Bint ʿamm

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Bint ʿamm ( Arabic بنت عم"Daughter of the father's brother") describes the father-side cousin of a person in the Arabic language , more precisely: the daughter (bint) of the brother of her father , i.e. her paternal uncle ( ʿamm , also brothers of earlier generations of fathers ). The bint ʿamm has a special meaning in the Arab cultural area and beyond, because it is preferred to be chosen as the spouse of a man, especially in traditional (large) families . The Bint ʿamm marriage is common among Bedouin tribes and traditional Jewish and Kurdish families, as well as some scattered Turkic peoples . In the European cultural area , it is sometimes found as a parallel cousin marriage among noble and middle-class families ( see below ). The Ethnology find marriages between parallel cousins with many ethnic groups and indigenous peoples .

concept

The Ethnosociology characterizes the relationship between a father and his brother as a parallel relationship , because it is the same sex have; derived from this, all offspring of the two are related in parallel ( in the 1st degree ), regardless of their gender. The children of the mother's sister (same gender) are also related in parallel to mother-side cousins . Marriages between cousins ​​and cousins ​​who are related in parallel are called parallel cousin marriages (as opposed to the cross-cousin marriage of the daughter of the mother brother or father sister). The Bint ʿamm marriage with the father's parallel cousin is a preferred marriage rule , which also regards the daughter or (great) granddaughter of a more distant male blood relative (2nd or more distant degree) from the man's extended family, usually under patriotic law, as the desired wife.

The following diagram shows the parallel cousins ​​of interest to the son (bottom left) as spouses:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Grandfather 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Brother of  the grandfather
Parallel - great-uncle
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   mother
 
Father  
 
  Brother of  the father
parallel - uncle
 
Sister of the father's
cross- aunt
 
Parallel - 2nd degree uncle
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Daughter:
cross cousin
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Son
(parallel cousin)
 
 
 
DaughterBint ʿamm 1st degree
parallel  cousin
 
 
 
 
 
DaughterBint ʿamm 2nd degree
parallel  cousin
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The son's sister, in turn, would be a bint ʿamm for all the brothers of the parallel cousins. In the diagram it is indicated that the mother (♀) of the son (distant) also tends to belong to his father-side ancestry group. Continued relatives' marriage within the same family is not uncommon in such groups and societies . In some, a son has the clear prerogative of his father's brother's daughter: no one can marry his bint ʿamm without asking for his consent; Sometimes he even has to pay compensation for relinquishing this privilege to his cousin.

distribution

The first only in Central Arabia customary marriage rule of Bint'amm marriage spread to the Islamization in the entire Middle East, and later beyond. However, it is in no way recommended by the Holy Scriptures of Islam , the Koran forbids in the 4th sura an-Nisā ' (“The women”) in verse 23 even uncle - niece connections (see also Islamic marriage law ). However, the Prophet Mohammed married his daughter Fātima to his cousin Ali , who was his niece second degree .

As part of the old Arab tribal societies the Bint is'amm Marriage also in the conservative and orthodox Judaism , already in the first book of Moses (Genesis) is it in the patriarchal story described as a matter of course ( see below ). Many Bedouin tribes and Kurdish communities as well as parts of the Turkic peoples still practice this form of marriage today.

More than a billion people live in countries where cousin marriages are common (see related marriage ). The Bint ʿamm marriage is widespread in an area that stretches in the form of a belt from Morocco in northern Africa through the Middle East to South Asia. There the distribution area borders on a cultural area in which some peoples traditionally practice the opposite form of cross- cousin marriage . Here the daughter of the father sister or (less often) the mother brother is the preferred wife ( cross relationship: descendants of siblings of different sex).

Many of the world's 1,300  ethnic groups and indigenous peoples see their parallel cousins ​​as equals to their own siblings . Accordingly, parallel cousin marriages are rarely found among them - in contrast to cross-cousin marriages, through which alliances between different ethnic groups are often concluded or strengthened. While the Bint ʿamm marriage represents an endogamous connection (within one's own group), marriage to the cross cousin is an exogamous marriage rule because the cousin is assigned to a different social group than her cross cousin.

Genetic counseling centers in the affected countries also point out that children of closely blood-related couples are at greater risk of a hereditary disease or disability than children of unrelated couples. This risk is twice as high with a relationship between first-degree cousin and cousin at 6 percent and increases when the offspring who are blood relatives marry one another repeatedly (see hereditary disease risks ).

Purpose of the Bint ʿamm marriage

The intra-family, endogamous marriage with the bint ʿamm serves primarily to:

  • to keep the property together in the family association
  • to save or keep the usual bride price of the husband to the father of the cousin
  • to preserve the "purity" of the paternal line of descent , a claim especially of the peoples in the Middle East
  • To harmonize the family coexistence, in contrast to a "strange woman" in the house
  • to prevent possible disputes between the two family groups because they are all closely related
  • to strengthen the bond between the two brothers (uncles) whose children marry each other
  • to strengthen the bond between the husband and his cousins, because with the brothers of his wife (sons of his uncle) alliance relationships develop , which further strengthen the solidarity of the extended family

If in the following generation one 's own son marries the daughter of one's own brother or the granddaughter of one's own uncle, the close family bond continues.

Bint ʿamm marriages in the Bible

The three Abrahamic religions Judaism , Christianity and Islam refer to the ancestor Abraham . In the first book of Moses (the biblical Genesis) the father's story tells that Abraham's son Isaac married his bint ʿamm Rebekah . She was the granddaughter of Isaac's uncle and thus his parallel niece of the 2nd degree . The uncle, Nahor , had also married a parallel niece: Milka , the daughter of his and Abraham's brother Haran . Milka, in turn, was Rebekah's grandmother through her son Bethuel . Rebekah was the great granddaughter of Haran and consequently also a great niece of the 2nd degree of Isaac.

In the history of the fathers there are further examples of closely interwoven relatives marriages , which were widespread in the tribal societies of the Middle East in the 1st millennium BC. The later following Mosaic Law of the Torah ("five books of Moses ") basically allowed marriage between uncle and niece, while it is forbidden in Islam (Koran, 4th sura , verse 23). Nevertheless, it is still practiced by some traditional Bedouin tribes today.

For the Jewish writers of the fathers' story , the networking of marriage relationships primarily served as an origin myth or explanatory legend to infer the bond between the " 12 tribes of Israel ". Common lineages of progenitor Abraham should the team spirit strengthen the tribes and their identity to other ethnic groups around them differentiate .

Parallel cousin marriages among the European nobility

Father-side parallel cousin marriages can also be found in other cultural areas in order to strengthen family cohesion and to preserve the common social status and privileges ( isogamy : marriage of equal rights), especially in patrilineal ruling families . Some prominent examples from the European aristocracy , where the daughter of the father brother was married:

A double parallel cousin marriage in 1846 was the marriage between Queen Isabella II of Spain and Franz d'Assisi of Bourbon-Spain , whose two fathers were brothers (from the house of Spain) and both mothers were sisters (from the house of Naples-Sicily). Two brothers had married two sisters and again married their children together, which was forbidden by the Catholic Church , but still received their blessing (see Marriage Barrier in Canon Law , Incest ).

A few examples are also known from German middle-class families , such as the Rothschilds' Jewish private banking family cultivated cousin marriages for many generations, as did the descendants of the Hanseatic entrepreneur Johann Henry Schröder .

Example of the marriage of the mother sister's daughter (aunt):

literature

  • Fakhri Khalik: Group Psychotherapy Experiences with Doctors from the Middle East. In: Marianne Leuzinger-Bohleber , Paul-Gerhard Klumbies (Ed.): Religion and Fanaticism. Psychoanalytic and theological approaches (= writings of the Sigmund Freud Institute. Volume 11). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-34518-4-7 , pp. 215–228, here pp. 216–218: subchapter Structural change in the Arab family ( page views in the Google book search).
  • Michael Mitterauer : Why Europe? Medieval basics of a special path. 4th edition. Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-50893-6 , pp. 70–108, Chapter 3: Spouse-centered family and bilateral kinship , here pp. 98–104 (comparison of Islamic, European and Chinese kinship and marriage systems; limited side views in Google Book Search).
  • Gabriele Paleczek: A few remarks on the problem of parallel cousin marriage . In: Communications from the anthropological society in Vienna. Volume 120, Vienna 1990, pp. 199-216.

Web links

Commons : cousin marriage  - Collection of images and media files
  • Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: Patrilateral parallel cousin marriage ("Bint-Amm marriage"). (PDF: 853 kB; 52 pages) (No longer available online.) In: Introduction to the forms of social organization (Part 3/5). Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, 2011, pp. 138/139 , archived from the original on October 17, 2013 (documents for your lecture in the summer semester 2011).;
  • Helmut Lukas, Vera Schindler, Johann Stockinger: parallel cousin marriage . In: Online Interactive Glossary: ​​Marriage, Marriage, and Family. Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, 1997 (the otherwise extensive glossary offers little on this).;
  • Brian Schwimmer: Lineage Endogamy / Parallel Cousin Marriage. In: Tutorial: Kinship and Social Organization. Department of Anthropology, University of Manitoba, Canada, 2003 (the otherwise extensive kinship tutorial offers little on this).;

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: Term cross-cousin marriage (cross-base marriage) + patrilateral parallel cousin marriage ("Bint-Amm marriage"). (PDF: 853 kB; 52 pages) (No longer available online.) In: Introduction to the forms of social organization (Part 3/5). University of Vienna, 2011, pp. 128–129 and 138 , archived from the original on October 17, 2013 ; Retrieved on September 21, 2018 : "On the other hand, the kinship terminological system, which in most cases equates the parallel cousins ​​terminologically with the siblings (cf. e.g. Iroquois, Crow and Omaha systems), causes these parallel cousins due to the incest taboo as a marriage partner are out of the question, thus only cross-cousins ​​who are not subject to the incest taboo are possible as spouses. (cf. SCHUSKY 1965: p. 60). "p. 138:" In most societies the parallel cousins ​​are equated with the siblings (cf. e.g. Crow and Omaha system) and are thus subject to the prohibition of incest and therefore cannot be married. ”p. 138:“ […] the marriage with the patrilateral parallel cousin [e], which has attracted a lot of attention, even if it only occurs in very few societies, e.g. B. in the Middle East (with the Kurds, Arabs, parts of the Turkic peoples) occurs. (cf. VIVELO 1981: p.243 and SEYMOUR-SMITH 1986: p.215) […] In the Patrilateral Parallel Cousin Marriage, a man marries his father-brother-daughter (Arabic: Bint-amm). This marriage can occur in both a prescriptive and a preferential form. In individual companies the VaBrSo [father-brother-son] has a right to his VaBrTo [father-brother-daughter]. (cf. VIVELO 1981: p.243) Nobody else can marry her without asking for his consent. Sometimes he has to be paid compensation for the assignment of his right to VaBrTo. "
  2. a b Rudi Paret : Koran Sura 4: "The women" (verse 23). (No longer available online.) In: koransuren.de: German Koran Translation. 1966, archived from the original on February 19, 2014 ; Retrieved on September 21, 2018 (Paret was a German scholar of Islam; he wrote the translation of the Koran into German, which is authoritative in scientific circles; the website offers a comparison between 4 translations): "You are forbidden (to marry) your mothers, your daughters, your sisters, your paternal or maternal aunts, nieces, […] ” . See also: Kurt Rudolph : The Koran - Chapter 4 - Fourth sura: "The women" (verse 23). In: Project Gutenberg-DE . 1970, accessed on September 21, 2018 : "You are denied your mothers, your daughters, your sisters, your father-sisters and mother-sisters, your brother-daughters and sister-daughters, [...]" .
  3. ^ A b Brian Schwimmer: Sagas of the Hebrew Patriarchs: Genealogy of the Hebrew Patriarchs and Matriarchs. In: Tutorial: Kinship and Social Organization. University of Manitoba , 2003, accessed on September 21, 2018 (English): “These well known legends provide illustrations of some basic principles of the ancient Hebrew social order along with some contradictory evidence on the dynamics of endogamy, inheritance, and succession. [...] The delineation of the Israelites as a favored peoples is determined through a process of lineage endogamy (inmarriage) [...] " .
  4. Michael Mitterauer : Why Europe? Medieval basics of a special path. 4th edition. Beck, Munich 2004, p. 102 ( side view in the Google book search): “The marriage preferences of Islamic societies were not formulated as religious recommendations in the Koran. The most important of these, the "bint amm" marriage with the daughter of the father brother or another close agnate , is mentioned here. [...] Even before Mohammed, the "bint amm" marriage was strongly represented in Mecca . With the expansion of Islam, it spread to a greater area stretching from Morocco to South Asia. It faces a different metropolitan area in Asia, where the preference for cross-cousin marriage has a long tradition. "
  5. The Ethnographic Atlas by the American anthropologist George P. Murdock now contains data sets on 1,300 ethnic groups (as of December 2012 in InterSciWiki ), of which often only samples were and are evaluated, for example in the HRAF project .
  6. Brian Schwimmer: Lineage endogamy / Parallel Cousin Marriage. In: Tutorial: Kinship and Social Organization. University of Manitoba , 2003, accessed on September 21, 2018 (English): “[…] there are a few marked cases of preferential marriages between fellow members of the same lineage. They are normally organized though the practice of parallel cousin marriage, usually between the children of two brothers, who are both members of their fathers' patrilineage. "
  7. Lukas, Schindler, Stockinger: Alliance system. In: Online Interactive Glossary: ​​Marriage, Marriage, and Family. University of Vienna, October 11, 1997, accessed on September 21, 2018 : "Alliance system: A system of relationships that produces or is expressed by established and permanent marriage relationships through marriages repeated over several generations between unilinear descent groups or other kinship groups."
  8. Hansjakob Müller u. a .: Medical genetics: family planning and genetics. In: Swiss Medicine Forum. Volume 5, No. 24, Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences , Basel 2005, pp. 639–641, here p. 640 ( PDF file: 123 kB, 3 pages ( memento of the original from March 29, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info : The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ): Table 2: Genetic risks in relatives marriages : "1st degree relatives (father-daughter, brother-sister): 50% | 1st cousin – cousin: 6% | Cousin – cousin 2nd degree: 4% [Note: risk for couples who are not consanguineous: 3%] […] Studies have shown that the common offspring of relatives carry higher genetic risks than those of non-relatives. In the case of first-degree cousins, the risk of physical and mental disabilities is twice as great as the risk in the normal population. [...] The severe degenerative nervous disease Tay-Sachs occurs more frequently in the Ashkenazim Jewish population than elsewhere. The risk of this disease with autosomal recessive inheritance is correspondingly high in couples of this origin. " @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / medicalforum.ch
  9. Janine Flocke: Migrants: Relatives, engaged, married! In: Zeit Online. March 27, 2007, accessed on September 21, 2018 : “Because the risk of malformations, even among cousins, is often higher than expected. This is especially the case if the couple's ancestors were blood relatives. "Some families have only married each other for generations," says [Yasemin] Yadigaroglu. The Berlin gynecologist and expert in prenatal diagnostics Rolf Becker has found that around 8 percent of the children of treated migrants were mentally or physically disabled. " (Note: 3 percent for parents who are not blood relatives.)
  10. Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: Patrilateral Parallel-Cousin Marriage ("Bint-Amm-Marriage"). (PDF: 853 kB; 52 pages) (No longer available online.) In: Introduction to the forms of social organization (Part 3/5). University of Vienna, 2011, p. 139 , archived from the original on October 17, 2013 ; accessed on September 21, 2018 .
  11. Gabriele Paleczek: Some remarks on the problem of parallel cousin marriage . In: Communications from the anthropological society in Vienna. Volume 120, Vienna 1990, pp. 199-216.
  12. Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: Patrilateral Parallel-Cousin Marriage ("Bint-Amm-Marriage"). (PDF: 705 kB; 206 pages) (No longer available online.) In: Introduction to Ethnosociology (Part 2/2). University of Vienna, 2006, p. 318 , archived from the original on October 1, 2008 ; accessed on September 21, 2018 (more detailed version from 2006).
  13. 1. Book of Moses (Genesis) 24.15 EU : "Rebekah [...] was born to Betuel, the son of Milka, who was the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother."