Woman’s Marriage in India: Cultural Practices, Age and Mate Selection

Universality of marriages and early marriages are the special features in the history of nuptiality in India. Marriage being a major event in the life of girls in cultural context that define their primary role as wives and mothers. The central theme of this book concentrates on women’s marriage with a special focus on examining the role of cultural practices/norms and patterns of mate selection on women’s lower or higher marriage age. The factors responsible for each of the events in the marriage process viz., age at initiation of marriage and age at marriage, in addition to their related aspects like desired traits of the prospective mate and patterns of assortative mating has adequately identified. The value of this book is further enhanced with the addition of case studies on early and late marriages, which gave the detail picture of the cultural norms, values and the role of relatives in the marriage market. The publication would be of immense value to scholars and researchers of population studies, demography, sociology, social work, social and cultural anthropology, in addition to planners and policy makers.