The institution of marriage has always evolved overtime and experienced many changes and forms. What may seem outlandish to a modern person was quite a normal thing for a savage, and vice versa. Many restrictions have come down to us. People still care about the opinions of people around them, especially family members. Many of us still divide other people by race, religion, or estate.
Attitude to family institution
For some, marriage is sacred.process, and for others - no more than the creation of optimal conditions for the birth of offspring. Attitudes toward marriages were completely different at different times and for different nations. Each totem group had its own idea of what the family should be and with which particular member of society marriage is allowed. Smoothly society approached such notions as endogamy and exogamy. The inhabitants of the ancient worlds did not even think about these two names, but were already well acquainted with their essence. And you and I just have to find out what they mean, and understand the features of these two aspects.
How did endogamy and exogamy appear?
Remember the ancient man.He could not even imagine what it meant to get married, and the institution of the family was completely alien to him. The maximum that he was capable of is to unite into a tribe and function within the limits of a given society. Parenting hormones and instincts, the savage reproduced offspring. He did not understand with whom he entered into a sexual relationship, and, in fact, he did not care. It did not matter whether this man was his relative. But soon, looking at the children who were born after sexual contact, for example, brother and sister, people realized that such individuals would be inferior. Only in the minimum number of cases was a healthy and normal child obtained. In the rest, it was an individual who was unable to resist diseases, natural disasters or an attack of an enemy clan. He was weak and ugly. Even with a fairly low intellect, the ancient people understood that it was better to have children with representatives of a different tribe, because such groups were often small, and they were inhabited, for the most part, only by relatives.
How to get healthy offspring
So selective opportunities exceeded expectations.Children were born healthy, strong, strong, developed and quick-witted. Their body almost did not respond to external stimuli, and health could only envy. There remained only one problem, due to which for a long time they could not refuse marriages within the same genus - mixing of blood. But its purity from time immemorial was considered a sign of a strong tribe, having weight among many others. It turned out good heredity, but poor health.
It was the clearest example of endogamy.Endogamy is an unwritten prescription that binds an individual to marry and obtain offspring only within one social, ethnic, religious, or other similar group of people. Exogamy is a concept almost the opposite of endogamy. Exogamy allows, permits and even welcomes marriages outside of their union. In different sources, you can find different variations in the interpretation of these concepts. Thus, according to other sources, endogamy implies a ban on marriage only within one genus, and nothing is said about other cases. Nevertheless, the extensive concept of endogamy prohibits communication with members of members of other classes, totemic groups, races, religions, etc.
Endogamy and religion
Эндогамия в рамках определенной религии occurs to this day. For example, representatives of Islam, as a rule, do not enter into marriage with the Gentiles. For them, it is considered a sin if the marriage is not with a Muslim. And there are quite a lot of such examples all over the world. Often people don’t even think about why they are allowed to start families only within the confession. Most of them simply believe that they do not even have the right to argue on this topic. And the thing is that it is most convenient to conclude a marriage, if you do not take into account the specific prescription. Pious people form the same values, they get used to perform the same rites, to observe the same traditions.
Why was it always beneficial to get married within the same religious faith?
Вступление в брак по такому принципу не дает "dilute" the religious caste, as a result of which faith does not lose its originality and authenticity. Also religious endogamy prevents the emergence of quarrels and differences over faith. After all, what is perfectly acceptable for representatives of one religion is completely wild and even insulting to the bearer of another faith.
Вспомнить хотя бы то, что те же мусульмане не accept pork, and for the Catholic or Christian population such food sometimes forms the basis of the diet. In addition, an infidel will introduce elements of an alien religion, which is often unacceptable. Yes, and people of the same faith often live nearby. I would like to note that there is nothing wrong with religious endogamy, if the marriage is concluded on the goodwill of the spouses. In some tribes and other religious associations of people it is stipulated that the couple is chosen by the eldest in the family or the leader. After all, such endogamy is a norm on the basis of religion, it can have its own clear rules and laws, the observance of which is strictly regulated by the respective individual or group thereof.
Endogamous groups
Endogamous totem groups appeared back inantiquity, BC. One of the first representatives of such endogamy were the nodites. The Andites also became committed to such an ideology. The people who inhabited ancient Egypt, Syria or Persia, were endogamous.
The traditions of the ethnic group did not allow themmarry outside of their own kind. Each of the inhabitants of these ancient states had to tie themselves to marriage with their relative. The tribes of North American Indians did not approach the issue of endogamy so strictly. For ordinary people of this tribe were allowed to marry with people from other tribes. But to know and the upper classes were to maintain the purity of the blood by marrying within the borders of one kind.
Endogamy through the eyes of men and women
В целом, какой бы временной период ни брать, men have always sought more exogamy, and women more endogamy. Endogamy is another way to subjugate and keep under control that all women love so much today, but exogamy meant a lot of freedom. The popularity of endogamous marriages was at its peak, when a woman could choose a husband from her father’s siblings. The goal of endogamy could be the desire to preserve the secrets of craftsmanship, craft or family business.
Transition to exogamy
Coming to exogamy steel with the emergence ofa phenomenon like polygamy. After all, if a sister became a wife, then it was she who was always in priority, and most religious laws are aimed at treating all wives equally. Tribes of North American Indians also began to move away from endogamy. Exogamy has become an excellent political tool. There was a possibility of reconciliation of the two warring clans, if their representatives entered into marriage. Endogamy is a direct way to protect the purity of its own kind and clan.
Но именно она является препятствием для дружного the existence of several social groups. From the point of view of biology, endogamy is a danger to viable offspring, because it is the mixture of different genotypes and races that allows you to get the most beautiful and healthy individuals. This fact applies to both animals and humans, no matter how monstrous it may sound.
