endogamy
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endogamy
[en′däg·ə·mē] (biology)
Sexual reproduction between organisms which are closely related.
(botany)
Pollination of a flower by another flower of the same plant.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
endogamy
a rule prescribing marriage within a given social group. The group may belong to a LINEAGE, CASTE, CLASS, ethnic affiliation, or other type of social classification. The converse of endogamy is EXOGAMY. Since all marriage systems are both endogamous and exogamous, it is necessary to specify in detail the prescribed and the proscribed groups.Collins Dictionary of Sociology, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2000
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Endogamy
a custom prescribing marriage within a certain social group, such as a tribe, caste, or clan.
In primitive society the tribe was endogamous, and the clan was exogamous (seeEXOGAMY). During the period of the decay of primitive communal relations, the clan or, more frequently, intraclan groups (patronymic groups) among the Malagasy, part of the Bantu, the Arabs, the Uzbeks, the Tuareg, and other peoples became endogamous in an attempt to keep property among close relatives. Ortho-cousin marriages between the children of, for example, cousins and second cousins were arranged in the father’s line and, less frequently, in the mother’s line. Caste endogamy characterizes the castes of India.
REFERENCES
Engels, F. Proiskhozhdenie sem’i, chastnoi sobstvennosti i qosudarstva. In K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 21.Shternberg, L. Ia. Sem’ia i rod u narodov Severo-Vostochnoi Azii. Leningrad, 1933.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.