KINSHIP IN INDIA
LINDA LUIZ
,A. AIYAPPAN – VARIETIES IN MARRIAGE
• Incest rules
• Prohibited marriages
• Preferential marriages
• Romance is not a modern phenomenon!
• Pre-marital relations – gotul system
• Marriage rituals
• Increasing Brahmanization
, UNDERSTANDING M, F, K IN A SOCIOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE
• Don’t stick to an Indological perspective
• This has affected sociology syllabi for a long time
• Understand these not just in religious perspective
• Marriage is not just a sacrament but a social means for the management of
property, sexual behaviour, social relations
• These institutions are affected by social-political-economic structure of
society
• The state plays a major role in the form and nature of these institutions
• Validation by the state is necessary for the existence of these institutions in
their present forms – hence legislation – but can lead to homogenisation