Elder Sister's Daughter Marriage in South Asia

Abstract

Among the constituent caste groups of three villages in Tamil Nadu, South India, some prohibit marriage with the elder sister's daughter (eZDy), whereas the majority exhibit varying degrees of preference for such alliances. Marriage with the eZDy would inevitably lead to inconsistencies and ambiguities in usage if associated with a kinship terminology of the conventional, 'Dravidian' type, and for this reason the terminology of the local majority has been subjected to detailed investigation. Empirical evidence points to the need to discriminate carefully between cases of 'genealogical identity' and 'terminological identity': taking only the latter into account, it appears that the terminology in local use tends to classify cross-relatives according to relative age rather than relative 'generation.' Given the very wide distribution of eZDy marriage in southern India and Sri Lanka, the terminological structure reported may be more than a purely local phenomenon.

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