UPSC MAINS SOCIOLOGY SYALLABUS – Paper 1 – Chapter 9 – Systems of Kinship
(a) Family, household, marriage.
(b) Types and forms of family.
(c) Lineage and descent
(d) Patriarchy and sexual division of labour
(e) Contemporary trends.
- Marriage can be defined as a socially acknowledged and approved sexual union between two adult individuals.
- According to Malinowski, ‘Marriage is a contract for the production and maintenance of children’.
- According to the Collins Dictionary of Sociology, ‘Marriage is a socially acknowledged and sometimes legally ratified union between an adult male and an adult female’.
RIGHTS THROUGH MARRIAGE
- Leach considered marriage to be ‘bundles of rights’ which includes both kinship rights and domestic rights –
I. Legitimating offspring.
II. Socially approved access to the spouse’s sexuality, labor and property.
III. Establishment of affinal relationships between persons and between groups.
IV. Domestic rights provides the basis of formation of household, division of labor.
TYPES OF MARRIAGES
- Polygyny is a form of marriage in which one man married more than one woman at a given time.
- Sororal polygyny is a type of marriage in which the wives are invariably the sisters. It is often called sororate.
- Polyandry is the marriage of one woman with several men.
- Monogamy is a form of marriage in which one man marries the woman.
- Serial monogamy – In many societies individuals are permitted to marry again often on the death of the first spouse or after divorce but they cannot have more than one spouse at one and the same time.
- When marriage to an outside group is mandated, it is referred to as exogamy.
- Endogamy, also called in-marriage, custom enjoining one to marry within one’s own group.
CHANGES IN MARRIAGE
- Societies with traditions of plural marriages are turning towards monogamy. Even in a Muslim country like Pakistan, legislation was introduced making it necessary for the ‘kazi’ to solemnize plural marriages only if the first wife gave her written consent.
- Special Marriage Act, 1954 of India provides for secular marriages, inter religion marriages etc.
- Hindu marriage Act prohibits polygamy.
- Desire for symmetrical relations in marriage – as highlighted by Young and Willmott, need for dual employment of husband and wife, desire of women to participate in workforce etc are factors that are now affecting marital relations.
- But still problems exist like Karve in her study found that dowry is becoming more entrenched and prices of groom are increasing with education.
Child marriage is still practiced in some parts of country, especially among Rajputs of Rajasthan and in states like Bihar.
