Marriage and Culture: Reflections from Tribal Societies of Arunachal Pradesh (In 2 Volumes)

Marriage is both culture universal and culture specific; it exists not only in all known cultures, but every culture has defined the system of marriage in a way to get expressions through it. The papers included in this volume discuss the phenomenon of marriage as embedded in culture. Marriage, no doubt, forms a subset of a culture and thus presents a cultural manifestation, but more significantly it displays interconnectedness with other phenomena of the culture. Arguably, then, the choice for discussion on a single phenomena, namely, marriage, emanates from the methodological significance that in tribal communities no phenomenon, can be treated in isolation; it exists and functions as an integral part of the total worldview of the community. All the presentations on marriage conform to the above statement and herein lies the strength of this volume. Moreover, most of the papers are emic presentations by scholars trained in an etic system of disciplinary frame and naturally focus on the issue of emic-etic debate. The essence of the papers further lies in that there are communalities and difference in the marriage practices across the various groups and corroborate the ‘Psychic unity’ of E.B. Tylor at some level. But the differences add new dimensions of understanding to the studies on marriage when concepts like ‘bride price’, widow inheritance’etc. are contested on the basis of empirical findings from many communities. Obviously, the strength of the volume emanates from the attention on the distinct analytical issues and empirical findings in the realm of culture specific findings in the realm of culture specific social institutions. Notwithstanding this, the papers included in this volume also initiate a comprehensive exploration of the social dynamics in cross-cultural perspectives. No doubt, the book will come handy among the social scientists in general and students of tribal studies in particular not only in understanding a culture specific not only in understanding a culture specific phenomenon but also in contextualizing cultural dynamics and methodological issues.