Page 98 - DSOC402_SOCIOLOGY_OF_KINSHIP_ENGLISH

Sociology of Kinship

Notes Merits
(1) By polygyny, the sexual desire of lustrous men is fulfilled in the family itself. Thus the
society remains safe from corruption and immorality. (2) Due to several women in the family,
the proper care and nurturing of children is done easily. (3) The economic need of the family is
fulfilled simply. (4) If there are more women in comparison to men in a society and monogamy
is practiced there then some of the women remain deprived of marriage. Due to lack of marriage,
many disorders evolve in them. Due to polygyny, women don’t have to deprive of marriage in
such societies. (5) Polygyny is found mostly in wealthy and prosperous people of a society. Thus
child born due to such marriage are physically and mentally perfect.

Demerits
(1) Due to polygyny, atmosphere of struggle, jealous and enmity emerges in a family. There is
mutual fight between women on very small matters. The peace and calm of a family comes to
an end. (2) Due to many wives, the number of children also increases. It is generally difficult to
care and educate more number of children. (3) Due to such marriage the social status of women
declines and they are exploited. (4) A man cannot seduce more number of wives. In such situ-
ation, sexual immorality in the society increases. (5) The death of a polygamous man increases
the number of widows in the society. Keeping vision of such demerits of polygyny, presently
monogamy is preferred.

(c) Bigamy
One of the forms of polygamy is Bigamy. In this type of marriage, one male marries two females
at a time. Sometimes, second marriage is done due to no child from first marriage. This custom
is popular in Oraygon and Eskimo tribes. This custom is found in some tribes of South India,
but such marriages are legally banned now days.

(d) Group Marriage
In group marriage, a group of men marries to a group of women and every male of the group
is husband of every women of the female group. It is a view of evolutionists that, this situation
may be present at the time of the beginning of family and marriages. This custom is found in the
tribes of Australia where all the girls of a family are considered as future wives of another fam-
ily. The view of Westermark is that this marriage is found in the polyandrous societies of Tibet,
India and Srilanka. The view of Dr. Saxena is that when the males of polyandrous society starts
keeping more than one wives due to improvement in economic condition, the polyandry takes
the form of group marriage. In Toda people mixture of polygyny and polyandry is taking place
because they have renounced the custom of female infanticide. Thus the number of females is
increasing among them. If we use the meaning of group marriage which indicates that every
man of a group is a husband of every woman of the female group and the children so born are
considered the children of the whole group then example of such marriage is found nowhere
in the world.
In this way we see that due to variation in the ways of marriage in the different societies, their
social, economical and population condition are different. Marriage is considered as a religious
sacrament in Hindus whereas a social contract in tribes, Muslims and other people.

Describe the kinds of marriages.

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