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Marriage. Although the different regions and religions have
considerable variety in marital arrangements, the arranged
marriage is a traditional feature of virtually every
community; today, except among the urban middle classes, it
still is widely practiced. Marriages that are not arranged
by the couple's parents, often termed "love marriages," are
looked down on as impulsive acts of passion. The more usual
style of marriage unites a couple who have barely met
beforehand. It is through the institution of arranged
marriage and its correlate, caste endogamy, that parents
exercise control not only over their adult children but also
over the social structure and the caste system.
Generally, the country
has two main types of marriage: a north Indian one in which
the man must not marry a closely related cousin and a south
Indian one in which a cross-cousin, whether the mother's
brother's daughter or the father's sister's daughter, is the
ideal spouse. Many south Indian castes also permit
uncle-niece marriage. Maharashtra state has intermediate
forms.
Domestic Unit. The
residential unit is normally the household, but this unit
varies widely in its structure, from housing a large
extended family of three or four generations to a household
made up of a lone widow. In large buildings with many rooms,
it is common to find a number of discrete households,
especially in cities; each of these households may be
distinguished by its use of a common cooking hearth and
perhaps by depending on a common source of funds. In crowded
urban conditions, each room may constitute a separate
household, as may each small grass hut in a roadside
encampment.
Inheritance. The written
will is largely unknown except in modern urban areas. The
tradition has always been that sons inherit property and
status from their fathers and that daughters can hope to
receive a dowry at the time of their marriage. However,
there is much local and caste variation in precisely who
inherits. In some groups, the oldest son inherits everything
and then makes an accommodation for his younger brother and
provides his sisters' dowries. In other groups, the brothers
may inherit equal shares, except that the youngest brother
inherits the house. Other patterns occur, but in general,
although modern law states that daughters should inherit
equally with their brothers, this almost never happens
except in Islamic families.
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Kin Groups.
The largest
kin-based group is the caste, of which there are several
thousand. A caste is an endogamous unit with its own
traditional occupation and rank. It is made up of a number
of clans, which are also kin-based but are exogamous and
often intermarrying units. The clan in turn is made up of
smaller and more localized groups called lineages, which are
also exogamous. A caste may include hundreds of lineages of
varying size and status, depending on how many generations
of depth they claim. Major lineages commonly are composed of
minor lineages, but the smallest are so localized that they
are made up of a number of neighboring and closely related
extended or nuclear families. Thus, a caste is endogamous,
but all the kin-based units below it are exogamous and
follow rigid rules about which clans or lineages are allowed
to inter-marry. |
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