A Theory of Intermarriage and Assimilation

Abstract

4,Al marriage is universally practiced, the incorporation of out-groups through intermarriage is a common phenomenon. Miscegenation or the interbreeding of ethnic and racial groups is a universal phenomenon.kAThere are no peoples, that do not interbreed. The resulting process of amalgamation represents the fusion of ethnic and racial groups by interbreeding and intermarriage. Amalgamation, or the crossing of racial and ethnic traits through intermarriage promotes assimilation. The child of an intermarriage inherits not only biological traits but cultural ones as well. He acquires in the nurture of family life the attitudes, sentiments, and memories of both parents. Thus, the amalgamation of ethnic and racial groups theoretically furthers the process of assimilation. Intermarriage, in sociological writings, has come to represent the surest index of assimilation.2 It is reasoned that when a group has lost its sufficiently to participate in intermarriage it is assimilated. In this sense it is only the social visibility which inhibits intermarriage. The disappearance, or outgrowing of the group's visibility, results inevitably in assimilation and intermarriage. It was further postulated that intermarriage was proceeding at such a rate that the complete amalgamation of ethnics was only a question of time. The final result would inevitably be an ethnically homogenous society. In this reasoning several fundamental characteristics of marriage have been overlooked. Marriage does not occur at random; neither does intermarriage. It occurs according to discernible patterns. All societies have rules which impose prohibitions and restrictions on marriage. The consequences of these rules are that they also create the conditions for intermarriage. Marital selection whether in or out is conditioned by the differing value systems present in our strata. Marriage tends to be circumscribed by our strata, and therefore in our society these bases of stratification would be determining factors in mate selection. The system of marriage serves also as a means of regulating and controlling the system of stratification. In the regulations regarding mate selection there is variation. The controls express rules of permission, preference, prescription, and proscription. They express approval or disapproval of types of mate selection. These rules may be affected by changes in attitudes towards out-groups, assimilation, cohesion, or when traditional marks of group distinction have disappeared and the nature of contacts between peoples have changed. Rules of endogamy and exogamy have developed which have ringed about marriage in all societies. Deviations from the rules of endogamy or ingroup marriage result in intermarriage; intermarriage between the in-group member and the out-group person. Deviations from exogamy or outgroup marriage result, too, in intermarriage between the out-group person and in-group member. WIntermarriage then, is the marriage of differing in-groups and out-groups than those defined as desirable by the culture.3 The consideration of those characteristics of marriage which also apply in the case of intermarriage gives perspective to the problems of intermarriage and assimilation. It can be seen that intermarriage is influenced not only by but by the conditions affecting marriage and intermarriage. Intermarriage then is not just an aspect of the conventionally conceived processes of amalgamation and assimilation since the rules of mate selection must be taken into consideration.