The Structural Implications of Matrilateral Cross-Cousin Marriage

Bibliographic Data

ID23680540
AuthorsE R Leach (corresponding author)
Year2021
Pages54-104
Publication date2021-01-07
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueRethinking Anthropology (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.4324/9781003136460-3
OpenAlexW4253666783
ISBN9781003136460
LanguageEN
Citations received6

This chapter devotes a good deal of space to the discussion of matrilateral cross-cousin marriage among the Chinese. There are two kinds of marriage. The first results from the whims of two persons acting as private individuals; the second is a systematically organized affair which forms part of a series of contractual obligations between two social groups. The total literature on the subject of cross-cousin marriage is very large; the major part of it has been recently reviewed by Lévi-Strauss. The chapter is concerned only with that part of this material which deals with Kachin type marriage. The fact that the Murngin system falls into the Kachin type category makes it comparable in important respects with Kachin type systems occurring outside the Australian field. Lévi-Strauss rightly argues that the structural implications of a marriage can only be understood if we think of it as one item in a whole series of transactions between kin groups.

Cousin · Genealogy · Political science · Sociology · History · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Law

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