Sororat

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Sororat (from the Latin soror "sister") or sister-in-law denotes in ethnosociology the preferred or sometimes mandatory marriage of a widower to the sister of his (often childless) deceased wife or sister-in-law - or the other way around: a woman has the privilege or is obliged to To marry her late sister's husband. It is a form of secondary marriage (second marriage).

A sororate serves either to the existing family cohesion to maintain and strengthen (maintenance line), or with the death of the wife also intermarriage a marriage alliance to perpetuate between two family groups (maintenance of the Alliance). In the case of allied lineages or clans , the sororate is also related to the bride price paid by the relatives of the husband: If the wife dies, especially before she has children, the mutual exchange is not fulfilled; The woman's kinship group is then expected to provide another woman (sister or close relative) to replace the deceased. In some societies , the man is also entitled to marry his wife's sister if she remains childless. The Sororat can be found among many of the 1,300 ethnic groups and indigenous peoples worldwide  , for example the patriarchal Arapaho and other prairie Indians of North America.

The term Sororat was introduced by the British ethnologist James George Frazer around 1910. In 1949, the American anthropologist George P. Murdock described the preferred or mandatory marriage relationship between a widower and the younger sister of his deceased wife as a junior sororate . Sororal polygyny describes the plural marriage ( polygamy ) of a man with several sisters, often the wives live together.

In the 19th century, when widowers were even more common than widows, a sororat was not uncommon, in order to bring through especially infants of mothers who had died in childbirth , but also other children and thereby avoid the possible problems of a strange stepmother . In some parts of Brazil , this tradition is still important today.

Conversely, the levirate (brother-in-law) is more common and widespread , in which a man succeeds his deceased brother as a husband and marries his widow (he was her brother-in-law before).

Web links

  • Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: Introduction to the forms of social organization (part 3/5). (PDF; 853 kB) (No longer available online.) Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, 2011, pp. 109–110 , archived from the original on October 17, 2013 (52 pages; documents from your lecture in the 2011 summer semester ).;
  • Lukas, Schindler, Stockinger: Sororat. In: Online Interactive Glossary: ​​Marriage, Marriage, and Family. Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, 1997 (detailed notes, with references).;

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lukas, Schindler, Stockinger: Sororat. In: Online Interactive Glossary: ​​Marriage, Marriage, and Family. University of Vienna, 1997, accessed on March 13, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: Introduction to the Forms of Social Organization (Part 3/5). (PDF; 853 kB) (No longer available online.) University of Vienna, 2011, p. 110 , archived from the original on October 17, 2013 ; accessed on March 13, 2020 .
  3. ↑ The Ethnographic Atlas by George P. Murdock contained late 2012 records to 1,300 ethnic groups , of which but often only samples were evaluated, for example, the 400 Human Relations Area Files ( HRAF ).
  4. ^ Hans-Rudolf Wicker: Types of preferential and prescriptive marriages. (PDF: 387 kB, 47 pp.) In: Guide for the introductory lecture in social anthropology, 1995–2012. Institute for Social Anthropology, University of Bern, July 31, 2012, p. 18, accessed on March 13, 2020; Quote: “Sororat: The man marries the sister of his deceased wife. Every now and then the man has the right to marry his wife's sister in addition, if the offspring with the first wife fails to appear. Occurrence: In patrilinear and patrilocal societies (e.g. among Arapaho and other Plains Indians ), in which marriage alliances play a role. Sororate and levirate are common. Over 50% of the companies listed in the HRAF knew one form or another. "
  5. ↑ Lukas, Schindler, Stockinger: Junior-Sororat. In: Online Interactive Glossary: ​​Marriage, Marriage, and Family. University of Vienna, 1997, accessed on March 13, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Lukas, Schindler, Stockinger: Sororal polygyny. In: Online Interactive Glossary: ​​Marriage, Marriage, and Family. University of Vienna, 1997, accessed on March 13, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Dietmar Lang: Sororat in Brazil: Gaúcho marries three sisters one after the other. In: brasilien Magazin. International Affiliate Press, March 5, 2009, accessed March 13, 2020 .