Art by Cole

Heya! Worldbuilding is a tough nut to crack and sometimes it helps me to look at it from an angle other than purely creative. Anthropology, specifically cultural anthropology, can be a good start. 

This is far from a comprehensive rundown of marriage in anthropology, but it’s a good place to start. And please remember, this is only the anthropological scope of marriage across our own world cultures. It’s not a broad look or about weddings or about specific cultures. 

The Social Purposes of Marriage

Control property ownership and inheritance

Provide social/emotional needs of individuals

Maintain a group or bloodline

Establish alliances (financial, social, political, etc)

Child rearing

How to apply this to your worldbuilding: The motivation for marriage comes in different shapes and sizes than simply love. Adding diversity to this front reflects the diversity in our own world and adds potential conflict for subplots. 

The Incest Taboo (and why it matters)

The incest taboo is the stigma of marriage within one’s family, whether that only be immediate family or any blood/legal relatives at all. It’s important because it is found cross-culturally in our world, meaning it’s a nearly universal rule. While the motive for the stigma has evolved in modern times, it originated because of infertility and other birth defects caused by blood relatives reproducing. 

Historically, marriage between cousins has avoided this taboo.

How to apply this to your worldbuilding: If nearly everyone on our planet finds incest taboo, chances are your world will, too. Yeah… that’s all I’m going to say on this subject. 

Endogamy and Exogamy

These terms describe the social relation between the people involved in a marriage.

Exogamy is when a person marries outside their age group, class, ethnicity, religion, and/or region. It’s more common in diverse areas or when transportation/travel is accessible. One of the benefits of this is the expansion of kinship. 

Endogamy is the opposite of exogamy when a person marries within these parameters. The benefits are usually in the perpetuation of a group or community.

How to apply this to your worldbuilding: The societal views on this topic are usually much less strict or obvious than other marriage standards. However, it’s important to think about whether a person, group, or society would expect one over the other and why. If your world has a caste system, then it would probably be stricter on endogamy. 

The Exchanges of Marriage

Marriage is often accompanied by social and property exchanges. Here are a few anthropology terms related to this concept*:

hypergamy: “marrying up”; one of the spouses involved raises their social and/or monetary status through the marriage

bridewealth: the groom’s family pays the bride’s family money in exchange for the marriage

brideservice: wherein the groom must provide physical labor for the bride’s family before marriage

dowry: the bride’s family pays the groom’s family 

*keep in mind, these are based on hetero- and cis-normative assumptions and would be altered for same-gender or nonbinary-partner marriages.

How to apply this to your worldbuilding: Again, sometimes marriage is partially an exchange of money. Who pays whose family depends on the societal views of gender. 

Residence after Marriage

Where the new couple lives after marriage can be a big cultural thing. It’s not always written in stone but usually is expected by a family or society. There are 5 major categories of residence*:

Patrilocality

this is when the new couple lives near/with the groom’s family

found in cultures that value male status and power

50-70% of marriages in our world fall under this category

Matrilocality

this is when the new couple lives near/with the bride’s family

advocates for female control and matriarchal kinship

often found in agricultural societies

Avunculocality

this is when the new couple lives near/with the groom’s mother’s brother and his family (his uncle)

it’s a thing because of a bunch of property rights/inheritance mumbo jumbo

rare, only 4% found in our world

Neolocality

this is when the new couple starts their own, independent household

smaller household in comparison to the others

it is private and mobile but requires a good amount of personal wealth

*again, these are based on hetero- and cis-normative assumptions for the most part

How to apply this to your worldbuilding: different families and societies come with different needs. Agricultural families need more hands than urban ones do.

Polygamy

Marriage between two individuals is called monogamy and is (surprisingly) not the most common in our world. In anthropology, there are two ways to have more than one partner.

Polygyny: When a man has two or more wives; most common in our world.  > Sororal polygyny is when a man marries two or more sisters (sister-wives)

Polyandry: When a woman has two or more husbands, rare in our world.

The motives for polygamy are varied from anything like religious views to the societal view of a gender’s status. 

How to apply this to your worldbuilding: The most common form I see polygamy in fantasy novels is with royalty. However, in our own world, it is most often found in smaller, more rural societies and communities. This could also be a part of your religion worldbuilding.

To Remember