Heterogamy, which is a marriage between two individuals who are culturally different. Heterogamy is contrasted with Homogamy, which is marriage between partners who are culturally similar. Heterogamy and homogamy have come to be used to describe marriage or union between people of unlike and like, sex and gender. Age heterogamy has come to refer to marriages involving partners of significantly different ages. Intermarriage bridges different social groups. But status heterogamy equalizes to certain degree different social statuses, undermining the hierarchy of social status. Heterogamy is a synonym of anisogamy, the condition of having differently sized male and female gametes produced by different sexes or mating types in a species. Heterogamy and homogamy are also used to describe marriage between people of same or different gender.
Ethnic heterogamy occurs in marriages involving individuals of different ethnic group and ethnic identity. In reproductive biology, heterogamy is the alternation of differently organized generations, applied to the alternation between parthenogenetic and a sexual generation. This type of heterogamy occurs aphids. In botany, a plant is heterogamous when it carries at least two different types of flowers in regard to their reproductive structures, for example male and female flowers or bisexual and female flowers.
Because people involved in or influenced by status heterogamy tend to avoid the non-institutionalized conflict caused by status heterogamy. The findings show that status heterogamy undermines the heterogamous couples' social participation, but promotes their liberal political attitude. - Zhang, Xiaotian. "Status Heterogamy: A Marginalized Equalizer in Stratification."
Migration and Marriage: Heterogamy and Homogamy
in a Changing World. Barbara Waldis,
Reginald Byron.
The rate of intermarriage is considered by sociologists the most important statistical
test of the strength or weakness of structural divisions within societies. What do social
anthropologists have to say about heterogamy and homogamy in situations of movement and
flux, and what does this tell us about processes of boundary-definition?
Heterophily
leads to heterogamy and
Homophily leads to homogamy.
Marital Satisfaction and Religious Heterogamy
A Comparison of Interchurch and Same-Church Individuals
Lee M. Williams, University of San Diego, Michael G. Lawler, Creighton University
Abstract: The relationship between marital satisfaction and
religious heterogamy was dependent on how religious heterogamy was operationalized.
Parenting variables were also predictive of
marital satisfaction for both interchurch and same-church respondents. - Journal of Family
Issues.
Social Integration, Heterogeneity, and Divorce:
The Case of the Swedish-speaking Population in Finland - Fjalar Finnäs,
Institutet för finlandssvensk samhallsforskning, Vasa - Acta Sociologica, Vol.
40, No. 3, 263-277 (1997).
The study compared marital stability in Finland with focus on the two language groups. The
divorce rate was remarkably lower among the Swedish-speaking minority than among the
Finnish-speaking majority. A hypothesis that
marital homogamy rather than heterogamy reduces the divorce rate found support only with
respect to the language of the spouses but not with respect to level of education or age.
Religious Heterogamy and Relationship Stability: A Comparison of Married and Cohabiting Unions. - Richard J. Petts, Ball State University. Abstract: Many studies have explored dynamics within religiously heterogamous marriages, but little is known about religiously heterogamous cohabiting unions. This study examines the influence of religious heterogamy on union stability among married and cohabiting couples. Religious heterogamy is more common in cohabiting unions than marriages. The risk of separation is higher for religiously heterogamous cohabiting unions than religiously heterogamous marriages. There is evidence showing that some religiously heterogamous cohabiting couples have a higher risk of relationship dissolution than religious heterogamous married couples due to lower relationship quality.
Educational heterogamy and marital satisfaction
between spouses ?
Sheryl R Tynes - Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Trinity University, USA.
Abstract: In choosing marriage partners, we generally look for someone with similar status
characteristics to our own. This paper suggests that status inequalities may be
hypothesized to make a difference in marital satisfaction. Using ordinary least-squares regression, we found that when husbands had more education
than their wives, both partners reported less than happy marriages with more disagreement
and less positive feedback. Conversely, when the wife had more education, both partners
reported more satisfaction with the marriage.
The consequences of heterogamy and homogamy
on the similarity between spouses. - Tomlinson I.
Abstract: Humans in many
societies are known to mate, or marry, assortatively for a number of characters
such as eye colour, height, IQ and place of birth. In this assortment an element
of active choice may be involved. It is not known whether this choice is
genetic.
Sociocultural Heterogamy, Dissensus, and Conflict
in Marriage
Stephen R. Jorgensen, David M. Klein.
Abstract:
Hypotheses relating differences in husband-wife backgrounds, or sociocultural
heterogamy, to marital disagreement over role expectations, marital values, and
marital conflict are empirically tested and found to be unsupported. Three
alternative hypotheses are presented and tested in an attempt to shed light on
the general lack of association between heterogamy and the dissensus-conflict
variables, including a developmental extension of heterogamy theory (controlling
for years married), an overall heterogamy index, and an examination of the
direction of heterogamy (hypogamy vs. hypergamy). These tests yield virtually no
support for heterogamy theory. In light of these findings regarding the
predictions of heterogamy theory, arguments which might account for the overall
lack of support are presented and discussed.