Women in Muslim Rural Society by Joseph Ginat

Author:Joseph Ginat [Ginat, Joseph]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Middle East, General, Social Science, Ethnic Studies, Women's Studies
ISBN: 9781412851763
Google: eTbwAQAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 17063423
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1981-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Endogamy Reconsidered

Many studies of marriage patterns in Arab society indicate that there is a preference for endogamy, though few researchers adequately define the term. Some use it in connection with FBD marriages, while others apply it to in-group marriages in general and others still to intra-tribe or intra-village marriages.

For Patai, endogamy stands for preferred marriage with close blood relatives, though he does not define the term ‘blood relatives.’142 Barth associates endogamy “with a strong emphasis on the father’s brother’s daughter as a preferred spouse, [which] has been assumed to be associated with a desire to maintain family property.”143 Ayoub holds that endogamy be considered in the wider context of preferential marriage.144 Rosenfeld, on the other hand, relates endogamy to the lineage,145 which he defines as the ḥamūla, as does Cohen.146 Barth explains that in the Kurdish community he studied, the term endogamy is used with reference to the whole village; he speaks of ‘village endogamy’ rather than of endogamy within a descent group.147 In the same article, Barth applies the term in two senses. First, with regard to FBD marriage (blood relatives), and second, with regard to a communal in-group (the village), based on physical and social proximity. Chelhood terms all marriages within the tribe as endogamous.148 Bromlei supplies examples of ethnic endogamy (ethos endogamy) from the Caucasus though Patai defines the same groups as exogamous.149 If endogamy refers to unions with FBD or with close blood relations, a marriage contracted with unrelated partners is ipso facto exogamous. It will be seen that there can be no clear-cut definition of the term. Barth’s statement that anthropology has not yet succeeded in evolving a “generally acceptable theory of exogamy” indicates the problem.150

It might be expedient to consider the definition of the Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences that “the rule of endogamy exists where the field of possible spouses is limited to persons within an individual’s territory and/or social group.”151 The scope is enlarged by researchers such as Bromlei who claims that endogamy “is the custom forbidding marriage outside a given group”152 and adds that it should be understood as “preferential marriage with one’s own community.”153 Marx rejects the term endogamy as inapplicable to Bedouin society.154 Since there is no explicit rule forbidding marriage outside the group in Bedouin or other Arab communities, Marx is right. Yet if behavioral norms are applied, endogamy cannot be denied.

Arab communities are best not classified as either ‘endogamous’ or ‘exogamous’155 since there would then be value terms applied to behavioral norms. It is argued here that endogamy is not a preferred marriage pattern. Some scholars correlate preference for FBD marriage or other in-group marriage patterns such as those within the clan, ḥamūla, village and tribe, with endogamy. In terms of behavioral norms there is endogamy in Arab rural and nomad society, yet the terms in-group and out-group marriage seem preferable.

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