Anthropology › Section K · Kinship and family › Topic K.4
Marriage and families across cultures
Marriage exists in almost every society, but who may marry whom, how many spouses are allowed, what passes between families and where a couple lives all vary. Anthropologists compare these arrangements to understand the work marriage does, without ranking one form above another.
In this topic
- What counts as marriage?
- What marriage does
- Incest taboos, exogamy and endogamy
- One spouse or several
- Worked example: reading the Ethnographic Atlas
- Worked example: fraternal polyandry
- Marriage exchanges
- Where couples live
- When a spouse dies
- Marriage today
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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