Today we are going to look at the social custom of marriage from a sociological point of view. All societies make provisions for who may mate with whom. The benefits of the social recognition of marriage for children are obvious. It gives them an identity, membership of a socially recognized group and some indication of who must support them and their mother.
Now almost all societies have marriage, but there are wide variations in marriage system. I will give three of the important areas of variations, and some details of each area. The three areas I shall deal with are: firstly, the number of mates each marriage partner may have; secondly, the locality of the marriage (that is, where do the newly married partners set up home?); and thirdly, what arrangements there are for the transfer of wealth after the marriage. Let me deal with each of these in turn.
First, how many mates? In existing human societies there are three possibilities. Most societies recognize POLYGYNY, or the right of a man to take more than one wife. In a few societies (not in Africa) there is POLYADRY, in which a woman is married to two or more men at the same time. Finally, especially in Europe and societies of European origin, there is MONOGAMY. Monogamy limits one man to one wife and vice-versa.
The second area of variation is the locality of the marriage. Here there seem to be three possibilities: at the husband’s home, at the wife’s home, or in some new place. The old term for the arrangement when a wife moves to her husband’s family’s household is a PATRILOCAL marriage; or a more modern term VIRILOCAL. The opposite, when the man moves, is termed MATRILOCAL or UXORILOCAL marriage. The third possibility when they set up a new household somewhere else is called NEOLOCAL marriage.
The last area of variation is transfer of wealth on marriage. Here, once more, we seem to have three possibilities. Firstly, we have BRIDEWEALTH. In this system wealth is transferred by the husband or his relatives to the bride’s family. This, of course, is the system familiar in Africa. We should remember that the bride wealth may take the form of the husband’s labour services to his father-in-law rather than giving cattle or money. Secondly, in some other societies, the opposite system prevails and the wife brings with her a portion or DOWRY in the form of money or other wealth such as land. This was the system of, for example, traditional European societies, and is still practiced in the Irish countryside. The third possibility is for the transfer of wealth to take the form of GIFTS to help the young couple set up the new household. This system is associated with the neolocal type of marriage. In England, these gifts are called wedding-presents. The near kin (that is, the near relatives) of both bride and groom contribute and so do friends, neighbours and workmates. The presents customarily take the form of useful household goods, such as saucepans, tae sets or blankets.