Cross-cousin marriage is marriage between cousins descended through parents of different sexes, a person's mother's brother's children or father's sister's children, as distinct from parallel-cousin marriage (father's brother's children or mother's sister's children). It is documented very widely: rates reach 25 to 30 percent of marriages in Arab countries and 46 percent in Afghanistan, cross-cousin and uncle-niece unions jointly account for roughly 30 percent of marriages in South India outside Kerala, and the practice is recorded historically among Aboriginal Australians and in North America, South America, Polynesia and Melanesia. Claude Levi-Strauss's alliance theory treats the systematic preference for cross-cousin marriage across many historically unrelated cultures as evidence that marriage functions as a structured exchange of spouses between descent groups, in deliberate opposition to the functionalist, descent-centered account associated with A. R. Radcliffe-Brown; the linked open question records that dispute.
Facts
Descent RuleSourced to the subject's own accountMarriage is directed toward a specific category of cousin defined by the sex of the linking parents: a mother's brother's child or father's sister's child (cross-cousin) rather than a father's brother's child or mother's sister's child (parallel-cousin). Cross-cousin and uncle-niece unions are common in South India, except in Kerala, jointly accounting for some 30 percent of marriages there. 1 Typical RegionSourced to the subject's own accountHistorically and currently practiced across the Middle East and South Asia (25 to 30 percent of marriages in Arab countries, 46 percent in Afghanistan), South India outside Kerala (about 30 percent jointly with uncle-niece unions), and recorded historically among Aboriginal Australians and in North America, South America, Polynesia and Melanesia. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Alliance theory treats the cross-cultural preference for cross-cousin marriage as its central evidence for marriage-as-exchange.
In many societies using Iroquois terminology, Ego was encouraged to marry a cross-cousin and discouraged or prohibited from marrying a parallel cousin.
Cross-cousin marriage is a widely documented rule governing whom one may marry within the institution.
Shaped By
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