Patrilocal residence
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Description
In a patrilocal society, when a man marries, his wife joins him in his father's home or compound, where they raise their children. These children will follow the same pattern. Sons will stay and daughters will move in with their husbands' families. Families living in a patrilocal residence generally assume joint ownership of domestic sources. The household is led by a senior member, who also directs the labor of all other members.
Matrilocal residence may be regarded as the opposite of patrilocal residence.
Early theories explaining the determinants of postmarital residence (e.g.,
Linguistic traces
In some Slavonic languages, verbs for marrying show evidence of patrilocality. In Polish the verb for "to marry", when done by a woman, is wyjść za mąż while in Russian it is выйти замуж (vyjti zamuzh). Both mean literally "to go out and behind the husband". In comparison, a man in Polish can simply żenić się and in Russian he is able to жениться, both meaning "to wife oneself". (A synonymous expression is wziąć kobietę za żonę/взять в жёны, "to take a woman for a wife").
The verbs for marriage in the Hungarian language show evidence of patrilocality. The verb for "to marry", when done by a woman, is férjhez menni, literally meaning "to leave [the family home] for the husband". However, the verbs házasodni and megházasodni, meaning "to house oneself", and összeházasodni "to house together", can be used by both males and females. Similarly the Spanish term for "to marry", casarse, is gender-neutral and literally means "to house oneself" (from the Spanish casa, "house".) "A married couple" is una pareja casada, which translates as "a housed couple".
Indeed, in many European languages including English, the verb "to marry" may ultimately come from a past participle of
Neanderthals and early hominins
It is claimed that the practice was also prevalent in some Neanderthal populations. A 49,000-year-old grave was found in Spain in 2010 which contained three related-to-each-other males, with three unrelated-to-each-other females, suggesting they were the partners of the males.[5]
A 2011 study using ratios of strontium isotopes in teeth also suggested that roughly 2 million years ago, among Australopithecus and Paranthropus robustus groups in southern Africa, women tended to settle farther from their region of birth than men did.[6][7]
A 2022 study of data from 13 Neanderthals from two Middle Palaeolithic sites in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia: 11 from Chagyrskaya Cave and 2 from Okladnikov Cave was able to examine mitochondrial DNA, which mothers pass down to their children, and compare it to Y chromosomes, which is passed down by fathers. They found more genetic diversity in the mitochondrial DNA, suggesting that women may have moved from community to community more than the men, perhaps when they chose a mate.
See also
References
- )
- S2CID 147513567.
- S2CID 145694651.
- ^ "marry (definition)". etymonline.com. Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ^ Bowdler, Neil (21 December 2010). "Neanderthal family found cannibalised in cave in Spain". BBC News.
- ^ Bowdler, Neil (2 June 2011). "Ancient cave women 'left childhood homes'". BBC News. Retrieved 2 June 2011.
- S2CID 205225222.
Bibliography
- Ember, Melvin; Ember, Carol R. (June 1971). "The conditions favoring matrilocal versus patrilocal residence". JSTOR 671756.
- Fox, Robin (1967). Kinship and marriage: an anthropological perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-27823-6.
- Korotayev, Andrey (2001). "An apologia of George Peter Murdock. Division of labor by gender and postmarital residence in cross-cultural perspective: a reconsideration". World Cultures. 12 (2). University of California, Irvine: 179–203. Archived from the original on 2018-04-22. Retrieved 2018-04-26. Pdf.
- S2CID 145694651.
External links
- Chart and explanation of patrilocal residence Archived 2006-02-06 at the Wayback Machine