Revision summary
Marriage regulations forbid and prefer categories of spouse. Alliance theory reads marriage as exchange that constitutes society. Lévi-Strauss contrasted restricted and generalised exchange. Kachin and Dravidian systems illustrate positive alliance. Weiner’s Trobriand work shows women as givers, not only gifts.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
Marriage regulations say who may marry whom. Alliance theory, after Lévi-Strauss, reads those rules as the exchange that makes society, not as a private romance.
Body
Regulations
- Incest prohibition, exogamy, endogamy, and preferred cousin marriage are the usual toolkit. Morgan tabulated kinship terms; the rules sit inside those terms.
- Positive rules name a category of spouse, as in Dravidian cross-cousin marriage. Negative rules only forbid.
- Louis Dumont showed how Indian alliance and hierarchy interlock. Marriage can rank houses, not only join two persons.
Alliance
- Claude Lévi-Strauss treated the woman-as-gift as the elementary structure: restricted exchange between two groups, or generalised exchange in a circle, as among Kachin discussed by Edmund Leach.
- Annette Weiner and Trobriand ethnography stressed that women also give and that valuables return. Alliance is not only men swapping sisters.
- The theory explains why a rule persists. It does not excuse treating women as objects.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD R[Marriage rules] --> I[Incest exogamy endogamy] R --> A[Alliance exchange] A --> L[Levi-Strauss] A --> K[Kachin Trobriand]
Conclusion
Regulations are the grammar. Alliance theory is the claim that marriage weaves groups. Trobriand, Kachin, and Dumont’s India remain the teaching cases.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Discuss the impact of urbanization and feminist movements on family in India.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2016 · Q2(b)). View answer →
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Is alliance the opposite of descent theory?
They stress different axes. Descent names group membership. Alliance names how groups marry. Most systems use both.
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Does alliance theory require cousin marriage?
Elementary systems often do. Complex systems, in Lévi-Strauss’s terms, forbid close kin and leave choice more open.
Same topic · past papers
UPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2023 · Q4(a) · Anthropology GS 1 · 20 marks
Discuss the role of marriage regulations in traditional societies in India for strengthening social solidarity.
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