Changing family structure in a modernizing society: A study of marriage patterns in a single Muslim village in Israel

✍ Scribed by J. Zlotogora; H. Habiballa; A. Odatalla; S. Barges

• Book ID: 101439058
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 51 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1042-0533
• DOI: 10.1002/ajhb.10082

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Among 1,875 couples from one Muslim village, 374 (20%) marriages were between first cousins. Among women born after 1920, the highest rates of first‐cousin marriages were observed among those born between 1940–1959 (26%) and this pattern declined in the last two decades. The majority of first‐cousin marriages were between offspring of brothers. Analyzed by 20‐year periods, the pattern of first‐cousin marriages changed as the proportion of marriages between brothers' children decreased from 75% to 44%. Over the study period, more than 70% of marriages were between individuals born in the village and related to some degree. Examination of the marriages in which both spouses were born in the village demonstrated a preference to marry within the extended family; 68% of the women married a man with the same family name. Since the creation of the Israeli State, there have been significant changes among Israeli‐Arab citizens. However, these data demonstrate that the tradition of marrying a relative remains central, although some changes in marriage preference have occurred. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 14:680–682, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.