Hypogamous Marriage

A marriage in which the wife comes
from a group with higher social status
than the husband. Such marriages were
strictly forbidden in the dharma literature, and this prohibition illustrates the
role of women in determining a group’s
social status.
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Hypogamous Marriage
It is deemed acceptable for women
to marry people of higher social status
(hypergamous marriage), because it is
believed that they are improving the status of their group by becoming associated with a higher status group. Marriage
to a man of lower status was strictly forbidden, since the exchange of women
implies some sort of equality between
the two groups, and thus drags the community’s status down. In the dharma literature, hypogamous marriage was
known as pratiloma, “against the hair”
(i.e., in an unnatural direction). For further information see Jadunath Sarkar, A
History of the Dasanami Naga Sanyasis,
\1958.
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Hypogamous Marriage