Exogamy is the custom of seeking a mate or marriage partner outside of ones own kinship group or class, religion, or ethnic group. Exogamy is when one marries someone outside one's own group. Endogamy is when one marries someone within one's own group. Exogamy, the exchange of spouses across groups, is a classical mechanism of alliance formation. Exogamy is the custom by which a man is obliged to marry outside his own community, clan, or tribe. The organizational advantage of exogamy is that outsiders are constantly brought in, which might be desirable, e.g. if the group has shortages in their workforce. Exogamy also means that representatives of other, potentially enemy groups will be present in your own group, exerting pressure to avoid conflicts. Exogamy is the social norm of marrying outside one's social group. The group defines the scope and extent of exogamy, and the rules and enforcement mechanisms that ensure its continuity.
In social science, exogamy is viewed as a combination of two related aspects: biological and cultural. Biological exogamy is marriage of nonblood-related beings, regulated by forms of incest law. Cultural exogamy is marrying outside a specific cultural group, which is the opposite of endogamy. Exogamic means of, or pertaining to exogamy. Exogamous people practice exogamy. The movement towards exogamy originates in the restlessness of the male, the stimulus to seek more unfamiliar women, and the emotional interest in making unfamiliar sexual alliances.
Genetics, Ecology and the Origins of Incest and
Exogamy - Frank B. Livingstone.
Abstract: The biological consequences of inbreeding are often advanced as the cause of the
evolution of incest and exogamy in human societies. This paper attempts to show that
genetic analysis does not support such a conclusion. An alternate reconstruction of the
origins of incest and exogamy based on cultural and populational consequences of these
phenomena is proposed to show that reconstructions of human cultural evolution can
contribute to the interpretation of human biological evolution.
From Westermarck's Effect to Fox's Law: paradox and principle in the relationship
between taboos and exogamy - Alex Walter
These include sociological, psychological, and sociobiological approaches. Each of these
approaches poses challenges not easily addressed by its competitors and yet no
satisfactory synthesis seems available given the currently existing explanatory paradigms.
It is argued here that exogamy is not a simple outgrowth of taboo and taboos are not a
simple extenuation of inbreeding avoidance. Relationships between the sociobiology of
inbreeding avoidance and social institutions such as exogamy and taboos are recast with
the help of evolutionary psychology, which provides additional tools with which to
approach this complex and contradictory set of interlocking problems.
Migration of Culture(s) symposium - Endogamy and exogamy among post-war Calabria-born women in South Australia - Giulia Ciccone. Abstract: The women either migrated with a male or they waited in Calabria until their husband, father, relative or male paesano had saved enough money to sponsor them out. Upon arrival in South Australia the women most commonly performed domestic duties or looked after the children.