Marriage circle
A marriage circle is a spatially and socially limited environment from which the partner for a marriage is usually chosen. For each social class , class , professional group or similar division, the respective social marriage circle can be determined and described for a specific historical period; there are ownership , social status and education usually the most important criteria. Especially the marriage policy of aristocratic as well as the families of the upper and educated middle class and the wealthy farmers was aimed to maintain the economic foundation of the family and to multiply and the offspring to install the appropriate and place.
The basic rule for social marriage circles is as follows: wealthy upper class families marry with one another or with the middle class ; Middle classes marry among themselves or up and down; The poor and the poor marry among themselves or into the middle class (see also social advancement , social mobility , isogamy : marriage in the same social class, anisogamy : “ marrying up”). By marrying within a marriage circle, extreme social differences are not bridged. This also applies to the criteria of education and to the position of power in society.
Also, the spatial mobility with the appropriate choice of a spouse at different locations was historically highly professional and social related. For some professions such as the glassmaker , emigration was often a requirement in order to find a job elsewhere and thus to start an existence for a marriage (see migrant professions , emigration ). While farmers, gardeners and cottagers their spouse found mostly in the same village or in a neighboring village within 5 to 10 km (the probability with distance decreased), the spouses were from rural artisans from a distance of up to 20 kilometers; urban craftsmen, on the other hand, were most likely to find marriage partners in neighboring cities of the same size (see also the system of central locations ). Spatially wider marriage circles characterize the property and educated middle class, including the Protestant pastors.
By epidemics , war and persecution (see also Heimatvertriebene , Exulanten ) or extraordinary changes in economic structures, the usual pattern of spatial mobility to be broken (see Non-local ).
See also
- Convenience toe ( matching origin)
- Endogamy (marriage within one's own group)
- Homogamy and heterogamy (choice of partner based on equality / diversity)
- Relatives marriage
- Marriage age
- Rules of marriage (social norms)
- Matrimonial residence rules (residence)
- Social homophilia ("like and like to join together")
- Hereditary diseases in endogamous populations
literature
Newest first:
- Entry: About the marriage circle and urban ties of the property and educated bourgeoisie: The example of Frege in Leipzig 1744–1944. In: Genealogy. Volume 52, 2003, pp. 513-530.
- Hermann Metzke: Müller marriages in the 17th and 18th centuries Century in southern Saxony-Anhalt. In: Genealogical yearbook. Volume 33/34, 1993-1994, pp. 183-260.
- R. Berg, I. Schwidetzky: Marriage circles in Rhineland-Palatinate. In: Homo. Volume 38, 1989, pp. 191-243.
- Hubert Walter: Marriage circles in the past and present. In: The look around. Year 57, 1957, pp. 361–362 (Hubert Walter, 1930–2008, was a professor of anthropology).
- Hubert Walter: Origin and marriage circles of a rural population in Lower Saxony (Einbeck district). In: Homo. Volume 7, 1956, pp. 110-122.
- I. Pedell: The social marriage circles and their changes since the 19th century. Kiel 1955.
- Ingeborg Langner: Social marriage circles in the past and present. Doctoral thesis, University of Kiel 1950.