
Polygamy.
The marriage in which husband marries with one wife and when wife marries with one
husband is called Monogamy.
The marriage in which one makes more than one life partner is known as Polygamy. Polygamy
are of two types: (1) Polygyny and (2) Polyandry.
When a male marries more than one female is called Polygyny. When any male marries to many
sisters, it is called Sororal Polygyny.
When any female marries more than one male is known as Polyandry. Polyandry can be made
in two ways:- Adelphic Polyandry and Non-adelphic Polyandry.
When any female marries to many brothers, it is called Adelphic Polyandry or Fraternal Poly-
andry. As example, in Mahabharat era, Draupadi had married with the five Pandava brothers.
This marriage is very famous in Toda Tribes. When more than one husbands of a female are not
brothers, such marriage is called Non-Adelphic Polyandry.
In this reference we can refer to two type of polygamy, in which a woman marries to younger
brother of her husband Devar-Bhabhi Vihah Levirate and a man marries to his sister-in-law
Jija-Sali Vivah Sororate.
The marriage of a person to the childless widow of his elder brother is known as Levirate. In the
reference in which real levirate is practiced after the death of the husband. It is a moral duty of
one among the brothers to marry with the widow. The child born after such marriage is recog-
nized as the child of the deceased brother.
Where real Sororate is practiced, the husband of the childless woman marries her sister and
some of the children so born are recognized as children of the first childless woman. The term
Sororate is also used as tradition, in which the widower is allowed to marry to the sister of his

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