Endogamy
Endogamy – from the Greek endon, meaning “within,” and gamos, meaning “marriage”; literally, “marriage within” – a social rule or custom requiring or encouraging people to choose a marital partner from within the same socially defined group, such as a kin group, tribe, ethnic or religious community, caste, social class, or locality.
Historically, some societies permitted marriages between relatively close relatives. However, endogamy should not be equated with incest or close-kin marriage. An endogamous community may require marriage within the broader group while simultaneously prohibiting unions between close blood relatives.
In later historical periods, endogamy often functioned as a social mechanism for preserving titles, property, professional knowledge, religious identity, or social status within a particular lineage or group.
In contemporary societies, endogamy is generally social rather than strictly consanguineous: a marital partner is selected from within a relatively narrow ethnic, religious, cultural, class, occupational, or local community.
See also: Exogamy, Incest, Marriage.
Leave a Reply