Marriage In Culture: Practice And Meaning Across Diverse Societies

Marriage in Culture: Practice And Meaning Across Diverse Societies

MARRIAGE IN CULTURE is an innovative text that makes accessible to a broad audience the rich insights anthropology provides into the meaning of marriage in different cultures. Marriage practices in the four societies discussed contrast with each other in dramatic ways-from number of spouses to the meaning of postmarital residence arrangements. The author provides compelling ethnographic accounts of the !Kung San (Bushman), Chinese, Iroquois, and Tibetan societies to familiarize students with anthropologists' unique perspective on marriage in culture. Each chapter places marriage within the context of the whole culture, exploring the ways in which different economic, political, family, and gender systems shape the practice and meaning of marriage. The author makes an original contribution by highlighting the importance of postmarital residence in defining different experiences of marriage for husbands and wives in each society.